Southeast USA

[Hawk]

The following text is a compilation of what was salvaged from the old Gathering Forum. It contains postings from several different people.
Thanks goes out to Wolverine for putting this all together.

Hawk

Southeast USA
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In the Southeast US scenario one of the requirements is that I move 50 loads of lumber.
Well, in three straight games the AI has killed demand for lumber for the last fifteen or so years. Every station that has lumber has no demand. So due to the economic model I can't move loads.
And there's no way to create demand since all the lumber requierd industries can't be built.
So is this a bug or just a nasty way of making the scenario more difficult?
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That scenario has never given me trouble with the lumber demand--its cotton that's been a problem for me.
I'm surprised that there are so many lumber mills that the lumber market is saturated. Lumber is required by cities themselves even if no industry demand is there so unless every city has a mill there the demand should have lasted. My play on that map has always ended up with enough cities to keep the price or lumber high enough to let me ship it somewhere.
I'd fogotten that but you're saying you can't build furniture or toy industries?
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Each time I've played I've had three or four clusters of cotton farms close to Memphis, Tupelo, and usually Jackson. Until I've gotten enough cash to build branch lines out to the smaller cities I've used the non-rail transport to bring in the cotton (and lumber).
I can create cotton demand because textile mills are available. Furniture and toy factories aren't. Or haven't been.
There is a small demand at each city but it's always been low fraction of one car.
The closest I've gotten was a Silver, 5,005 miles of ROW (which you can build in the last year. The VC doesn't require loads or positive revenue, just miles), almost 400 cotton, and 47 lumber!
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If you just have to move 50 loads, can't you just change the consists of trains to only haul lunber? Or does it have to go somewhere that demands the loads? (I haven't played the scenario yet)
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Strange because I've never paid much attention to the lumber hauling issue. Usually there are a bunch of logging camps in the Georgia / Northern Florida area and too few mills to use up the logs. I usually end up building a mill or two in the area and just letting the auto consists haul lumber around the map. Never missed that goal. Don't know why there would be that much difference in what we're seeing.
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That makes 3 times now I've lost this one. Should be a cinch, no AI players, you can lay unconnected track anyplace. But I can't get my 50 loads of cotton in before the 15 years is up. Cash flow terrible, hard to get any profit unless you run really long trains for really long distances, and then with those slow early engines it's hard to get a profit that pays for the run sometimes. Anyone else having a Real Challenge on this one?
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I played this scenario for the first time last night and it was tough. After 10 years, I was nowhere near achieving the goals.
I studied the cargo map for a while before making my first placements and would up starting with the Memphis to Jackson route, and then expanded up to Nashville and down to Tupelo, Huntsville, and Birmingham. There are some lucrative price differences on some resources such as coal, but it is hard to figure out where to set up a good route to take advantage of these opportunities. Part of my problem in building up my profits is that all the bonds I got were at 11 or 12%, so it was hard to get a break. I had some big cotton and iron totals in some of my stations, but just none of the cities I connected needed those things. I didn't start hitting big payloads until I got Chattanooga connected in Year 7 or 8. So when I retry this one, I may try to start up in the mountains --- Chattanooga, Knoxville, and down to Atlanta and see if there aren't better payouts.
I customized the scenario to add 3 AIs, and while none of them build big railroads, they seemed to have some success with the Knoxville-Kingston and Albany-Tallahassee routes.
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I meant to say 100 cotton loads. But, I can't play the game and be on here at the same time (although I'm sure some of you are doing that!)
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This is a hard one. Its not impossible but it is hard. The hardest part is the fact that there are so many different goals and you really have to be working on all of them all the time. There's no room for anything but a tight focus on the goals. On the other hand, I like this one because it emphasizes building a railroad and a big one at that.
First start this one on the latest date allowed. If you're having trouble with it, bring it into the editor and change the max date to 1860 or so. You want the American and later the Consolidation. Give yourself a little extra cash--say 250K to start. Once you've played this one a few times, try the original and see if you can now beat it too.
I've tried starting in several locations, Memphis is an obvious start and it works. But I like Jacksonville-Tallahassee equally well, its especially good as a base for expanding into Florida in the last few years to meet the 5000 mile track goal. It also has a good supply of logs in the area so you can knock off the lumber goal also. Often I can place a lumber mill and/or paper mill in that area to generate industry profits but that's tricky because you're normally going to be needing all the cash you can get early on--the industy investment will pay off but it hurts giving up the cash early in the scenario.
