The Isambard Line

"It was meant to ring the whole Reach: a chain of accelerators and hour-funnels to speed locomotives between the outer ports. Doomed from the start, it was. Some said cursed, but I reckon building a road around the sky is just b__dy difficult. It were never finished."

Isambard Line is a folly. It's original purpose was to ringed the whole Reach and used as a mode of fast transportation using Hours as a fuel. However only four signal box and some patch of rails are made before London abandoned the project.

Eventually the signal boxes found it uses. Skyfarers may take supplies from the box and write their name in the ledger (which constitute as debt), then later restocked it. Taking supplies without writing their name is frowned upon, and may risk unwanted attention.

This valuable uses doesn't exempt the signal boxes from being a shooting target for marauders or perfect nest for spiders. Still, there is at least one person who still maintained the signal boxes.

The Fatalistic Signalman

"People outside the trade don't understand how signalling works. Every port, every corner of the sky, has its own signs and messages. It's a right mess. I've been cataloguing them: the semaphores, the lamp-languages, the badges and passphrases. Not that anyone will ever read it."

The Fatalistic Signalman is the last signaller who still maintained the Isambard Line, or at least its signal boxes. He travel through the signal boxes by hitchhiking, fixing it along the way. The failure of the Isambard Line has make him pessimistic, which wouldn't be a problem if his gloomy attitude isn't so contagious.

Aside from fixing the signal boxes, he attempts to write a book detailing the signs and signals of the High Wilderness. He considers this to be his own way of helping skyfarers not killing themselves out of stupidity.