Something weird about that, the book shows TL 4 and LL 7 while TravellerMap shows TL 5 and LL 8. Given that I altered the time frame to take place in 1100 instead of 1105 I could go with 4 on the verge of 5.
Tech level is a hard concept to wrap one's head around primarily because RAW version of TL isn't the same thing as the
OTU's version of TL.
Apart from Red Zones, there's no such thing as a "Prime Directive" in the
OTU. Local manufacturing on Pysadi may be limited to TL 5 or 6, but local
knowledge is not. That can make for some big differences because knowledge is more than half the battle.
Take radios for example. Once you can draw wire, roughly TL 1, you can build crystal radio sets receivers. Not transmitters mind you, but receivers. There are many other examples of this where later TL knowledge can be used with earlier TL techniques to manufacture equipment seemingly too advanced.
Putting it another way, while the people of Pysadi may have limited tools and techniques, they are not stupid.
Would that have allowed for diesel or diesel/electric?
It could. More likely, however, such locos would and could be imported.
If using locally produced locos, Pysadi's rolling stock isn't going to resemble Buster Keaton's
General or the
Old 97. Pysadi is going to be able to employ knowledge from higher TLs to design and build their steam locos. Take water usage for example.
Our late TL4/early TL5 steam locos needed to take on water more often than fuel because the steam they used wasn't recycled. Railroads experimented with condensers to recycle water in steam locos about the same time diesels began supplanted steam. Pysadi should very well have condensing steam locos using higher energy density fuels to extend a train's "range" between stations.
Pysadi's trains are going to be "the same but different". Look at page 51 in
TTA for example. Wearing her filter mask, Aunt Baraatsa is hawking howood souvenirs on the station platform and the waiting train's passenger car has sealed windows to keep out the atmospheric taint.
Rather than mindlessly import a historical example as has been suggested, you instead need to take the "idea" of a railroad and then "tweak" it to better fit the specifics of Pysadi.
I suspect they would want whatever had the least impact on the environment and I do not have that knowledge.
That's a interesting point. The locals do worship Mother Pysadi, so they could very well be very ecologically conscious. Locos, even imported diesel/electric types, could use biofuels rather than fossil fuels.
How close together would support stations need to be?
As I noted above, if the steam locos are condensing types and use better fuels, stations needn't be as close as they were historically.
Another thing I just thought of is how much off world technology would they be willing to import to maintain a clean ecology?
Again, yes. That fits very nicely with the local religion.
I could see the loop easy enough, they already mention regular sidings for high priority trains to pass by.
A loop is easy. Sidings and a turntable is easy. Whatever you decide.
Remember, rolling stock maintenance requirements, just like design, construction, and operation, are not going to carbon copies of Casey Jones or the
Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe. It's the 57th Century, the people of Pysadi aren't stupid, and they've millennia of experiences on thousands of worlds from which to learn from.