Although you can play this one alone, I think it may be easier not to because of the interconnect fees and because joining to another RR gets you access to more cities so you can ship more stuff for more profit. The only big downside to the interconnects is if the AI comes in and starts hauling your cotton stockpile! Hard to prevent but you can choose where you interconnect to discourage that.
Speaking of that, to make the cotton hauling requirement I've found that I need to start almost immediately--one of my first 3-4 builds for sure. Look for a cluster of cotton farms that doesn't have a mill or port too close. Build a single rail track through them and put in a series of small stations. Start a train at one end and send it to each station along the way until you can be sure it will be hauling 3-4 cars. Later on you can use a city with a mill in it that is attracting cotton but unable to keep up with the incoming cotton so it will collect there. Either way you need to find sources for a lot of cotton and get a train or two carrying nothing but cotton from the source to a demand--a port at Mobile is my favorite. The train(s) should be set to 0-1 or 2 "any cargo" for the return trip.
Making the city connection goals is just a matter of having the cash to lay the track. The scenario will help you a little--as each goal is met something happens to boost your income a little (example: if you meet the cotton goal, the price of on it goes up, the connections boost pax traffic for awhile, etc).
For me, the first 10 years are all about making the cotton goal and getting an ever increasing revenue stream built up. The last few years are spending every penny on track all over the map to make the 5000 miles.
Personally, I've fallen short of gold on this one many times but its always fun to try and it can be done.
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Well, thanks to all for the help. Last night I finally got through it for the first time, and even made Silver, and without using the editor. The key is to run the shortest yet best paying cotton routes you can. Tupelo to Memphis doesn't quite pay enough, at least at first. I took the advice and looked around. Just south of Nashville was a cluster of cotton farms and it paid very well in Jackson City. Clothing going back up the hill also paid well. I set every train serving cotton stations to highest priority so they wouldn't get delayed, after all delivering the cotton is the main focus. I concentrated on clusters of 2 or more cotton farms that could be covered with one medium or large station, to ensure a good supply. I got the 100 cotton loads in with 6 years to spare, and by then it was generating a lot of money annually. So then I looked for profitable lumber to haul and found some around Tallahassee, Macon, and a couple of other places. Just ahead of the 15 year deadline I finished my routes into Memphis (had already hooked Tupelo into Birmingham) and connected from Macon up to Atlanta and down to Jacksonville and got the silver just in time for the end.
It can be done but it's one of the more difficult ones.
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I'm thinking of this as a group victory.
Like y'all, tried it once and got whupped and came here to the boards for some collective wisdom. A couple of things that y'all said stood out - you have to start hauling early, there is a very good patch of cotton near Nashville way (in addition to the lumber in FL), you do NOT have to build off the same track, and Florida is good territory for finishing the track race. Started a new game on second-hardest level.
Knowing this I decided to set up my cotton run first, Memphis-Jackson City-Jackson City Junction (a very nice patch of 3-4 cotton fields to the NE of JC). Two trains, one dedicated to hauling cotton from JCJ to Jackson, the other an express/combo run between the three cities.
Took out a couple of bonds (I don't care about the high interest rates: bonds can always be paid off) and turned my eye towards Florida. Seeing as to how the computer laid out a couple of lumber camps (or whatever) between Tallahassee and Albany GA, I started my second run there just like in Memphis - 1 train specializing in the needed commodity, the other in general cargo/passengers.
I then set up a nice little track between Charlotte and Columbia, one that had good express traffic. Charlotte was the only city I built a hotel, etc in the scenario. Connected Albany to Macon, Macon to Atlanta, Medidian to Jackson (stand alone), and on and on. My 6th or 7th track was the nice New Orleans, Baton Rouge run which will bring in extra cash.
Cash is key because 5,000 miles is a crushing rail expense, one not to be taken lightly at end game. Had I not taken the time to connect my profitable runs first there would've been no way to complete the scenario with the Gold as I would've run out of cash or taken out too many bonds to finance the rail creation. Don't worry about building a connected railroad, concentrate on building a profitable one, a veritable cash cow.
Finished Lumber requirement in year 9, Cotton in 11, Track in 14.
Thanks everybody!
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Oh, and I got my cities connected. Also, it doesn't matter if you connect the ATL-JAX run with the MEM-BMG run to win the Gold. I didn't.
In the above game, btw, that Albany Tallahassee run proved crucial as it accounted for 80% of my lumber production.
