It would be easy to mistake Dick Simnel for a straightforward, even simple lad, but that’s to overlook the fact that he’s an engineer. And not just a glorified blacksmith, but someone who’s learnt the mysteries of the sliding rule, an innovator, a lad with a shed who knows how to use it.
Through careful experimentation and occasionally blowing stuff up on a more-or-less controlled basis, Simnel has tamed the steam. Having done so, he’s made his way to Ankh-Morpork, and meetings with Harry King, Piss Harry (a man who accumulated his fortune dealing with the city’s waste products) and Moist von Lipwig, con artist turned senior city servant at the bank and post office, and just the man to sell a new idea to the masses. When the duo see Simnel’s locomotive, Iron Girder, they also see the future.
