She tips a nonexistent hat, and continues on the way she was going. Chorister, lunch. Actually wait, she's forgetting something. Chorister, charts, lunch. 

Where is she going to try to buy charts? There's no obvious place to do so in Victoria Market or along the trainyard.

That's information in and of itself. A specialist store? At the trainyard? She steps more carefully now. Perhaps they're trade secrets. 

Well, a rough sketch of the biggest main routes appear on a map in the station office. And there is also a job ad out for a Navigator which mentions 'charts of the Reach, particularly Lustrum and surrounds, will benefit your consideration'.

Even the rough map is worth something to her. And the job ad... rather suggests that what she's looking for is rare and kept closely guarded, if even an established captain is seeking charts by way of hiring someone with them. 

She'll put this aside for now. But as she's at the trainyard anyway...

"Excuse me, I'm in the market to commision an engine. Is this the right place to inquire?"

"Oh, well, unless you have connections you want the Wolvesey yard for that, and Abraham's Engineering to refit whatever hulk you think is repairable. It's on the south side."

"Thank you kindly." She sets out to the Wolvesey yard, where she asks: "I'm looking to commision an engine. Could you walk me through pricing and outfitting?"

The Wolvesey Engine Yard is a repository of unwanted, unloved, unmaintained, or blasted-from-the-sky engines.

A bored clerk will show her around to several of the smaller and more intact samples, but she is not a locomotive builder herself. A "Spatchcock" model with eight cabins, a small hold, and all the basic fittings except missing the actual engine bit goes for about 500 Sovereigns, a bit less with various flaws or missing items. There's also a "Tremmington" engine that's a bit bigger and includes the engine bit (albeit a nearly three decade old model that hasn't been started in eight years), but has some distressing ergonomics problems and probably has some crippling subtle flaw given how cheap it is at 325. A "Parsival" escort the same size as the Spatchcock is described as tough and nimble with a second, bigger weapons mount, and starts at 2000.

"Can you recommend a reputable engine dealer, a decent ship-gun manufacturer, and so on?" 

"Wellll, Abraham's Engineering is pretty much the go-to for ship outfitting and upgrades if you want reputable and reliable. Other places might be cheaper."

"Thank you very much." 

She goes over to Abraham's Engineering and asks about what a novice captain should take on their first craft. 

Well, such a novice captain will need a crew of six at the absolute least. Preferably including at least one skilled officer. She needs a sense of self-preservation, a scout capable of high-flight to discover paths or items of interest, a bunch of minor tools and accessories like sky-suits and binoculars and stokers' tools, a cannon and ammo like this entry model C&H "Jerusalem" for 100 Sovereigns, at least two or three units of food and a week or more's worth of fuel, a powerful headlight, spiffy uniforms that are good to work in for her crew, and a destination she can make some money at. The Promise of Days is a captains' club and might be of some help on that last point.

How many running days is a standard barrel of fuel good for? How much would uniforms and skysuits run her per crewmember, and can she purchase a skysuit now? What about a pair of binoculars with stained-glass lenses? Is there a traditional solution to the high-flying scout?

It depends a lot on the weight of your engine and crew and cargo. And the quality of the boiler. For a Spatchcock without a particularly heavy load, a single barrel ought to be good for a day or so. A set of good work uniforms for one person, boots and all, is about three Sovereign.

One Murgatroyd's Insulated Skysuit with a hundred-meter tether is six Sovereigns, here you go! It weighs about forty pounds, a thick all-covering garment with what feels like solid leather under the wooly exterior, with bulky gloves included and just the eye area left uncovered.

If you're observing with ordinary lenses behind the glass of a bridge or porthole it tends to be fine, but someone probably sells stained-glass optics somewhere. For scouts there's bats or Ratronauts in weird steam rockets and such, some of them are people, some just trained to spot and point at out-of-the-ordinary things. 

She nods along with the explanations, and leaves lugging her skysuit. (With a little help from a discreet cast of Levitate.) She drops it off at her room, and goes to the place in the market where stained-glass telescopes were being advertised. Can she purchase a pair of stained-glass binoculars?

Why yes! For the low, low price of 65 Sovereigns!

(Clear-glass binoculars are more like 10 or 15.)

She pauses. 

She considers. 

She digs out her fifty-sovereign piece, and buys the binoculars. She makes very sure to wear the strap as she takes them back to her rooms and stows them in her pack. 

Now... Let's examine a few hiring postings for crew on locomotives. What wages do they earn?

The hiring postings are mostly for officers, not ordinary sailors. Officers seem to demand considerable signing bonuses, and then either earn a cut of the engine's profits or ask for about 20 Sovereigns per week on top of room and board. Ordinary sailors seem to get about six to twelve Sovereigns a week and expect occasional bonuses, which adds up when you don't have any expenses because you live on a locomotive and don't pay for your own food.

She goes back to her room at the inn, and reloads her gun with ordinary bullets instead of enchanted shells. She checks the time. How long does she have before her date with Lenora?

Walking around shopping all day is time consuming! It's about 4 PM.

She'll have a lesiurely early supper and then head down to the range. 

The range is outdoors, on a section of city a ways away from the center and facing the sky, so any stray shots fall off into nowhere. It looks to be about 200 yards long. Lenora is waiting by the entrance, which is about a hundred yards off to the side from the shooting gallery, chatting with the proprietor. She waves enthusiastically when she spots Thorn coming down the road.

Thorn waves back, and double-times her steps to meet Lenora faster. "Lenora!"

She arrives flushed and rosy, but not at all out of breath. "How's your day been? I've been asking around the city all day, planning my grand escape."

Lenora bends down to pick up a case by her feet. "Thorn! Ooh, sounds exciting. Not as busy as yours. Not a lot of demand for a gunner in the city. I'll be back in the sky eventually, but no need to rush it."

"Let's not stand around forever though; we can talk later, but the range closes in an hour. I want to see you shoot."