Part 34: 1974-1980: Back To Trains

1974-1980: Back to Trains
Locomotion Soundtrack - Never Stop 'Til You Get There
My favourite song of the soundtrack, It harks back to the funk heavy soundtrack of the older entries of the series.

Click here to name a vehicle!




As ever, we start by clearing some jams. Notice how it's always this bit? It's a bastard of a sector where any delay causes trafic to queue across junctions, escalating to gridlock. I'm too much of a coward to redo it without demolishing half the town.


The big station at the Glenbrook steel mill has a capacity of nine trains, but occasionally that's not enough to hold everything that wants to go there, so we have to find a way of storing more trains. This is the solution.


The heavy iron takes to the air at the new metropolitan airport at Mangatawhiri.


Closely followed by the this graceful delta. Both are bound for the Dairy Flat Airfield, clear across the map.


On a more prosaic note, we incorporate our first airmail service between Mangatawhiri and Auckland using the trusty Viscount.


We restore the Papatoetoe brewery to operation.


We haven't laid any new rail since the 60s or earlier, so Scrooge decides to use the Eastern branch more effectively. He decides to build a new spur to collect grain from the hills outside Clevedon and bring it to the Food plant in East Tamaki.




In the meantime, a few more fourth generation trucks appear.




As well as the Mk 2 Transit van. While it doesn't haul more, it's more powerful and has a higher top speed.








We decide to go electric on the new line, getting the benefit of high power and low running cost. The electric wires also prevent them from running off to the other side of the rail network.




Our current flatbeds still have a few years of life in them, but now they have a replacement.


This area has been a pain in the side for years. It's finally time to do something about it. We're going to bypass the whole thing.




Turns out you can't out-rollercoaster Burgundy, we go under instead.




Southbound trains will no longer choke up the area, hopefully the current setup can handle the reduced traffic.


The gentle evolution of light rail continues.


These hopper trucks have had to wait for replacement and they're totally worn out. The old ones carry 15t, the new ones an impressive 28t.




With replacement done, a strange thing happens. We've saturated the line and now the trucks have to wait for enough grain to be produced. It's a far cry from the days when dozens of trucks took about 10% of the farm's production.


The last of our steam engines is replaced by one of the ubiquitous class 37s.



And now it's time for the News!






A very useful upgrade, considering how many of these we have.


The Jumbo's maiden flight is a record breaker!


Neat, we can finally try some fast passenger service!


Of course, it doesn't stand for long!


Burgundy is getting heavily into the mail business now as well.










We've seen a few of these recently. We're actually catching up slightly on Eggburt and Burgundy Transport, although they're still way ahead by company value.


Auckland Int'l was going through one of it's don't accept mail or food stages, so it took a while for the new airmail to work properly.


It closed when we rebuilt the Papatoetoe brewery. we've probably hit the maximum industry limit.








Air speed record continues upward.




I think most of these are down to Burgundy's buying class 125s, since they carry a small amount of mail in the power cars.


We're finally catching up on Eggburt and Burgundy transport in company rating. To be honest, we should have hit this years ago.