Choo-chooing time: Let's Play Railroad Tycoon II: Platinum!

Alright, update coming real soon. Sorry for taking so damn long! To make up for it, here's a quick interlude about our company's finances. Sounds thrilling, right?

Well, you know I mentioned how this game, as good as it is, glosses over labor concerns for an industry that has a long, intertwined and often sordid history with its workers. And, I wanted to find out what we were paying our workers with.



Here's our income for 1853. I'll go over the categories of expenses real quick to try and find what I'm looking for.

'Misc. payments' are just bond repayment and underwriting fees, at least this year they were. Interest is positive interest received from money in the coffers minus interest deducted from bond payments, and we were paying more than we were receiving. Industry profits are negative from the sale of the textile plant in January of that year, plus the losses of 5k each from the sheep farm and produce orchard. Track, engine, car maintenance and fuel are self-explanatory.

That leaves overhead as the only place we could be paying our rank-and-file workers from. And...I guess it could be plausible, although overhead is usually just the miscellaneous costs of running a business. Typewriters and pencils would fall in that category; I think in most businesses wages would merit their own category as well, but I'm not an actual businessman so maybe I could be wrong!

So assuming we spent half of that on office supplies and utilities and stuff - we have no real way of knowing how it's split - that would leave 7k to pay our workers. Which...I guess sounds about right. Dollars were simply worth more back then, and although I could be wrong about this too, it would be fitting for a robber baron to not pay the workers that much. It would be interesting to examine this in a more modern scenario and see if the devs bothered to model inflation.



But. Here are the 1853 salaries for the chairman and manager of Talking Tracks. They add up to 47k - 1k more than recorded in the books.

Now that's curious...

Told you it was coming real soon.



First things first, Hartford has a lumber mill. That saves us the trouble of connecting to the one north of Boston unless we decide we want another one for some reason, and that means we'll make a ton of money just hauling the raw logs to be cut - usually they're not too profitable by themselves. There's also that cattle yard a bit to the south.

So I'll buy a train to haul the beef - that stuff can also make a lot of money - and another train to haul the lumber. Which can also also make a lot of money. Go figure.



Well...I WOULD buy two more trains if I had the money. As it is, we'll just route some of our existing trains to haul to and from Hartford until we receive our next wad of money.





The dividend was suspended in April. Not that I'm particularly desperate for it, but I do owe money that I borrowed to buy Talking Tracks stock.



It's manageable, though. 160k looks like a lot, but things could be worse. At least I'm richer than these other yahoos:



Incidentally, this is the first time I've actually shown you the list screen, so I'm going to post a full size image. It's a nice screen, one I should use more often. Anyway, feel free to laugh at our competition.



Finally. I'll set the dividend to 60k and buy another choo-choo.



This choo-choo would be the beef choo-choo, hauling to every town that wonders "where's the beef?" And the answer is: on our railroad. I could probably buy the meat packing facility on Boston, but it's 400k and I want to make sure it'll make money first.



That value's looking good, even if it's going to decrease slightly by the time it reaches Boston. If the cows are worth that much, the food should be something else.



Mmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhh not this again. New York is still a goal we can reach with a couple more hops, but they'll be expensive hops.



Even a delivery of iron worth about 100k in August (not pictured here) didn't do much for our finances. We might need to get creative if we're to afford New York.

And-hm, what's this?



Seems customs do apply in Providence after all. I'll throw up a customs house after the passengers are all clear - and maybe some telegraph poles there, at Boston, & at the Hartford cattle depot.




And that makes train #8. I'd consider building a loop between Hartford and Worcester if it cost less than 800k. Them's the breaks.



While I wasn't looking, our syrup paper train proved to be potentially lucrative. I'll have to change that priority - 600k is nothing to sneeze at.



I thought I BUILT enough water towers. Guess I'll have to build one more :\



1854 has ended, and this is the only noteworthy thing in the annual report aside from the fact that our trains are slower on average than last year. How times change, indeed. Hopefully our two new trains will keep us out of bankruptcy.



Hell, just building a customs house in Norwich and basic stuff in Hartford cost me a good chunk of train 4's revenue from its stop in Norwich.





I was going to make a snarky comment about how we're losing money, but the Percy Express saved the day once again and made us some more money. Shine on, you crazy...Percy.





Of course, most of this will be spent on another roundhouse to change oil because I only built one, and it's in Boston, and damned if we're going to Boston just to change our damn oil.



This update was mainly me bitching about money while throwing it around willy-nilly, but let it never be said I ignored our expansion goals.



