Work Text:
29th of February.
It was a cold and rainy day. The perfect day to stay inside, at least to any sane person. Or someone who didn’t drive trains for a living. Of course, trains have to be run all days of the year. And they must be run well. That’s what the workers of MusutafuRail were there for. And most days went quite well. There were delays, of course, but they were few and often short-lived.
After their dream of being a Hero didn’t come true, Hitoshi had to look for something else to do. They had tried a few things, becoming a taxi-driver, a telephone operator (the company he worked for couldn’t afford an automatic switchboard) and a secretary (the aforementioned company had finally replaced the switchboard but didn’t want to fire them) but none of them really were their ideal thing. After a few years in their secretary-job they saw an interesting offer in the morning paper…
“Huh, train driver sounds interesting…” Hitoshi thought to themselves.
A few weeks later, they were sitting in an office waiting for their interviewer. Said person walked in just as Hitoshi was going to ask at the reception if they’d been forgotten. It was none other than known radio-host Yamada Hizashi. He sat down opposite of Shinsou and pulled a thin laptop from the shoulder bag he was sporting. Its back was full of stickers, mainly trains and microphones but also some hero-logos. One in particular Shinsou was interested to see: Eraserhead, an underground hero that was Shinsous original inspiration to become a hero. They had met him a few times back in UAs general course when their usual teachers weren’t available.
A few days later, Hitoshi received a thick envelope in the mail. In it were at least thirty pages of paper. It was three examples of the same thing: A contract to work at MusutafuRail.
It took one year for Hitoshi to go through training, learning all the signalling used by MusutafuRail and how to drive the trains used on the network. Soon they were allowed to drive line A without any co-driver present. And they drove the route for quite a few weeks, before being learned onto lines B, C and D. After only two months per route, they could go all around the network like any other driver.
3rd of March
Today was different. Nothing was going to plan.
Hitoshi’s train was delayed. More than usual. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes, and ongoing. They didn’t know why. The previous train was moving incredibly slowly and the tracks in the stations kept being occupied by other trains.
As it had already been delayed so much, Hitoshi’s train was deprioritised a lot. And that meant they were unable to gain back on their timetable. When they were at the end station, nearly 45 minutes late, they would not have been able to run the train to the other end. Luckily for them, unlucky for the passengers, the company’s dispatch-centre decided to cancel the service, so that Hitoshi could run the next hour’s service on time.
Two hours later, everything was going swimmingly. Trains were on time again, passengers were still a bit annoyed at the cancellation but had accepted their fate. Hitoshi’s train was close to Musutafu Bielefeld road station, when their train’s automatic breaking circuit was activated. Why? Hitoshi didn’t quite know. They had pressed the dead-mans-switch every 30 seconds, they had passed a green signal, the passenger emergency light wasn’t on and there was no computer fault light either. But the train was decelerating rapidly and the emergency stop light of the break computer was lit up. They decided it was best to phone dispatch, as there was no plausible reason for the rapid breaking.
“Hello dispatch, train 4768 here, my emergency breaks just went off. I don’t have an explanation for it though. Has my train reported anything to you?”
“Hello train 4768, we have received an automatic warning about exceeded break-line pressure leading to an automatic depressurisation. Restart the break computer and then proceed as normal. If possible make an announcement to your passengers.”
“Okay, thank you. I’ll call again, when the train is moving.”
“Okay. Goodbye!”
Inside carriage:
“Dear passengers, we have experienced a problem with our pneumatic system which has lead to an emergency breaking. I am currently fixing the problem and we should be moving again in about five minutes. I thank you for your patience.”
Hitoshi had already set the break computer to restart. After a few minutes it was back up and running and they were able to release the breaks. Just a few stations down the line they were able to get back on time. All in all it was not a big issue.
6th of March
Hitoshi was driving the same train on the same route as they had been for the past three weeks. Everything was normal. They spotted the usual passengers in the mirror at stations, went through the same crowded stations and the same crowded platforms. They were driving the evening rush-hour express on line A, passing through the German neighbourhood, Tiny London, New Istanbul and the city centre before diverging out into the countryside and in the direction of Tokyo. They would, of course, end just a few stations outside of Musutafu, never even getting close to the bigger cities and stopping at small villiages before terminating the service at a lake with a small onsen and a turning loop for trains. The Onsen was the destination for only a few passengers a day, some staff taking the train there too. It was a peaceful spot to have an allocated break at, the train drivers sometimes being allowed to rest on a comfy lounger near the spring around which the onsen had been built many decades ago.
The break was always over fast when they spent it there. The staff would come in a few minutes before the train was scheduled to leave to walk Hitoshi back to the platforms. They always had little conversations with the staff on the way and sometimes were even given a small snack for the long drive back toward town.