Steam Avengers AU

[ffutures]

The SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve) is a WW2 organisation in Marvel comics that eventually became SHIELD.

But there are other uses of this acronym out there. One is the Strategic Steam Reserve kept by several countries, a collection of old steam locos kept for emergencies where e.g. a fuel blockade stops diesel getting through, the electricity grid goes down, magnetic pulse with all of the engine electronics fried, etc.

So it occurs to me that someone really ought to write a Talking Steam Train Avengers AU, in which all of the characters are steam engines or associated characters etc. E.g.
- Tony is something very high-tech by steam standards but temperamental - e.g., I think there were some experiments with steam turbine trains before everyone realised it was a stupid idea.
- Bruce is powerful and usually reliable but has a bad temper - when he gets angry he sometimes leaks superheated steam and has been known to ignore signals and even run through buffers.
- Thor is a extremely powerful engine imported from Norway, but not very bright. Loki was the next engine built by the same factory, much more intelligent, and resents his "brother" for his stupidity.
- The Captain is a blast from the past, built to pull military trains, extremely powerful and well armoured. He's patriotic to a fault and never backs away from a challenge.

Not sure about Clint, Natasha, Pepper, etc. Nick Fury is obviously the one-eyed Controller.

I'm not the person to write this, I don't know enough about trains, so please feel free to use this idea. If you do a credit would be nice.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

The writer you want for this is Rudyard Kipling, actually. He has a story where all the characters are locomotives, called ".007" I think.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'm familiar with it - my problem is not knowing enough about engines, not the genre.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I thought you might be, though I'm glad to have it confirmed that you know Kipling in some depth. I didn't think of him as enabling you to write it; he's just the most creditable writer I know of to have locomotives as characters.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Well, if you exclude Thomas the Tank Engine etc., which are aimed at a younger audience. If you like .007 you'll probably like Kipling's "The Ship That Found Herself" which is a maritime equivalent.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I do; in fact I like it somewhat better.

Some critic once said that if you wanted a conversation between an animal, a god, and a machine, Kipling was the writer who could make it believable. I think that's a fair statement.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I don't know the first thing about steam trains so I couldn't write this, but I heartily approve. If nothing else, because there'd have to be a crossover where Thomas the Tank Engine turns out to be Thor's evil stepbrother.

Canada supposedly has a Strategic (Maple) Syrup Reserve - maybe there's an All-Canadian AU out there somewhere, eh?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Well, that's another possibility - or maybe he's secretly Spider-Engine or something.

The All-Canadian AU would have to involve Wolverine in some form, I think.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

A few years ago, our SSR (Strategic Syrup Reserve) was stolen in the heist of the century. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police mobilized and tracked it down, and now our essential stockpile is in three separate high-security locations.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-look-inside-quebecs-fort-knox-of-maple-syrup/article22262093/

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a sticky situation...

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

I am the person to write this.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Go for it!

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

The 4-8-4 streamlined J-class locomotive 'Tony Stark' would have a secret identity as 'Iron Horse'. And the 4-6-2 locomotive 'Agent Coulson' would be severely damaged, presumed destroyed, after a collision with the Swedish State Railways F-class locomotive 'Loki' but would be rebuilt and restored to as-new condition.

And Clint would be a LNWR 'Improved Precedent' class locomotive, about which the 'Engineer' magazine of June 20 1906 said:
"It is a noteworthy fact that no railway authority in Great Britain and Ireland ever believed in these engines; Mr. Webb, and Mr. Webb only, had faith in them. Precisely on what evidence that faith was based we have never been able to discover"

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Works for me.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

I did a bit of work on the story last night but so far it's turning out too similar to the Thomas the Tank Engine/Lord of the Rings crossover that I did where the Fellowship were engines on the Island of Sodor line.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I must have missed that one. Link?

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

Actually you didn't miss it, as you commented on it at the time, but it's at http://speakr2customrs.livejournal.com/249267.html

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes, my memory is evidently total crap. Fun!

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Do I hear the Rev. W Awdry turning in his grave? :)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Well yes, but there's that old saying about omelettes and eggs...

[history-monk.livejournal.com]

How many RPM?

There have been several steam turbine locomotives:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_turbine_locomotive

The problem seems to be that they don't have adequate condensers, because they lack the large supply of cooling water used by ships and river/seaside power stations.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The Wikipedia article confirms my vague memories, there were also problems getting enough power to start the train moving. I think it's one of those ideas that sort of works but never quite paid off, and had a lot of technical problems.

[hotfoot-jackson.livejournal.com]

"Tank Engines Assemble!"

Heh.

Coulson would no doubt be a signalman for the One-eyed Controller.

For a while I did own the marvellous "The Island of Sodor- It's People, History and Railways", it appears to a be completely factual guide to a small island just off Barrow-in-Furness, it's only on reading that you realise that it's the fictional island where all the Thomas stories take place.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I've seen it but don't own a copy.

There's some interesting stuff around re Sodor - many years ago a wargames mag did a Sodor WW2 game, for example, with the railways important for defending the island.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Quicksilver is going to be an interesting addition. Perhaps he has incredible streamlining that lets him travel at unprecedented speeds?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Works for me.