There. That should suffice. And we even get some nifty stock footage for it.

Tune in next time for: even more expansion and wacky accounting hijinks.

Yep.

I apologize again for the wait. I wait a bit between updates to let people read, digest and reply, & avoid saturation. I try to update at least one week afterwards, though, and it's been longer than that...again.

I've got an update coming very soon, though! I think you might like it even more than the last.

When we last left off, we had laid track to Hartford, the capital of Connecticut. Which is, as you may know, not New York City. In this update, I'd like to fix that. (By laying track to NYC, not turning Hartford into NYC.)



It's worth noting that even though we built a line to Vermont that I wouldn't have even considered in a normal playthrough (such is my love for you, dear readers) we've still made decent progress towards New York. Not to mention, we're still profitable enough to keep expanding. This is probably because our competitors dropped the ball, picked it back up and then threw it off a cliff.



Such is my desire to connect to New York that my attempt at bond refinancing turned into me taking out three more, not even bothering to reinstate the dividend.

For the task ahead, nothing short of a million dollars will suffice. Or in our case, 1,485,000 dollars. 1855 value dollars, at that. We're probably worth 200 billion in today's money. Debt is no object at this point, because I want to get this the fuck done.



Once they had reached New Haven, the track crews were surprised when they were told to keep going straight across the Housatonic; not even a maintenance depot would be constructed as of yet.

Well, not totally surprised. 150 years ago, everyone worked 16 hour days and were paid in pennies or something.

What further challenges await us as the work crews make their final push towards the capital of the world?



Not much, it turns out.

After a slight 'correction' in the track laid across the river, construction continued apace until the Bronx had been reached. Talking Tracks may have not been the first to arrive, but it was by far the goddamned best. That's why everyone else isn't represented apart from those losers in New Bedford: we're just that damn good.



We did not go unnoticed.



A bit bare for NYC, but eh.



Okay, so we didn't need that final curve, which is good because they slow trains down. We can't afford to build nice things though, apart from a maintenance station in New Haven because it's actually kind of necessary.

Now, wait. We've connected Boston and New York, but there's probably something else we ought to do. Let's just check the briefing again...



So we have only ten years to haul ten loads between the two if we want to beat the shit out of this scenario? Damn, we better get started!



Now let's look at the Percy Express. Fortunately, it's just left Boston with a decent load already. We never bothered telling the engineer to go to Hartford, so we'll just fire off a quick telegram to get the station master to chase the train down by horse and tell him to go to New York instead, because we damn well said so and we know our passengers won't mind being delivered to New York because they will be absolutely dazzled by the spectacle of traveling from Boston to New York by train, that's what.

I also bought another train to wait in New York for a full load, which isn't actually at the station right now but should be soon because it's New York. In these kinds of scenarios, it's best to connect to goals early and wait to send out fully loaded trains. Ideally we'd also buy spare trains in case our main haulers break down or get robbed, but we have enough room for error that we don't really need to.



They'll literally give us their wallets and mortgage their houses, they're so grateful.



Cattle and mail count for the loads we need, and Boston takes both. Shouldn't take too long now.



Remembering that customs apply in Norwich, I used the money from this delivery to build similar customs facilities in our New York station.



OH NOW YOU DECIDE TO GIVE ME MORE OPTIONS.

Anyway, yeah! Periodically, new locomotives will be invented that you can purchase, depending on your location and also what the map maker decided to disable. The Iron Duke engine (not that Iron Duke engine) was first built in the UK during the mid 1840s, and was used for speedy passenger service up until the end of the 19th century. This was the locomotive that pulled the Flying Dutchman, for several decades the world's fastest express - aside from our own, that is.

It's more expensive across the board and less reliable than our fleet of Americans, but holy shit is it faster. I might replace the Percy Express or the train I just frigging purchased with one of these when they hit their destinations.



Anyway. I was probably too stingy with those water towers: this train is noticeably slower because it's thirsty. Not even those freaks on Sodor Island would do this to their locomotives, so I'm going to build an additional one along this train's route.

One water tower at the north Boston freight depot later, I realize my decision to put most of our stations on sidings and being stingy with our main station buildings/maintenance depots is kind of coming back to haunt me.

I say kind of, because we're still making some decent profits. I spent most of it building stuff in Boston and New York - our finances dipping into the red for a bit as a result - and reviving the dividend to 21k. 244k in additional interest is nothing in the face of my own debt of...



...136k. Huh. I've done pretty good for myself; all things considered this is a more than respectable financial situation. As long as Talking Tracks stock doesn't somehow drop to $2 per share, I'll be fine.