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I was hoping for an upgraded RRT2 but what I think we have is a totally NEW game in RRT3. I really liked RRT2 and the way it was played. Which you can't do in RRT3 successfully. I'm trying to get into this game and here is a problem I have, maybe its me. Can somebody help me understand?
Scenario: Southeast US. Goal is to connect Memphis and Birmingham and haul 100 loads of cotton and connect Jacksonville to Atlanta and haul 50 loads of timber.
I started by finding a cheap product, Cheap alcohol in Little rock and expensive Memphis to make some money. So I built a station form Little Rock to Memphis. and started making some money. Next I started connecting Memphis to Birmingham. Since there was no cotton I had to find some cheaper than it was selling for in Memphis. The places where it was cheap didn't have much or any and the place where it was high had plenty. Since EVEN if you designate to only load cotton it wont load unless your going from a cheap price to a high price station. So my question is how do you find cheap cotton to haul? Same for lumber. What am I missing.?
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For the lumber: if you don't have enough sawmills on the map, buy one yourself. I know you can't do this for the cotton though.
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Just find a place using the resource map where the selling price for cotton is lower than a place where the buying price is. Then connect the two and you're moving cotton. On an average map there's dozens of cotton farms and textile mills to choose from so I can't possibly see how this could be a problem. Don't just try to ship cotton anyoldwhere. Look at the prices. This applies for all other freight on all maps.
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Do you mean to build a station near some cotton farms like in RRT2? I thought that wasnt feasable?
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since i can't make it home for the holidays, i hope someone is around to give me the gift of knowledge i'll be ****** if i can figure this out. it's one of the scenarios, South East USA i believe, where for the bronze you need to connect Memphis to Burmingham and haul 100 loads of cotton. ok, the freaking cotton is my problem! there are a gazillion cotton farms and it has no trouble finding its own way to the textile mills without my help. i can't haul 100 loads if my life depended on it! is there anyone out there that could give me some clues on how to do this before santa shows up?
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I had to use the custom consist to do it.
They got my cotton whether they wanted it or not.
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The trick is indeed finding enough demand for the cotton. I haul most of the cotton to ports where there's a demand that doesn't get satisfied as easily. The other trick is that you have to start it pretty early in the game or you'll have trouble making the 100 loads.
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thanks for the tips and it looks like it's not just me but it very well might be a bit tough to meet this goal. and kriss, i'm using the custom consist but cotton won't get loaded if it doesn't make money at the other end...oh well, back to the struggle!
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1 See if you can find 4+ cotton fields not too far from a port. Ideally, the cotton should not be close to water. (Check out central Mississippi and Mobile)
2 Connect the two making sure that the flow of cotton leads into your station(s).
3 If cash permits, build or buy a textile mill at or near your port.
4 Connect your port to other ports if possible.
If you set this up right, meeting the cotton requirement is a piece of cake.
I ended up with a RR from Meridan to a station in the middle of the central Mississippi cotton fields to Mobile. Later added the textile mill and connected to Baton Rouge.
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A dirty trick:
Set a cotton-only train to run around your textile mill cities. Prices of cotton differ from one to another and so you pick up cotton from somewhere and take it somewhere else. The best prices keep moving but your train keeps hauling. You won't normally make money, so make sure you've got good cash flow first.
I used the same trick on southeast Australia. I still found both of those the most difficult scenarios - I had many starts before I won.
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This scenario seems hard--I sure thought so at first. But it isn't really as long as you just focus on the goals, especially the cotton goal. The lumber goal just seems to take care of itself if I build into Georgia and north Florida. For cotton I do exactly what Grumpus said: find a cluster of cotton farms and connect them to a port or two, Mobile being the most convenient. Then just set up a train or two and get on with the rest of the game.
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one more question if i may. grumpus and dick, you guys make it sound like i can place a station in the vicinity of a group of cotton fields and cotton will come to me. is that what you're saying? as i'm finding the cotton field itself HAS to fall within station radius before any cotton accumulates. is this correct? as in grumpus, can you explain this -> "making sure that the flow of cotton leads into your station"
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You are correct:
If a farm has an established product flow then you must either interrupt that flow by placing a station so that the farm comes under its economic radius or placing the station so that its radius interdicts the current flow.
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Quote: so that its radius interdicts the current flow

