Chapter 18

The follow-on rail route was planned between Edinburgh and London. Justice gained an edge by pre-negotiating the turnpike route between those two cities. He cut out any asshole landowners from interfering with his plans. To keep them from getting rich off HIS project to his financial detriment. Land speculation is a common problem.

He was already in negotiation with an Edinburgh to London privately owned turnpike. They had a preliminary agreement, so it was only a matter of time. He had the first rail system to finish before getting too far ahead.

The western regions are mountainous and offer few paths between. The only other significant route he had in mind was London to Bristol. He was up in the air about which of the two routes should be first. The most compelling thing was it was cheaper to move rail across existing rail than to ship it on the ocean. That decided the issue.

Eventually, the TGR, or The Great Railroad, would have one big U shape. Glasgow to Edinburgh, The second leg down to London. Later, an additional leg was taken from London to Bristol.

Of course, the partners would add spurs in some places.

Justice was ahead of them because he had the precedent to use eminent domain to add more rail lines in the future. The Spurs would be less valuable than what justice was building.

Later,

Justice’s son, John Justice Edson, attended engineering school. John improved everything about the railroad during his years. Now, there is traffic going in both directions. It goes across the two main lines, East-West and North-South.

There is a licensing fee to connect to the railroad; over 40 small spur rail lines are connected to TGR. There are over 700 unrelated independent lines. Plus, The partners get paid for every steam engine and every car. They get paid for every mile traveled on their rails.

Rail spur lines and sidings go to factories, mines, quarries, wharves, and warehouses. Many of them are essential links to other TGR customers.

Part of their deal is that the partners cannot sell their shares, and only one relative can inherit. It was set up to prevent family bullshit from interfering with the company’s running. Two generations later, it’s still a 52-24-24 partnership.

Justice made good money from the railroad. He made even more when he could choose the routes and negotiate for future rail networks. He decided on the route partly because it had to be engineeringly feasible.

James Justice Edson - Donny’s dad.

In 1954, when Donny was reawakened. His father, James, is a thirty-six-year-old wealthy aristocrat from Scotland. James’s life in New England started in 1935.

James was born in Alexander House in Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on February 17, 1918. His father is Lord John Justice Edson, the current Marquess of Alexander.

James himself is not a lord. James passed his inheritance on to his younger brother, so he’s no longer the future Marquess.

James’s father is Lord John Justice Edson, the current Marquess of Montrose. John is assisting him in starting a railroad in the Province of New England. The province was formerly known as the English Colonies.

James is technically the majority owner of the Northern Rail System or NRS. It serves from Boston, down the eastern seaboard through New Hope, and west towards Iron City.

( Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, respectfully )

James hates the foppishness of living as a lord. His current life suits his purposes fine, as he prefers the wildness and openness of this new land.

Scotland is beautiful, barren, and mountainous. James hates sheep with a passion. They smell. They shit everywhere, and it seems sheep is the native food of choice in Scotland - James hates the taste of mutton and lamb.

No matter what you do in Scotland, you will run into sheep. No, James is a rake and needs to be free to roam. Wandering about in this wilder, freer New England suits him very well. Oh, and NO sheep!

James is six foot three with dark brown hair and light brown eyes. With the scarcity of men, his good looks and well-dressed trappings make him a powerful female magnet. He attracts women everywhere he goes, like a dog attracts fleas.

James, the Don Juan he is, is interested mainly in smart or rich, beautiful women. The keyword here is beautiful. If you asked him what beautiful is? He would say, “If I have to explain it to you, you likely would not understand it.” He had stuck his cock in anything with two legs in his youth, and he still does.”

His philosophy is that every man has different thoughts, desires, and morals. He regards his personal feelings and opinions as his private matters. He doesn’t engage in idle chit-chat like many men and does not push his views on others. Conversely, he wished they didn’t push theirs at him. He found that infuriating.

Men who pushed him hard usually found themselves in serious trouble. His father is the wealthiest man on the island of Great Britain, short of the Queen. James is likely the richest in New England. Neither one was afraid to use their power and muscle to move dolts out of their paths.

New England’s current Viceroy is Lady Marjorie Porchester. She is one of his business partners. She holds an 8 percent stake as well as being his mother-in-law. She has contacts throughout New England that John and James use.