And also this happened at the end of the year.

1856 is here. We have only 9 years to go...will we make it?








Probably.

(Also, our opponent posted a loss of -41k for 1855. Guess our strategy of just fucking stealing from them really worked. Also also not pictured: our railroad's poor goodwill among the people. I suppose I should make sure not to leave too many loads at stations and try to increase our overall speed, but we're making too much money to care at this point.)



New managers to hire! Both of them are pretty good, but Randolph is better for our particular purposes. If we were out west, we'd probably go with Masterson because it would be the Train Robbin' West, but I don't think we've even had a single train robbery on our hands so far.





The syrup paper deliveries alone would have been decently profitable, but as it turns out, our Vermont line is for some reason a real winner, and that money is going straight towards a bond repayment. I can't take all the credit...



With the Percy Express rushing past Norwich and the Other Train not far down the line, both are about halfway to their destinations. We've covered a lot of ground this update, and while we're close to our own destination, I have a couple more things to do before we arrive. Tune in soon to see exactly what I have in mi-

Wait. I forgot something.





There. Brattleboro is so small it doesn't even have a tourist trade to speak of and so does not really demand any passenger traffic, but it's far enough away from New York that people will still pay a decent chunk of change to go leaf-peeping. We should make more money on the return route, especially if it doesn't end up being passed by the paper train. Between that, the Iron Duke's maintenance/fuel costs and its increased speed (especially with only two cars), I honestly can't say for sure how much money we might make here. So I guess that's something else to stay tuned for!

I told you guys Vermont was key.

Maple glazed beef for everyone!

Since this machine's carried us through the entire scenario so far, I thought I'd write a little about it. Been wanting to do a post like this for a while, really.



A 4-4-0 of the Pennsylvania Railroad, photographed in 1886.

Technically, '4-4-0' refers to the arrangement of wheels on the locomotive: four leading wheels that were usually mounted on a separate truck, four larger driving wheels that actually made it go (with their large size giving them better speed) and no trailing wheels as they weren't necessary. It was the American-made locomotive designs using this arrangement that Talking Tracks has relied on, and that much of the United States also relied on for a time.

I mean, they didn't call this the American for nothing: it really was America's workhorse for the better part of the 19th century. These locomotives were used by any railroad worth anything back then, with around 25,000 being built by many manufacturers. Over 3/4th of all locomotives in the US were Americans by the 1870s, proving that "Made in America" could actually approach some semblance of practicality.

The original design was first built in 1836 by Henry Campbell, chief engineer of Pennsylvania's first railroad: the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown. Shortly after, a locomotive manufacturer in Philly named Eastwick & Harrison constructed an improved version. This model, the Hercules, was delivered to the Beaver Meadow Railroad in 1837. It included that separate frontal truck I mentioned before, as opposed to the rigid front wheel arrangement of Henry's design; the truck was needed to better handle curves and the fact that American track was pretty damn shoddy back then.

It took about 15 more years for the American to grow larger and be refined to what we see when we think about or Google Image Search 'old locomotive'; William Mason's improvements for the Baltimore & Ohio helping solidify the design with improved wheel and cylinder spacing. Even the early designs were more powerful and larger than any other locomotives at the time, and standardized many features of future steam loco design - the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement was also referred to as a standard. (Or an eight-wheeler, because having eight wheels is rad.)

Other countries would soon start using 4-4-0s on their own railways, and the British eventually designed a version with the cylinders placed inside the locomotive, resulting in a smoother ride. (The cylinders are the rods and pistons on either side of the engine that convert steam pressure into motive power.)



A Portland & Ogdensburg class E 4-4-0 circa the 1890s. Later the property of the Maine Central Railroad.

The increased power of the 4-4-0s meant more cargo could be hauled with bigger rolling stock, thereby proving another classic adage: "More Power". Of course, this also meant heavier rails needed to be laid to support these trains. Since the American was exactly the thing the railroads and by extension the country at large needed to grow and expand west, it was probably an investment the former didn't mind paying for. Indeed, this was the locomotive that cemented the railroad as the mode of tranport - a run of 25,000 units doesn't lie. Whatever you might think of the morality of Manifest Destiny, this machine helped make it easier. (I hasten to add yet another adage: locomotives don't kill people, the government does.)

