Part 39: North America 2: 1922-1941
North America 2:1922-1941Click here to name a vehicle!
So, last time I showed how well a well run railroad could haul a great deal using start of game technology. This time we're going to see if we can use that groundwork to turn it up a notch.
For once, I'm going to have a secondary secondary goods distribution network that isn't a withered afterthought. None of these towns are big enough for goods, food or mail yet, but I've set up a bunch of lines that take passengers between Montgomery and the other towns of the Southeast to encourage them to grow.
Damn annoying! One of our backup wells closes.
Another immediately starts nearby.
Oops! It happens in the 1920s.
We have plenty of transport capacity now. The trains to dallas get reassigned to go to Oaklahoma city oil wells instead.
The problem is all the trains are starting to crowd out at Montgomery. The Oaklahoma route is diverted to go to a Refinery near Amarillo.
In the middle of building the new route, production goes up! We aren't ready for it.
Production rapidly outpaces transport and ratings suffer.
At least we are hauling a lot.
Near Miss! Was adding a new loop to the secondary network.
Finished safely, Columbus is the first town to recieve goods deliveries.
The station at Amarillo fills a quiet valley.
It's bigger on the inside!
Bad ratings finally lead to a production drop after two years.
The Amarillo line is finally ready, now the Oaklahoma trains won't hold up the Montgomery trains. We can also put an extra platform at Baton Rouge Oilfield and get a second stream of trains running to Amarillo. One art that doesn't show up well on a SSLP is altering a running railroad without disrupting traffic. Here the line was set up so all it took to switch the Oaklahoma trains from the old route to new was changing the curve at the bottom from right to left. The rest could be worked on at leisure.
With production down, we shorten a lot of our trains.
Sometimes my attempts to avoid traffic disruption cause a lot of it. In this case, shifting a signal to allow a more efficient junction caused two trains to enter the junction at once.
Further production fall - didn't go far enough in downsizing trains.
The passenger lines are causing a lot of new tenement buildings to be built.
I applied the results on my Baldwin vs. Double-Special experiment and replaced all the short range trains with Baldwins. I also did a trial with Triple headers but they were too long to be practical. When this happens, I have to start doubleheading the Baldwins.
By the time I've converted the fleet, productivity is up and the wells jump back up to the 2000t level. The Pacific comes available too, but starting Reliability is only 63%, so I only replace a small trickle of Locomotives prior to 1937.
And another surprise, the Oaklahoma well doubles! It only has one station, so it jumped of it's own accord. With only one station, we can't prevent it from going back down sooner or later.
Back to overflow problems. Luckily, with a barely used line to Amarillo available, we can soak up a lot more this time.
Sure enough, the boom at Oaklahoma ends after a few months.
We still need somewhere else to sink more of this Oil, especially at the second Baton Rouge station, which has a dangerously low rating.
Peoria is the next refinery to be used. This station complex is entirely underground.
I don't know what that dish lookin' thing on the roof is but it shure makes us look important!
The Pacifcs are a huge improvement, much better power to weight and a 50mph top speed. They especially improve over the double Special combos still in use out on the Amarillo line.
ONe of the passenger trains breaks a record with the new engine!
Dulce et decorum pro vapor machinam mori [Please forgive my nonexistent latin grammar]
Continuous service makes for some weird detours. Here I'm trying to get a fourth platform at Baton Rouge which means that all the branches have to slide over one.
Since the Montgomery trains keep up a frequent service already, we can focus the Peoria line on maxing out the trains. A max lenghth platform is fifteen tiles long and can fit a Pacific and 17 oil cars.
One of those little details that I love - These trains weigh 520 tons loaded and they skid a lot when starting out!
The new route out towards Peoria is awkward too. It takes a brave driver to open up the throttle on 'The plughole'!
Meanwhile, our monomania has caused a depression in the other industries. Most are not replaced.
Montgomery has taken off to become the capital of the south.
We are just keeping ratings high enough to maintain the 2000t level.
I've inadvertently made the South rise again
NY has a loltastic population of 270.