Part 4: 1900-1903: On time in the age of ragtime

1900 - 1903: On time in the age of Ragtime
Locomotion Soundtrack - Eugenia




It's January 1st, 1900 in this peaceful backwater of the Empire. Hot issues of the day include the contribution to the Boer war and nursing massive hangovers.


But noted local financier Scrooge McDuck has been busy.
The runaway winner with 3 votes.


Backed by a shodowy cabal of financiers, Mcduck sets his sights on the forestry operation outside Otaua, near the mouth of the Waikato river.


The first rails go down.




















Meanwhile, clearly a great many people have decided to make good on their New century's resolutions, creating a building boom in towns close to the center of the region.



Work proceeds into the swampy flats near the river.




Rails approach the destination near Pokeno. The rolling hills make things a little awkward. Scrooge saves some money by using earth fill instead of bridgeworks.




The line is finished, but a new locomotive is beyond Scrooge's means. He goes cap in hand to the bank.


The manifest is filled out...








Done! The new engine has a tough time with 100 tons of logs aboard, skidding and struggling to build speed, but it works!












Speeds the like of which have never been seen in this land! The sawmillers brace for a busy week, but there'll be no shortage of work now. McDuck shows us why people from the 1800s didn't smile in photographs.






The wisdom of opening a wheat farm in a subtropical rainforest is debatable. The other new farm, to the north, has less problems. The new iron mine at Riverhead is operational.


While the forest at Paparimu has been clearcut and not replanted. Carting the wood out of the hills and into town just wasn't viable.


With empty wagons on the return run, The land speed record is broken again!


McDuck celebrates by having some new business cards printed.
Your title is actually based on your company rating. We just hit 10%


But there's no rest for the wicked. There's more wood than one train can handle here, and Scrooge sets his sights Northward.


Come to think of it, The lads on the line won't be able to just keep calling it 'The engine' when there's more than one around, can they?


Lumber from the forest makes for a cheap and convenient building material!


Things start getting more crowded as the line approaches the great south road.


But there's a convenient gap between the two sides of Papakura town. Funny that.


The line snakes around a bit to avoid a bridge over a nearby estuary.






Occasional extensions of credit are necessary.


A forest on the other side of the river from us goes under. Scrooge hopes the rest can hold out until he can get there!




Another constriction. This one's gonna be a toughy. A house near the factory is acquired and demolished to make room.


This monstrosity of engineering is the answer.


Itineraries have to be updated carefully to ensure that the trains head to the right places. There's a trap for the newcomer here. We also have to make sure the Paper mill train doesn't fill up with rolls of paper and carry them around uselessly.


Another touchstone of railways everywhere - junk rails laying around just in case they might be useful later...


Another expensive locomotive.


But soon it's all go.




It's been a good couple of years. Time to see what our customers think of us.


"Eh, it's better than the horse and cart."


But the mill is annoyed that they have to cart their goods into Auckland.




McDuck soon discovers a disadvantage of all those wooden bridges!


But he's not even waiting for the new train to arrive before starting some more work.











The latest line is almost finished. It goes from Auckland to Howick, sharing part of the line in the middle with the Henderson line.






Land in Auckland is Expensive, and sweeping high speed curves are out of the question. A second household falls victim to McDuck's ambitions.




Sharing more lines means more complex orders.












The passengers on the train to Howick likely won't understand the name for oooh, 70 years? Scrooge is ahead of his time, I guess. The passenger train is a success!


We improve signalling technique by removing signals from the shared bit of line. This way, no train can move into the intersection and block ones moving on the shared bit. There's no fancy distance signals in Lomo. Trains simply cannot enter any sector where another train is. That's all they do. You can also get one-way signals that force a train to turn round if they approach it from the wrong direction.




Everything's looking pretty rosy.

But wait,

Whats this?


You shouldn't be going this way...

Houses demolished: 3

Next time, the sailing gets just a teensy bit less smooth in Locomotion!




No business status or tasks for us today, as I already have a backlog of 1904/1905 to clear! As always, you can suggest routes, vehicle names and strategies, but they won't be incorporated until after the next update.

P.S. Should I timg the full size screenshots?