Today is the last day of 1686. In the headquarters of Xingnan Port Southern Railway Company, President Xu Xiangdong put away the pen in his hand, got up and walked to the window, looked at the railway line that was faintly visible in the distance, and sighed softly.

According to the latest agreement signed between the company and the government, the date of the handover of the Southern Cone Transoceanic Railway has been set for the last day of the year. In this regard, the government naturally couldn't wait, and they even specially communicated with the senior management of the Southern Railway to take it back a year ahead of schedule, which was originally determined to be handed over at the end of 1688. As for the Southern Railway Company, to be honest, the impact on them is not very great for one more year or less year, not to mention that the government has specially approved them to transform and issued many licenses (such as financial licenses), so that they can establish a large-scale Kangcaien enterprise Southern Railway Group.

It is reported that the main assets of the Southern Railway Group in the future will include Jiaoyan Railway Company (including railway annexes and part of the docks of Jiaozhou Port), Southern Railway Trading Company, Southern Railway Machinery Factory (production, assembly and maintenance of steam trains), Pacific Shipyard, Southern Railway Publishing House (the parent company of "Southern Railway Weekly") and Southern Railway Guest House, and the rest of the enterprises such as Southern Railway Leather Factory, Southern Railway Flour Mill, Southern Railway Oil Mill, Southern Iron Distillery, Southern Railway Fishery Company, Xingnan Port Wharf, Araukan Port Wharf and other enterprises. Either sell (the purchaser is required not to use the Southern Railway brand), or hand it over to the state in exchange for other policy support, such as the soon-to-be-established Southern Railway Insurance Company, which aims to provide assistance for the transportation and operation of railways and affiliated areas.

It can be said that after the adjustment, the assets of the Southern Railway Group have directly caught up with several other super state-owned enterprises, such as Nanhai Group (under the jurisdiction of the Nanhai Transportation Company, the South China Sea Fishery Company, the Nanhai Liner Company, and at the same time has shares in many terminals), Tieling Heavy Industry Consortium (under the jurisdiction of Tieling Special Steel Plant, Tieling Mining Bureau, Tieling Machinery Processing Plant, Western Forging Plant, Tieling Boiler Factory, First Heavy Machinery Factory), Ping An Coal and Steel Consortium (under the jurisdiction of Ping An Iron and Steel Plant, Ping An Coal Mine, Coking Plant), National Reserve Grain Depot, Central Railway Company, Faintly better than Montenegro Industrial Company, North Chemical Group (under the jurisdiction of the North Chemical Plant, Dye Factory), Caribbean Shipping Company and other enterprises, speaking of which is also the East Coast domestic giant enterprises - of course, then again, all the above enterprises in terms of asset scale, are not as good as the famous "Mr. 20%" of the East Coast Republic of China, and the East Coast Company that has inserted a foot in many industries, this is the real Big Mac, but it is usually very low-key and does not show the mountain dew.

In fact, it is good that in this way, the Southern Railway Group can concentrate on building railways in the Far East in the future. There is a huge market, representing the future, at present, the rubber tobacco railway has begun to make stable profits - although the railway transport sector is still losing money, but the operation of the annexes is not bad, so the overall is still profitable, although not high - the construction of the railway has also begun substantial preparatory work, this is a railway that can be profitable in the railway transport business itself, and the Southern Railway Company has strong confidence in this. In addition, after the stable operation of the two railways of Shangding and Jiaoyan, they also plan to cooperate with the local government to build a third railway in the Far East, that is, the long-planned Binh Vinh Railway, to further prosper the transportation industry in the Denglai area.

All other businesses, including publicity and reporting, finance and insurance, machining, accommodation and hotels, commercial trade, etc., are all around the railway, that is, the railway is the core business, and other businesses are based on this to make money. Even the Pacific Shipyard (a medium-sized shipbuilding company that is said to be about to move to the relatively rich shipbuilding port of Liucheng) is used to provide maintenance for ships transporting railway equipment and personnel, and is not isolated from this whole.

Xu Xiangdong, who has been automatically promoted to the president of the Southern Railway Group, has just signed the document handed over by the secretary to the Liangyang Railway. At this point, this railway, which has been in operation for nearly 40 years, has finally left the Southern Railway and has become another important asset of the Central Railway Company and one of the most profitable railways.

