RulerofRails wrote:One of the remaining frontiers to the present day. An interesting map idea.
I believe TM is a better structure for a map with few cities because the agri communities and mining/logging enterprises fill in many areas of the commodities price map even far from cities.
What do you do about small fractional cargo demands, basically anything less than 0.5? I find that such an industry will almost never attract that cargo "naturally". Even when I deliver the cargo by rail, taking care not to haul it away again, sometimes the cargo will drift away on it's own. A good example is the Auto Plant and the Glass cargo. And Isotopes and the Missile Plant. Some of the Paper demands for example at the Sugar Refinery.
I abandoned all the normal "rules" of RRT3 with my Great China. The real China is filled with farms, mines, many things. So, the challenge there isn't about "how to get 10 carloads of coal to a certain town or harbor by year XXXX". Games work like that. I didn't want to make a "game" map - but a simulation map. In some areas there is TOO much of everything to haul. ;) That changes the focus quite a lot, especially when you have a VERY long time to do what you do, with problems that creates. And it seems to work. :)
In Siberia some things will be very different - but not all of them. For example, there won't be that much of passenger traffic, I'd guess. Most stations will be at natural resource sites like mines etc. With few inhabitants and mostly no or little industry. But demand somewhere far away. I shall probably use the same technique here as with GC when it comes to resources. There will be plenty of them, just like in real life. But they may be hard to reach. Already GC is a bit "interesting" when it comes to many rivers. Meaning expensive, sometimes really difficult bridge solutions. In Siberia things will be just worse. Just like in real life. Rivers everywhere among swamps and taiga forests. And some really nasty mountain ranges.
Just like with GC, I shall examine every single village, town and natural resource site thoroughly (you'll never know how much time and background research went to Great China map). Every single river will run as correctly as possible. So, if this will come true, this will be something very different from the Great China map. But also, I believe, from anything RRT3 has ever tried to do.
Why? Well, we all have dreams. I have traveled from "coast to coast" in the USA. And in many places - also in China. But I have never experienced the cruel magic of Siberia. For some reason, I got attracted to the weird story of the Trans Siberian Railway years ago. Then it got weirder. The Russians realized that their almost "impossible" trans-continental railroad run too close to China. So, someone decided: "Okay, let's duplicate the Trans Siberian thing - but this time about 1000 kilometer to the North!". And that's how the BAM railroad happened... The story is actually so weird that you should google it! :)
Of course, when we talk about Russia, someone got a new idea. There's a city in the coldest area of Siberia called Yakutsk. A center of huge mining resources with just one little problem. For about 6 months of a year it can't be reached by any reasonable way. No roads. No railroads. Nothing. Just huge river Lena with its massive floods and... trouble. Riches that can't be transferred anywhere.
So, the already almost useless, hugely expensive, long BAM railroad in the middle of absolutely nowhere, had to be connected to Yakutsk something like 2000 kilometers to the North. Said and done. They actually did it. With just a small problem. The "coldest city on Earth" is on the west side of the gigantic river Lena. The railroad there, however, ended up to the other (wrong) side of this river. And since that river is VERY nasty with her floods and everything, nobody seems to know how to reach the original target, the city of Yakutsk.
But since we're in Russia here now, that was no problem. They decided to continue this particular railroad to the North. Following a road called "Road of Bones". Because the only (!) road to Yakutsk area was built by war prisoners under Stalin's command. It continued to the Kolyma area where possibly the most horrible concentration camps in human history remain. And the harshest climate on this planet. Building that road killed at least 100.000 people. Probably a lot more. They were buried under this road. Hence the name "road of bones"... :(
If you google "Kolyma", you'll see some very sad, horrible things. But life goes on. And Russia tries to develop those areas, often very rich with natural resources. The original "road of bones" isn't really usable for ordinary cars some parts of the year, especially early Autumn. But they are improving it, mile after mile, on swampy, ever-frost terrain. And now they have decided to build a railroad following that horrible route to the port town of Magadan. And later to Canada...
Siberia is, indeed, one of the last wild frontiers on Earth.