The year is 2799. A group of railfans are chatting on the solarNet. It is a mixed group with some in the various dome-cities on Mars, others in the Jupiter System moons, on Earth, Luna, deep space station-cities, and on space freight trains; some human, others robotic, or alien.

solarNet Tachyon beam Scom record::RailNutterNewsChat 27991214b-c::

<CHEKOV@LunaDome>
Greets trackers, heard that a Jupiter Moons System (JMSRR) freight train had its Zapporelli wave inducers de-ionize outside the Alpha Centauri Worm node. Info?

<Retro22@avid.AsteroidMining.K39BVW>
Its no wonder, the node council’s still using telepathic turtles as node pilots.

<Kaisha@Capt.UN.SolarForcesUNSF433Sabre-SaturnPatrol>
Officially, there was a de-ionization particle fluctuation; in fact there was a real mess out here spread over a 30th of the orbit and 85000K wide. Fouled the portal for two solid arcs. MetaScoops are still out there gobbing stray particles. Oh, f’the Critter-trackers: the scoops are FOS39-Cs, on the portal perimeter meg-tracks on direct Nul-grid power from conduit plows, gobbing with 30000K net booms. The 39s were trf from MagellanCloud Transfer Node in 87 when they upgraded to bioBot pilots. Its true, the turtle pilot gave a lateral backoff command; but if JMSRR had done reg maint, the flux would not have resulted in such a massive de-ionization. Luckily no one was fried because the crossing shields were in place.

<Hal9000@bioAI.HarmonyDome.mars>
(Artificial Intelligence -AI- Biological Robot's Union Locale 04MarsDomes)
An AI wudda not missed the maint. failure data! Turtle use is inhumane, if you pardon the gag, they belong in their cold smelly nests on Charon and no where else!!

<Matty@SydTower.EarthSEAUau>
Awh, I want to know if the hypergrid couplers held up or did any tanks destabalise?

<KarlChing@MerchantTransitTrainDS.ArgyleMTT0047.crewer4th>
Fwd: AC.i.NodeCouncil rept. 2799.1004a:
::- 17 nul-force tank cars carrying Methane14d destabilized in a 197 car train during a particle fluctuation incident 1002 during auth lateral backoff op at portal 4 entry procedure. Investigation result: hypergrid coupler failure negative, other.-::

<K’rr NthHC@TurtlePilotsUnionVP.HQC.nest.Charon-pluto>
(Telepathic Turtle Pilot's Union Locale 10Charon-Pluto)
Negative Hypergrid coupler failure, my vac tube, Human! Turtle blame NOT. Telepath always aware; only possible fail canbe hardware. Data-eyes telepath ALWAYS linked to T pilot. Stinky bioAI robots r thought-blind, never know till too late!!

<BrianZ@JMSRR.Maint.TrainYards.IoOrbit.Retired>
Yeh right, blame the maint workers! If the Federated Planets Railways ever supplied enough bubble-graphite this crap would never happen. And I never met a turtle I didn’t like; they’re good TrainPilots. You show yer stinky bioAI antennas out here and we’ll show you that intolerance has no place in the Outer System! Signed:: BrianZ. JMSRR Maint Workers Union #234jh54B. 2744-2789 RETIRED.

copyright 2000 RailNutterNews
Inspired by an off the wall chat with Matt Smith of Brisbaine, Australia

If you would like to add to the above fictional chat for future issues of RailNutterNews, send in your text to railpipe2@hotmail.com. Keep in mind that this is not really an active chat, that additions may be put on line every month or so for entertainment. Thus, it is best to submit a page or so of futuristic chat that would comprise a small chat ‘string’ between a half dozen or so railfans of the future. Submissions may be edited or non-selected. While MOCK flaming is part of the fun, real flaming is forbidden along with any reference to real people or organizations. Original graphics of futuristic rails are welcome; they must be your original work.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome; please e-mail me at

See also:
THE RAILWAYS OF MARS

RailNutterNews

HOME	TROLLEYS	DIESELS	STEAMERS	AUSTRALIA	SUBWAYS	GUEST BOOK
MARS	TRAINFANS	MODELS	EVENTS	RAIL RHYMES	SUBSCRIBE	E - MAIL