ah, this is most enlightening..thanks! (...not playing emperor any more?)
<edit>i give up. i have one station radius covering 2 farms and another covering 1 farm. i've hauled just two cars of cotton and now the price is -$10 at Mobile so nothing moves. sigh, maybe i'll just stick with differential calculus. what in blazes am i doing wrong?!
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Is there a port at Mobile??
The seeding is somewhat random and sometimes ports aren't established right away.
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I agree this scenario is a biatch. I've succeded in hauling timber, but I can't get cotton to move because the market is saturated.
But I haven't tried the Mobile port tactic yet. I'll try again tonight. *sigh*
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So its not possible to create demand buy building a brand new Textile Mill?
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Sure you can do that as long as you've got the cash. Do it a couple times and your industrial profits will help pay for the next one.
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I just played SE this evening. I tried several times starting with various industries like I do in other maps and neither textiles, logging nor beer gave me more than $100k a year for start. Then I tried just running trains (Little Rock to Memphis) and I made over $1M the first year.
Yikes! This is a train friendly scenario. I never made less than $1M profit from the get-go.
For cotton I placed some large stations along the Mississippi and captured what was going down and across it. Took it down river to a textile plant that wasn't getting any. Like someone said the lumber primarily takes care of itself. I found a couple of lumber mills that had cargo going to a nearby town. I just laid rails from the mill town to the destination town and helped it along. Since you can build disconnected track just cherry pick the good areas until you get enough money to join your rails together.
The 5000 miles of rail was more difficult as I tracked everywhere good. I had to double track to get the 5000 miles in 10 yrs.
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why was it necessary to put LARGE stations along the Mississippi to intercept the cotton? I thought I read elsewhere that the size of the station does not impact the 'strength' of the attraction.
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I didn't want to wait to see if it would collect toward the station. And I watched it move aside my first medium station's covered area. Also someone did tests on demand which showed when you use a custom or single cargo demand on your trains it doesn't create a demand sink (nor change the price) at the station. Therefore the cargo will not flow to the station as if it were a textile mill. This does have an advantage as that the price is still low at the station so you get more money when you haul it.
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Thank-you! This explains a lot.
So the mere existence of a station does not impact the flow, and neither do custom or single cargo trains originating at the station.
And the station covered area works on a flow in a similar way that the covered area worked on industries in RT2.
So if I put a large station in the flow from those cotton farms in mid-Mississippi, I should generate a good supply of cotton. I would then need to ensure a good demand by connecting to (and if necessary building) ports and textile mills.
Bit by bit, I'm figuring this out. As an RT2 veteran there's a lot to unlearn, but I think it will be worth it. At first I was disappointed with the lack of a good manual, but learning as I go, especially through this forum, is kind of fun, despite the frustrations.
I certainly agree with the advice to do lots of experimenting before attempting any serious games.
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admittedly, i started this thread thinking everyone else thought this was an easy scenario and i was just a dummy for having trouble with it. really, i expected maybe one response so i'm glad it has generated some discussion of the game. like you Malcolm, i learned alot! thanks all!!
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All the threads on cargo lead me to believe it is a complex subject which is different in each scenario and is playable in more than one way.
If it was easy it would be boring & it aint that.
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Do a search for a previous Cotton topic I started back around the end of October when the game was released. I was having the same trouble, this scenario beat me a few times before I finally figured out how to run it. The experience from this allowed me to totally clobber the Australian wool scenario. Someone pointed out that you want to get some profitable runs going in the early game; once you've expanded, the money will be pouring in on a regular basis, which allows you to build the rest of the network. Look to the east of Jackson City for a bunch of cotton farms close together; build a large station that encompasses them and run it down the hill to Jackson City; clothing makes a good profit on the return trip. My mistake was trying to build from Memphis to Tupelo right away, which didn't show enough early profit. Don't worry about the competition; with some planning, you can merge them in later on.
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'My mistake was trying to build from Memphis to Tupelo right away, which didn't show enough early profit.'
This is first and only scenario I have played and this is exactly what I tried. I've only played about 4 hours so straighten me out if I got this all wrong.
I put two small stations between Memphis and Tupelo to pick up cotton since there seemed to be demand in Memphis for cotton. Let's call them Memphis Crossing and Tupelo Crossing.
I then created route to go from Tupelo Crossing to Memphis Crossing to Memphis and then Tupelo. Figured I'd pick up cotton from plantations and then bring back goods to Tupelo.
But simulation will not pick up cotton from Tupelo Crossing since there was not a positive price difference between Tupelo Crossing and Memphis Crossing.
I finally had to create two trains to get cotton to Memphis.
Any plantation owner around Tupelo Crossing can see there is demand in Memphis and ship to Memphis. Does the plantation owner care that the railroad stops at Memphis Crossing? I wouldn't think so.
Seems like I have to have one train for every raw material staging area? I gotta be doing something wrong.
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Quote: But simulation will not pick up cotton from Tupelo Crossing since there was not a positive price difference between Tupelo Crossing and Memphis Crossing.