In principle, the retention of the employees of the Liangyang Railway depends on their personal wishes, but in actual operation, the Southern Railway Group still tried every means to retain some of the core personnel, and about one-third of them entered the railway machinery processing and manufacturing enterprise of the Southern Railway Machinery Factory, which is regarded as staying in the local area; One-third were hired by the Far East with high salaries, and went to the local area for a long business trip for a few years, and by the way, helped train a group of professionals in the local area; As for the remaining one-third, most of them went to Xinhua Island, and the New Huaxia Railway Company (the Southern Railway originally held a stake in it, but now most of it has been sold, and only less than 5% of it has been retained) hired them heavily as a team of professionals who will operate and maintain the Daqing Railway and Tadong Railway in the future.

The Southern Railway Company, a large enterprise that has been dominant in the East Coast Railway business for many years, has slowly faded out of the domestic related industries, and only one related railway manufacturing enterprise is still retained in the remote South Railway, which can be regarded as proof that it has controlled the two-ocean railway for 40 years. In the future, the company's focus will shift to the Far Eastern Domain, where millions of people and countless wealth will be used to restart the business and eventually establish itself as a powerful transportation group.

Here we focus on the South Railway Machinery Processing Factory, which is located on the outskirts of Xingnan County. When the company was first established purely for the maintenance of trains, as evidenced by its staffing and tooling, it basically did not have the ability to manufacture carriages and locomotives, which was the patent of the Southern Depot in Merlin County (and still is). Later, with the development of the Southern Cone and Two Oceans Railway and the increasingly busy business, the Southern Railway Machinery Factory gradually began to take on the important task of manufacturing some train parts and railway equipment. To this end, they obtained a license issued by the State Administration of Railways, and then purchased a large number of machine tools through loans from their parent company, and also recruited many skilled workers to slowly build this shelf.

Up to now, the South Railway Machinery Factory is a large-scale machinery manufacturing enterprise with more than 700 technicians and apprentices, with the ability to process nearly half of the railway equipment and train parts, and the quality is not bad, widely used in the "La Plata Star" train used in the two oceanic railways, and even because of overcapacity, a large number of rubber smoke railways in the Far East were exported in the first two years, as well as competing with Meilin Railway Machinery Processing Factory in the new Huaxia Island railway market, which shows its strength.

So you can see that after selling a series of assets such as the Southern Iron Fishery Company and the Southern Iron Leather Factory, the Southern Railway Group still keeps the machinery factory firmly in its hands, not only does not bring it to the market, but also intends to increase investment, on the one hand, to expand its production scale, on the other hand, it also intends to enrich the product line.

The former is actually very easy to understand, even if the Liangyang Railway has been handed over to the state, but the Southern Railway Machinery Factory is close at hand, and is familiar with the actual operators on this railway, it is foreseeable that in the future, a considerable part of the demand for railway equipment of the Liangyang Railway is still met by them. As for the rich product line, this is a decision that Xu Xiangdong has just made this year, mainly to attack the parts that were not produced by the former South Railway Machinery Factory, and compete with the "own son" of China Railway Company Meilin Railway Machinery Processing Factory in an all-round way.

For example, the South Railway Machinery Factory is currently researching and producing the latest railway signaling devices: interlocking switches and interlocking signals. This device that houses the rods in a separate long locking frame ensures that the signal does not give indications that do not correspond to the position of the switch, thus avoiding the vicious accident of two trains entering the same closed section at the same time. You must know that in the East Coast Republic of China, most of the railways are single-track railways, and the reliability of the signal device is very critical, and it is also a large market.

In addition, some improved night signal indicators will also be manufactured. Compared with the traditional gas signal indicator, the South Railway Machinery Factory plans to cooperate with the East Coast Power Company this time to try to replace the gas lamp, which is inconvenient to switch on, with electric arc lamps. Although I don't know if there is a market, the factory is full of confidence and intends to conduct research in this area. They feel that electrification is the trend of the future, and if they can go down this road and develop automatic electrical signal indicators, then the market will be very broad, and it may even be applied not only to railways, but also to many other industries, and the profits will be sea.

Another type that the South Railway Machinery Factory plans to produce in large quantities is the new four-wheeled locomotive bogie that they have invested in research and development and improved and applied for a patent for. This new type of bogie is different from the traditional one, its wheelbase is quite long, the pivot can move in a transverse groove, and the lateral movement is effectively controlled by some inclined planes, so that the steam locomotive will run more smoothly.

The ingenious design of the new four-wheel bogie was immediately appreciated by locomotive manufacturer Nanfang Depot and was intended to use it on the East Coast's newest steam locomotive, the East Coast Star-3, which it was developing. There is no doubt that this means the advent of the good times of the South Railway Machinery Factory, as long as the "East Coast Star" is produced in the future, the more profitable they will be, and even some old locomotives may be overhauled in order to be able to install the new bogies they produce, this market is too big.