By the 1880s, the American was becoming outclassed by more powerful choo-choos such as the 2-6-0 Mogul, 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler (packing two more wheels' worth of rad) and the 2-8-0 Consolidation, as bigger fireboxes for more pulling capacity were needed. (All of these, by the way, are in the game and I'd totally buy some if there was a chance they'd become available in the time we have left.) Nevertheless, some 4-4-0s remained in service even into the 1940s and '50s, either as switchers and secondary units on larger railroads or as general purpose engines on smaller ones. Today, there are a couple dozen Americans that are preserved for display, with some even remaining operational - to say nothing of reproductions. I know I wouldn't pass up a chance to ride one.



A replica of Central Pacific Railroad #60, known as Jupiter. Originally constructed in 1868, this was one of the two locomotives present at the completion ceremony for the Transcontinental Railroad.

The design of the average 4-4-0 is worth noting, primarily because it looked good yet managed to be practical. Many "Civil War-era" 4-4-0s were decorated flamboyantly, because that was the era of Victorian flamboyancy. The large smokestack served to catch embers from the wood burned for fuel, and the cowcatcher was an insurance policy mounted on every US locomotive to cover for the fact that American track was often flung across the land, damned if there were any open cattle pastures in the way. The fanciness fell out of fashion by the 1880s, with the advent of front couplers and fossil fuels further displacing wood fuel. Fortunately, a couple old 4-4-0s were fated to become film stars, and a few of them even became famous for fighting in the Civil War.

With a lifespan of over 100 years, a significant place in history (relatively speaking I suppose but still) and beauty to match, I think we can all agree: this was a remarkable machine.

Sources:

http://www.american-rails.com/4-4-0.html
http://www.ghostdepot.com/rg/rolling...tive/locos.htm
The Steam Locomotive - Jim Boyd
White, John H., Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830-1880. & Marsden, Richard. "The London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) Encyclopedia - William Bouch" website but really these are just the sources from the Wikipedia page. Find the requisite page, search for these references and you'll see for yourself.

Harry Enfield! On that note, I'm really interested in seeing the next update and seeing this endeavour continue to make make lodsofemone. (As Harry would spell it, prob'ly.)

This LP does make me want to try and get back into OpenTTD, even though I could never figure out the financial aspects of it, I just enjoy tinkering around with logistics.

Congratulations Chaz, you win figurative LODSEMONE.

You can expect an update this week, probably in a couple of days - but we're almost finished with this scenario, so it might be the last one. Doesn't mean we're nearly done with the LP as a whole, though...

I will definitely post the total finances and other railroad stats at the finish, since you're interested in how much filthy lucre we're sitting on.

As for OpenTTD, it is great. I don't play it much, but my offer of playing it multiplayer with anyone on this forum still stands. FWIW, it took me longer to grasp the finance in RRT2 than it did the building/logistics - and I don't know how to do much of anything in OpenTTD other than trucking and bussing.

Oh look, it's more than a week after I said I'd post an update.

Well, I am working on an update. It's looking like a large one too.

Not only that, I've begun work on something to come after the update...

I'm too goddam lazy with these updates. Have a huge one to make up for it.

Anyway, to sum up our progress so far: we're doing pretty good I think.



See how our rails stretch throughout southern New England, that misty land of fast-talking ornery types!



While the economy may fluctuate, it's rarely enough to bring down a dominant company. Like ours.



The trains of fortune pass each other just west of Norwich.





You think this'll stop us now? Hint: nah



In other news, I'd buy a roundhouse for Hartford if we could afford it. Given that we also owe three million dollars in bonds, I'd rather not take out an additional one just for this. I mean, I probably could. But fuck it I will.



That's seven bonds for 500k each. Normally, this would be painful. And...it is, but only until we start raking in the dough from the leafpeepers on the Percy Express.



Hartford roundhouse up.



It's seriously great to see a train restock when it's nearly depleted you guys.



Thanks to some timely train arrivals after that, I have the opportunity to issue stock and have enough money to pay off a bond. Tempting, but it would lower our share price even more, and it's already too low for my taste. That generally happens when there's an earnings slump and the economy slows down.

Not to mention it would likely leave us in the red after a couple months of operating expenses, and therefore unprepared for any other sudden building we might have to do.



Never mind I forgot we were running a profitable railroad :V

Paying off a bond at 8% interest reduced our payments by around 40k. Finance!



The Percy Express approaches New Haven as our Iron Duke chugs in the opposite direction.



This thing is pretty fast you guys.



Our log train pulls into Hartford, after taking the long way from Worcester. Building an industrial empire that ships myriad cargos is one of the more satisfying things in this game, especially when you've overcome adversity to do so. As it is, we had...Percy the Porter.