I don't think that's your problem. I'd bet that you're not picking up cotton at Tupelo Crossing because there isn't any there to pick up. Look at the station and see if there's a load or more of cotton there.
However, if there is cotton there, then it should load and in my experience if there's a profit to be made in the TC-Memphis haul then TC->MC->Memphis haul will also work (be profitable). But you can test it easily: just create an additional train that's direct. If it runs, but the one with the intermediate stop doesn't then that was the problem--that's not what I'd expect (but RT3 still can do things I don't expect! )
Generally, you're better off to not try to pick up resources where they're generated (farm, mine, etc). But this scenario can be an exception to that rule because there are so many cotton plantations on the map. As described earlier in the thread you need to put your station near a cluster of plantations that aren't already streaming cotton to somewhere near them or you can put the station in a stream and snag some of it as it goes by. The key thing to remember is that your station does NOT create a big demand for the cotton so it won't come to the station just because you put one nearby.

[bombardiere]

This was a hard scenario for me. Difficult, but not in a good way.

I played with 1.05, so shipping at loss was not an option for me.

I had four attempts at Hard difficult level. Three I did start Memphis - Tupelo - Jackson City area, but I had not enough cargo to generate steady revenue. There was too much cotton around so it saturated the industry and it was not profitable. Birmingham was so far away, that I needed multiple bonds and as I was making profit, my credit rating sunk. So I was permanently in red and I could not continue,

The fourth attempt was slightly better. I located two cities which were close by and had good cargo / industry seed. Columbus and Charlotte in the East. Very soon I was making good profit and I was able to connect Greensboro - Atlanta - Birmingham. Because the runs were long, my trains were making good money and after that I was able to do fast progress towards Memphis and Jacksonville. However, because I was located in the East, I did not carry cotton early at the game and by end of fifteen years I had carried only 70 cotton out of the required 100. So another failure. Even thought I had plenty of Lumber, I did not achieve Bronze.

So with fifth attempt I went to medium difficulty and I added two AI companies to generate some demand. In the end the AIs established at the far ends of the map, so those were not any use for me.

I went back to Memphis - Jackson city to get cotton early on. Tupelo was my third connection and then I went to Huntsville instead of Birmingham. Either this was a right move, or my seed was better, or the train income was better in Medium, but with this I was able to make enough profit to issues some bonds and head to Birmingham. I set up a Lumber Mill at Birmingham so that I could meet Lumber Cargo condition.

After this it was easy sailing towards Atlanta and Macon. However I went to Tallahassee instead of Jacksonville, because the Gulf coast had few Lumber Mills and a textile Mill without any cotton fields near by. So that I could actually carry on some cotton cargo.

This time I was having high train income, so last five years I just bought new trains and sent those at cotton runs without bothering to optimise the route. If you could spot any cotton demand, I just bought a new engine, instead of checking if any existing was available. There was enough money to start a building spree so I was busy laying new track. However I did not issue new bonds anymore, so my track total after 15 years was 3000 miles. I would have needed 5000 miles for gold.

With extra trains I achieve Cotton and Lumber requirements, so I got Silver. I had 2500 K of bonds is I could have issue more to aim at 5000 miles.

So this is doable scenario, but the industry map did not make it fun. Too much cotton and too many textile mills. And these were next to each other, so I was not able to make good cargo runs. As this was an early date scenario, it meant that the industry options were limited. So there were some profitable cargoes available, but mainly end product as the seeded industry was close to raw material. And there was plenty of raw material available, so I felt that the industry map was over saturated.

[Gumboots]

...or the train income was better in Medium...

That's one of several advantages you get as difficulty level decreases.

[RulerofRails]

So this is doable scenario, but the industry map did not make it fun. Too much cotton and too many textile mills. And these were next to each other, so I was not able to make good cargo runs. As this was an early date scenario, it meant that the industry options were limited. So there were some profitable cargoes available, but mainly end product as the seeded industry was close to raw material. And there was plenty of raw material available, so I felt that the industry map was over saturated.