From here, it can be seen that the railway manufacturers on the east coast have not been idle all these years. Laymen don't know, thinking that the steam locomotive is just a different name, but they don't know that there have been too many changes inside! The first is the improvement of reliability, which is due to the improvement of the level of machining and the progress of materials, which is directly reflected in the fact that the train no longer breaks down at will, the accident rate is reduced to the extreme, and the efficiency is greatly improved.

Then there are the improvements in design, such as the new four-wheeled locomotive bogie and the new railway signal indication device patented by the South Railway Machinery Factory, the new combustion firebox developed by the Engineering Technology Research Institute and licensed to major manufacturers for a fee, and the new coal water truck developed and patented by the Meilin Railway Machinery Processing Factory. These small little things have come together to make the East Coast Railway a great way forward, and the performance is simply different from that of the past.

Come to think of it, Europe is only now starting to have a headache about how to copy the steam locomotives and marine steam-powered propulsion systems on the East Coast, and they are actually studying the designs used on the East Coast many years ago, and the indicators are far inferior to those now. Therefore, when the Europeans finally tossed it out with great effort, financial resources and energy, the railway technology of the people on the east coast did not know how far it had developed. If export restrictions are really lifted at that time, it is believed that the major manufacturers of the East Coast railway industry will be able to crush the still infancy of the railway industry in continental Europe in an instant, so that it will no longer be able to develop, unless they sacrifice the weapon of tariff market access, there is no solution.

Okay, let's focus on the Southern Rail Group again. After disposing of the largest asset in hand, Xu Xiangdong, the fourth president of the company, is still a little melancholy, after all, the Liangyang Railway is the foundation on which they relied to make a fortune, and after being handed over to the government in the future, they may still have some convenience in using this railway to transport goods, but it is certainly not comparable with before. From now on, under the fierce competition, the profits of the Southern Railway Trading Company, which is mainly engaged in trade between Peru, Mexico and the mainland, will drop sharply - in fact, after the expiration of the monopoly trade right at the end of 1678, the company's profits have begun to decline, but because there is still an inertia and the decline is not so rapid - the Southern Railway Trading Company, a commercial company that was once rich and flowing, will develop in the future, in fact, it is very clear, that is, to follow the footsteps of the group company's railways, Go to the four feudatories in the Far East to develop, there is a whole new world.

In fact, in the past seven or eight years, the Southern Railway Trading Company has been slowly adjusting its focus and began to lay out in the Far East. Especially after the official commercial operation of the Jiaoyan Railway, they have invested a lot of money in the railway annex to establish a large warehousing and logistics center, a bazaar, a leather professional market and several stores. Of course, they also invested in the construction of some commercial real estate, and then leased it to local businessmen who were willing to do business in the railway annex, so as to prosper the economy of the railway annex and create more profits for the head office.

Now that the Liangyang Railway has been handed over to the state a year ahead of schedule, the Southern Railway Trading Company is bound to speed up the transfer of capital, except for a part that will continue to be put into the Jiaoyan Railway, most of the others are intended to be invested in the wealthy Ningshao area, and the construction of a large number of buildings along the Shangding Railway will be carried out, and the commercial operation will be officially started. They are very optimistic about the future of the Shangding Railway, believing that a lot of money flows here, business is very prosperous (even more than many other areas in the mainland), and profits are almost 100%. Xu Xiangdong also agreed, and ordered them to work with the Southern Railway Guest House to run the industry in the affiliated area, and strive to turn it into a cornucopia of the company, providing a steady stream of cash for the development of the group company in various places.

Finally, there is the Pacific Shipyard, which is still located in the port of Araucan. To be honest, Xu Xiangdong once wanted to give up this shipbuilding company, but under the persuasion of some old people in the company, he finally decided to keep this company. However, in view of the company's current financial constraints, he did not plan to invest a huge amount of money in the transformation of the South Railway Machinery Factory, but only gave a little money, bought a little machinery, and let it continue to maintain - fortunately, the current domestic shipbuilding situation on the east coast is still prosperous, so the Pacific Shipyard is not too uncomfortable.

As for the future of the factory, in fact, it depends on whether the development of the group company is smooth or not, to put it bluntly, it depends on whether the head office has money in the future! Although their current focus is on railways, how can they start a diversified development strategy and start entering the shipbuilding and ocean shipping industry when the situation changes in the future? You know, this is the same transportation industry as the railway, and it is not too outrageous to really develop, and now diversification is also quite a fashionable practice on the east coast.

Railway, shipbuilding, machinery, commerce, finance, culture and many other fields go hand in hand, if the leadership of the Southern Railway manages well and does not make any big mistakes, in fact, the future of the group company is also very bright, there is no doubt about it!