So I think we've been good for adversity so far. This has, however, been a scenario where our only opponent is pretty much a chump - and this early in the history of railroading, it's easier to actually run a profitable railroad. The game stretches into the 20th century and beyond, something I'd like to show you folks if it weren't for this scenario ending in 1865.

We'll see about that, though.



But how about them logs, huh?



These logs will make a fine house, somewhere, someplace.

Of course, we have bigger fish to fry as well...









...











But really, that's only enough to comfortably pay back two bonds.

It's still awesome.

I indeed use it to pay off our most expensive bonds, use some of the difference to raise our dividend because why not, and marvel at how our stock price nearly doubled in an instant.



In completely unrelated news, 1856 is over and we've catapulted our income. Fully 2,140,000 of those dollars are pure profit.



And also according to my bookie I'm a millionaire or something.



Now, we hauled three carloads of passengers from Boston to New York. The other train we've routed between the two is set to hit Boston soon, making for a total of seven loads hauled between the two. And there's more than enough cargo sitting in Boston for the other train to finish off the three remaining loads needed and finish that last goal.



I realize I could take enough mail and cattle from NYC to help with this, but this is the Percy Express. Not only do people pay more to ride on this train for reasons explained earlier, I have it on good authority that persimmon and beef don't...well, okay, I guess they do go together. Probably. Point is, I'm going to have the engineer wait for tickets to sell out. Considering this is New York City, that shouldn't take too long.





Hey, that's our paper train without any water! Is there no water tower at Framingham?



Well, there is now!



As the beef'n'mail train finally pulls into Boston - how those cows survived, I'm not quite sure - I am pleased to see the extra track I laid to the west is used at least a little bit.



And we receive another fat stack of money to immediately push into our bond repayments. A delivery of glazed beef from Boston to Hartford gives us enough to pay off a third bond, and we now owe just a million dollars. An entirely reasonable sum to owe somebody. You know, for us.



Since there was, as I predicted, more than enough freight in Boston, I modified the cargo wait for the Percy Express. When either train reaches their destination, we will have completed all of the scenario goals and therefore receive a gold medal. It's a race to see who 'wins', although given the Percy Express' lighter load, I'd bet on Percy having the last laugh.



A train of iron ore bound for Norwich moves up behind our waterless paper express.



Ahahaha. A bit late for that, eh Salem City Council?







Checking back on the iron train, I see my overreliance on a central line has come back to haunt me with a vengeance. That's our NYC train and our paper train, with the iron ore sandwiched in the middle! Fortunately, I can just just lower the paper train's priority to sort this out.



The Percy Express steams through New Haven.



Just ahead, two other trains are traveling along the Hartford siding.



See, easy.



:|



Percy steams over the Connecticut River in November...



...as the other train is just past Providence.



The Iron Duke, meanwhile, has almost made it to Brattleboro.



Friggin' states' rights. At least we can afford a customs house here - and hey, why not a saloon too to celebrate 1858?



A 2-for-1 stock split (not pictured because honestly I think I can tell you when they happen at this point), personal bonus AND new manager applications! Nice. Profits are down, but we're still miles ahead of our competition. My personal net worth increased by about 400k as well.

A quick refresher of our goals tells us that we're close to completing them.



I would have thought reviewing these managers would be perfunctory by now, but since we're making so much dough we've received even better applications to choose from. I decided to go with John Hopkins. Now we're smart businesspeople, and not just because I repaid another bond.



Named after our main corporate benefactors.



Of course, the leaf peepers pay more to go back home.



Meanwhile, the two victory trains pass each other just out of Norwich, with the Percy Express in the lead!





The paper train arrives in Providence, and I pay off the last of our debts.

Things are going well...



...until the Percy Express literally disappears for no discernible reason. I didn't do a THING here; if it had crashed we would have known about it.



Nothing for it now but to root for our other train.



I mean, here's our fully expanded train information box as of mid 1858, as the other train is on the home stretch...



...and here's our info box back in late 1857 thanks to the power of Saves. I don't know, maybe I could have pressed a hotkey by accident and not realized it, but I'm pretty sure I restored the game window only to find the Percy Express blinking out of existence.

I've NEVER encountered that before.



Let's hope our other train doesn't suffer the same fate.



Actually, screw it. Let's push this baby to the limit.



There is a button to retire a train from its info screen, but you need to confirm it. What we're going to do instead is confirm the fuck out of that throttle up there.





It's October and we are going to ROCK NEW YORK.