His other partner, Janice Broder, holds 6 percent. She handles the day-to-day running of the Northern Rail System. Janice is James’s niece. She’s close to his father and James.

Janice acts as the front for the business so that James is free to roam around and sample as much pussy as he can. He can investigate issues and generally have a lot more freedom. Janice has been to University and has a degree in business. She is six years older than James. He’s the eyes and brawn of the company. She’s the businesswoman.

He shares the remainder of the business with his father, John Edson. When John dies, James will inherit his father’s portion of the rail system. This is all on paper in case either dies. James already collects his and his father’s share of the NRS proceeds. It’s already his business to do with as he wishes.

He has another relative in New England, Cordelia Edson. She is an older half-sister who runs his shipping business. He has 6 cargo vessels. She earns a percentage of the cargo but works her ass off for it.

Delia, as she’s called, can be sweet, but to the ship’s captains, she can be a terror. She lives in New Hope (Philadelphia) but travels to the port of Baltimore when necessary. James’s ships mainly work out of those ports.

His ships are long and fast cargo ships with auxiliary steam engines. With their more than ample sail and an auxiliary engine, his ships have yet to be becalmed. They need no help entering or leaving a port. With the current New England design, the size of these ships makes them very lucrative and fast.

James has a loose cover story for his everyday life in New England. It is that he’s just a Locomotive Engineer working for the railroad. He has two other engineers on his train. They swap out often so that nobody kills themselves working.

The last car on his train is a bunkhouse with an office for him. He has three Locomotive Firemen on his train who load oil and water and run errands. He needs only one Conductor. This gives him the freedom to come and go and not attract covetous women looking for a free ride.

Note: Later steam engines ran on paraffin oil (kerosene) rather than coal. They go longer distances and require less manpower to operate. They also had more power than the older coal-fired steam engines. The newest one was now starting to replace piston engines with steam turbine engines. Paraffin was a new lucrative cargo that James freighted to New Hope and Boston.

James’s grandfather introduced rail service to Scotland generations ago. John’s father had come over to help him start the railroad company. He had the money and the contacts in Glasgow and London to do it quickly. He and his father had started the line when James was only seventeen.

James’s roaming around is a good excuse to have as many women as he can handle. This allows him also to do a bit of spying for his Mother-In-Law. His spying is low-grade stuff. Lady Marjorie has him check out something she has heard about, but he only does this occasionally. She appreciates having conscientious eyes to look at issues that may develop.

There are occasional problems to the west with the border. Sometimes, problems to the North at the border of New France. Over the decades, France and England have shared a few skirmishes at that border. This is usually caused by assholes that want to steal or raid. Generally, they are landless men.

John Edson, James’s father, originally had the idea to start the new rail system in New England. He had immediately noticed there was a need.

Owning several ships, he noticed his cargoes could languish after arrival. They would sit and wait for a shipping company to load it up and move it from the warehouse to its destination.

The missing piece to the new railroad in New England was finding a trustworthy person. Someone to build it and supervise its running. To be intimately involved with it daily. John’s place was really in Scotland. He needed an excellent representative to run this New England venture. He found his railroad manager by accident.

He had invited James along on visits to the New England Province as the eldest son. When James reached fifteen, he journeyed to Boston with his father.

When John returned to Scotland, James remained in New England. He remained to wander, see something of the place, and chase pussy. Then James returned home to Scotland two years later. John broached his idea of starting a New England railroad with James as its head. He figured he had at last found his railroad managing director.

They began to lay out the proposed rail line for New England on paper and why that east-west route was best to start. John ran it by the government in London, and it passed quickly, with the caveat that John paid for it all, of course.

The route from Iron City ( Pittsburgh ) eastwards to New Hope (Philadelphia) was to be the start. It needed to begin at Iron City because James needed Iron City’s steel.

James was 18 when they returned to New England. With his father along, they started building the railroad in early 1936. His father had hired every Irishman and woman that wanted to work on the railroad. Sure, some people from other races wanted the work, too. The Irish liked working hard and putting their marks on history. They were willing to sign on for a boat ticket, food, and wages.