Swine Town

A previously unregarded bucolic backwater near Sto Lat, previously known only for the quality of its pork (which apparently gives Lu-Tze terrible wind), which becomes a strategic location for a railway depot located halfway between two important destinations.

Annotation

Compare [[1]], which, until the railway was built connecting London to the (then) second port city of Bristol, was a very minor agricultural village. The Bristol line, the Great Western Railway, was built with the intention of bringing fresh perishable produce swiftly to the markets of the capital, whose river was so foul the local fish was utterly inedible. Swindon (whose name means Swine Hill, or Swine Town) became an oasis of heavy industry in Wiltshire, an otherwise entirely agricultural economy. Until privatisation, it remained a key strategic location in the British rail network, its factories building locomotives and directly feeding them into the system. Today, Britain incredibly imports railway locos and carriages from Europe and - believe this - transfers them to their destination by road. It is possible we've lost the plot somewhere.

Sir Terry Pratchett lives in Wiltshire. Admittedly at the other end of the county from Swindon (Broadechalk, Salisbury) but still near enough for the research to be local and handy.