Prelude to the First Line

By the end of the first month, the operational transformation inside the Teucher Iron & Steel works was absolute.

The vast rail storage yard outside the mill was no longer an empty expanse of graded gravel. Long, symmetrical stacks of dark-gray steel rails gleamed under the morning sun—hundreds of heavy eight-meter sections arranged neatly by heat number, fully inspected, and stamped with official acceptance marks.

Heavy overhead gantry cranes lifted bundle after bundle onto reinforced heavy-freight wagons. For now, large teams of draft horses handled the final leg of transport, hauling the steel bundles out through the main gates toward the southern railhead.

Ernest stood on an elevated inspection gallery overlooking the yard, accompanied by Hollen. Below them, another batch of rails emerged from the finishing building on motorized rollers.