Don't stop me now
I'm having such a good time
I'm having a ball



According to the speedometer that I access by right-clicking trains in the info box, our train reached a top speed of 34 MPH as it was heading into New York. That's pretty good, I think.



The train still has to go through customs of course, and as 1859 rolls in we receive worrying news.



The disappearance of the Percy Express took a good chunk of our profits with it. And also something about unrest in the South or something.



Alright. Victory conditions are sometimes triggered only at certain intervals of time, so that doesn't mean we immediately wi-



Huh.

Wouldn't it be funny if this game juked us out of a gold medal? Because we satisfied all of the requirements for one BEFORE connecting the two cities. Luckily, I don't think this can ever actually happen.



But: it's February now and still no win.



The train's actually departed from New York again.



It's around this time I decide to check the victory conditions again and realize something.

Something game-changing.

We have to play this scenario the whole way through to complete it. As in, until its conclusion in 1865. I originally thought we'd be finished with it once we hit all our goals!

So. The question is: what are we going to do? Fate may already have something in store for us, but I see no reason to let Talking Tracks rest on its laurels. We still have room to grow, and failure to keep our railroad maintained and running efficiently could erode our profits.

Didn't you mention something about sending a connection to Newport, only there was a ridiculously huge river in the way so you didn't? This seems like a good time to do that.

We could maybe link up with any of the other state capitals we're not connected with, if there are any.

Percy went and dropped the whole train...

Thank Heaven for the Daikaiju Rocket!

That is beautiful.

Is it possible for us to buy out the competitors?

And if it's profitable just to build the connections, we should connect to those areas asking for a railway stop. If it'll take lots of extra investment and building up just to make them good, I say salt the earth and cut them off.

Yeah, we could easily buy out our sole competitor. We'd be saddled with an unprofitable mess, though, and our rival would very likely be able to start another railroad in a more profitable area.

We can, of course, connect more and more towns in order to forestall that.

Oh, OK, so we can't remove him by buying him out. Nevermind that then.

edit: I like Daikaiju's idea and second it. Maybe there can be a Great Syrup Train that goes across the entire railroad, hitting every stop after it fills up.

FORESTALL AND SHUT THEM DOWN! The syrup must flow!

No update just yet, but I have begun work on one. Posting here because I am taking any and all suggestions for locomotive names!

The Astrolux

Iron Bunk

The Teaspoon Shuttler

The Parish Zephyr

In light of (sort of) recent events, a restructuring of the railroad is in order.





I constructed a second main line up to Norwich and laid some more track between Framingham & Boston. This takes some pressure off our main line, which will be good...



...as we'll be seeing more traffic.

Suffice to say, I also overhauled our locomotive roster and schedules. Each train hauls only one kind of cargo now, whether it be logs-and-lumber or mail, and pretty much all of our network receives service. I had to purchase some more trains to make sure I could haul enough cargo, and upgraded some of (okay, almost all of) our older Americans to Iron Dukes for increased speed.

The list might look a little wonky with "track blocked" and "can't reach station" everywhere, but that's what happens when you buy and reroute trains while the game's paused. I'm also taking this opportunity to assign actual names to our locomotives! In order from the screenshot:

• Train #13 "Teaspoon" - milk train, services most of network
• Train #22 "Josephine" - mail train, services almost all of network
• Train #31 "Parish" - Boston-New York City passenger express
• Train #42 "Etrian" - Brattleboro syrup paper & mail train
• Train #53 "Demeter" - produce train, services most of network
• Train #63 "Calvin" - Boston beef train, services most of railroad north and east of Hartford
• Train #74 "Colonel" - hauls logs to deliver lumber across most of network
• Train #83 "Tubalcain" - New York City beef train, services New York City & Boston
• Train #91 "Daikaiju Rocket" - you probably know this one
• Train #101 "Odyseey" - short-haul passenger train, services most of network
• Train #114 "Bellamy" - woolen goods train, services Norwich, Hartford, New York City
• Train #124 "Bunk" - iron ore goods train, services Norwich, Providence area, Worcester, Boston

Notably, all of this stuff cost most of our money (1.8 million), and I didn't even build that link between Worcester and Hartford.





To my surprise, some of our serviced industries are turning out to be lucrative - the Worcester iron mine and one of the Providence paper mills. I took out a bond to snap them up - lucrative industries have a higher chance of actually returning a profit.



We also have yet more managers to choose from. I probably should have hired Palmer before I constructed all that track, but for now I'll hire Nagelmachers.

That's probably enough to get us started on the right foot. The company itself is still running short on cash while the restructured network gets off the ground...



...but as for myself, I've repaid enough of my debts that I set the dividend to 25k. I've amassed enough in my bank account stock portfolio to beat my rivals by far.



Bit of a traffic jam while the new routes are being inaugurated.



With the decreased reliability of our Iron Dukes, cabooses have become more important - I've added them to many of our long hauls.

The rest of 1859 passed without incident. Surely this is a good omen.





*snort*

At this rate, we'll likely be able to connect to all of the smaller towns around our railroad eventually. Monopoly capitalism has never been easier!



I decided to buy two thousand more shares to celebrate how rich we are. I should be able to manage the debt, not especally because I paid off the bond I took to buy those industries last year.



See, you can barely even tell we dropped half a million in repayment, we're making so much cash.



An improvement over last year.



The Daikaiju Rocket suffers a breakdown literally as soon as its boiler is fired up to leave Brattleboro in March. But surely, this will be one of few misfortunes to befall us.



The engineers are making use of my track expansion, which is probably the true victory here. You can see #31 (Parish) making its way south of Norwich.



Score.



Alright, let's talk expansion. You guys talked about a link between Worcester and the Connecticut River Valley, but my initial estimate (read: dragging the track laying tool around) was prohibitively high. Right now though, it's just kind of high.

And judging by the survey...there's nothing to suggest we have to build the entire connection at once. Springfield is a decently-sized city at this point, only two houses smaller than Boston.



Yes, that will do. We're more than able to afford this, and we can make some decent money here.





Where did they even find that much cash? Does the mayor moonlight as a bank robber?





#74 was about to run out of water, so I realized I needed a second maintenance depot for the second line a bit too late for my taste.



And almost immediately afterwards #13 breaks down. This is more breakdowns than we've had in a while here...but I'm sure things will be fine.



Oh, yes. Periodically, new buildings will become available to build for stations. In this case, our milk and produce delivery service will become that much more efficient once we spend the money to build these, since the food will be able to sit for longer periods of time without going bad.

Just as we're about to run out of operating funds, #31 pulls into New York and caps off a pretty great year for us. Other than the breakdowns, that is, but even those are quite manageable.

So! It looks like we're pretty much in the cle-

Ah puckernuts. Darn history.

Hey how are you playing this by the way? I don't think its even possible to play 3 very comfortably on modern systems.

Normally, RRT3 doesn't run on Windows operating sytems newer than XP, because one of the game's default rendering options is incompatible with modern graphics cards. There's a fix available here that I use on my Windows 7 laptop - it simply disables the feature.

As for 2, I bought my current copy on Steam. I guess I'm just lucky that it works right out of the box on my computer. Others haven't been quite so fortunate, I hear.

When we last left off, the nation had been plunged into civil war. I'm reminded of the fact that the war proper began in April of 1861, with the shelling of Fort Sumter - but in this alternate history, the war began on the 1st of January 1861. Probably because the scenario creator didn't want to bog down the blazing-fast 486 computers of their day with checks for monthly date triggers.

Now that that's out of the way...



#31 pulls out of NYC as #114 pulls into New York. We have two million in the bank, probably enough to finish the Connecticut River Valley link.

The Daikaiju Rocket breaks down soon after on the way to Brattleboro. These Iron Dukes must have been built rather shoddily to achieve their remarkable speed. The loco's breakdown rate is already 6.3% and I haven't adjusted the throttle or modified its consist.



The terrain we have to cross to finish our northern link is more hilly than I'd like. Nothing insurmountable, but unless I'm careful and/or spend a lot of money, the resulting bumpy route could slow down trains.



Yeah okay that's not much to worry about. Just need to make sure trains are properly sanded before they enter this stretch.



Probably overkill having four separate buildings in the area, but at least we've ensured comprehensive service. All told, the connection cost us an easily affordable 500k.





Loop achieved!



Both of these guys make tracklaying cheaper. While we're rich enough that we don't really need them to build small branch lines, they'll be more useful for connecting those far-flung towns.





Now that we have a healthy revenue stream and regular deliveries to the Boston meat plant, I'm going to take a chance with it again.



Huh. November already and not much has happened. Perhaps the war is drawing to a close? I still had to build a roundhouse at the depot the two trains were passing - #13 was out of oil.



Average year overall. Our profits: $1,270,000. Their profits: -$39,000.



...and it looks like I'll have to build a roundhouse around the Brattleboro branch as well. Maybe it's the fact that I'm playing this scenario in fits and starts over the course of months, but I don't normally leave my trains without oil as much as I've been here.



Well, that's awfully nice of The Economy. We'll be sure to repay it in kind.



See?


Okay, honestly, the railroad is pretty much running itself at this point. There comes a time in most tycoon and simulator games where this happens. (For context, around April of 1862 the real Civil War had already claimed around 195,000 lives, from battle as well as disease.)

Running itself...except, of course, when a railroad tycoon decides to connect every town on the map to satisfy his invisible cyborg shareholders from the future.

If we're going to connect to every remaining town, that's probably going to boost the size of Talking Tracks by another 30-50 percent. We've connected to every state capital and big city on the map, and some of the remaining towns are small enough to warrant one stop from one train at most, but we can at least get started.



Okay, NOW we can get started.



Looking north of the Merrimack like we did way back in an early update, we can see Lawrence no longer has a lumber mill. Nashua must have stolen it in the middle of the night.



Surprisingly enough, Nashua and Manchester make a pretty decent stop. I'll just add this station to some of our existing trains' routes.



Here we finally get to see the large Japanese-style station, along with supply and demand for the local area. 資本主義の楽園.



Meanwhile, note that there is absolutely no demand for anything in Salem. When we consider the economic ramifications in play, we can probably assume that witchcraft is at fault.



This route may be entirely useless, but it looks really pretty!



I may have mentioned earlier that port production can vary between scenarios. They can be set to demand and produce up to 4 of pretty much any cargo in the game, as we see here. This particular port would have been useful to us if we actually depended on it for certain goods, which we don't. (There is no difference between cotton and wool, which we already use to make goods.)



Train #131 - Warlock - will take advantage of the port anyway.



I'm taking this opportunity to build refrigeration storage units at all of our milk and produce depots. Turns out money can spoil, too.



Connecting to Brockton gives us more raw goods, as well as their dirty money...wait a minute.



There we go.

Not sure how they failed to notice the other depot that's five times as large, but hey. Bank robbers.

We've got around a million left in the bank about now, so I think this round of expansion has come to a halt. Time to unpause.



I put the roundhouse in this depot, just as the Daikaiju Rocket was creaking down the line.



A month after that, #131 leaves Gloucester with two empty cars. It's going to take a bit of time for this route to even make any revenue, and it's a bit of a gamble on my part, but it's the best I could come up with for this branch line. I'm glad I caught the train sitting in the station early; I'd misjudged and set it to leave only after some cargo had been generated in Gloucester. Considering that there is exactly one house within the station radius, that would have taken a while.





Things start to happen in autumn. I correct a routing mistake for #83 - it was set to deliver beef to the very cattle pasture it was taken from - only for the Daikaiju Rocket to break down yet again outside Springfield.



Somewhat surprisingly, 1862 is our best year ever. Our profits: $2,302,000. Their profits: $36,000. On the personal finances front, I am ever more stinking rich.


In Janauary 1863, Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Originally intended to cripple the Confederate war effort, it would become a moral cornerstone for the abolition of slavery.

As of February, both French and British diplomats fail to make headway in their efforts to end the war. The Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad announces the purchase of 40 slaves to be employed on the road due to heavy usage of the Confederate rail system. The railroad links in that area will remain important until the very end of the conflict.

The Union advance along the Mississippi River is starting to put pressure on Confederate business. The Cherokee Nation, meanwhile, has rebuffed the rebels and shown support to the Union. Almost 500,000 soldiers have died, either from lead poisoning or fatal infection.



And I'm thinking of selling our paper mill in Providence. Probably not as historic, but I'm not aware of any way to switch a scenario from a regular years-long game to a shorter term tactical logistics situation - which there are indeed a few of for RRT2. However, there are none that concern the American Civil War.

I'm also going to see if I can service other paper mills on the map. Springfield and Manchester both have one paper mill, and it's probably time to expand our syrup paper train's route anyway. I know for a fact that Providence and New York both want paper deliveries, and it is now within our power to provide those deliveries.

Right now, it's only using Providence's and Brattleboro's paper mills to supply Boston. There is a paper mill in Boston, but I'd have to build a separate depot to reach it.



For reference, at least one of our investments has finally paid off big time.



I can manage #42's route myself, although I will as always take suggestions. Someone mentioned a Great Syrup Paper train earlier that hit every stop on the railroad, regardless of profitability. It's an option at least.

As for the paper mills...I could sell the one in Providence, buy the two I mentioned and reroute the syrup paper train accordingly. Or, if you want, we could just buy every paper mill on the map and see how that goes.

Beefy update!

What's endgame at this point?