Yes, for whatever reason some of the PopTop maps don't have great economies (they did a great job with some maps such as Italy). Coming from RTII, I think they didn't fully understand the significance of EVERY industry on the map in RT3. In RTII unused industry is just eye-candy. There could be a thousand farms/industries around but only if connected (within a station's radius) would they have any impact on gameplay (even then, extra resources could just be left to "rot away"). Thankfully, a lot of the custom maps have good economies. One of the main things being to have a separation between any cities with a particular industry in them (here the Textile Mill).

Generally I like to avoid building stations that don't connect a city. It gives me a cleaner network. It's a personal choice. Anyway, on maps like this that have a sub-par economic setup and call for the hauling of resources, I will seriously consider some countryside stations that catch Cotton. A good place for such stations is by the river.

Re-hauling is a feature of this game. Depending on who you ask, where the line for "cheating" is varies. Obviously I consider placing a Large Station right next to an industry (Textile Mill) and another as far as possible away while still covering the stack of Cotton at the mill, and running a train between them to be a "cheat." But, if for example I connect Memphis to Chattanooga, I have no qualms about hauling the Cotton stack at the Memphis mill/s to the Chattanooga ones. The point being here that if the Cotton demand is getting swamped along the Mississippi, look to haul the Cotton from the mills there elsewhere (anywhere which doesn't have a good supply of Cotton). Places I would look are New Orleans, the Carolinas (the east of the map) and Florida (there were no states back in 1835).

Naturally, if you haul all the Cotton you can to one of these places it will also get swamped and demand there will tank. There are two options here, wait for the demand to tank far enough and then haul to a location even further away, or the more "ethical" approach: buy up the main Mill (closest to the station) and then build a couple more mills there (all on the same economic square). Only supply as much as can be consumed (maybe a little less) to keep the demand there high, skimming the stack of some of the mills along the Mississippi. Bear in mind that this setup wont be good ROI on the industries, but some of that should be made up from the decent profit available from hauling finished products away.

Maybe this gives you some ideas, but I completely agree that these type of maps (sub-par economy) aren't as enjoyable to play.

[bombardiere]

I think I am done with this map. As you said, there are so much better user made maps available.

I am playing Pop Top's original scenarios to get the feel of the game. To see how it was and to see what could be improved. This is a kind of fresh start for me.

Yes, for whatever reason some of the PopTop maps don't have great economies (they did a great job with some maps such as Italy). Coming from RTII, I think they didn't fully understand the significance of EVERY industry on the map in RT3. In RTII unused industry is just eye-candy. There could be a thousand farms/industries around but only if connected (within a station's radius) would they have any impact on gameplay (even then, extra resources could just be left to "rot away"). Thankfully, a lot of the custom maps have good economies. One of the main things being to have a separation between any cities with a particular industry in them (here the Textile Mill).

It worth of noting that what a huge difference "floating cargo" makes comparing to RT2. I have not been all the times happy about the moving cargo, but it makes a play interesting.

I often place industry in cargo choke points. Usually near rivers. In this way I can avoid bothersome raw material gathering. Raw material runs used to be a big thing in RT2, but for me it is often a sideshow in RT3.

Yes, I guess this moving cargo makes the game easier, but it could be said that it simulates real life in this way. I do not want to see other transport methods in train game. Those are there, but that is for Transport Tycoon game. Only thing I hope that the cargo would rot easier. After 20-30 game years, my cargo map often look very black. I do not think Pop Top balanced the game for long term scenarios.

[AT41B]

If you haven't already played it, I think you would enjoy playing "Isle of Norso". it is a 1.06 map. it will take a play through before you can appreciate how well the author put it together. I play it over and over, and I enjoy it each time.

[Cliff]

... I completely agree that these type of maps (sub-par economy) aren't as enjoyable to play.

Well, I just finished this map just for the hell of it. Couple of false starts -- once I bought a lumber mill which did middling/OK the 1st & 2nd years, but couldn't generate enough cash to launch a rail network (and you had only 15 years to meet the goals). Once I started hauling cotton/clothing, but that was a bust. Finally, after studying the world map, I realized that I could haul lumber at a very good profit from Albany, Ga. to Tallahassee, Fla. -- about $600K the first year, without taking out a bond. So then it was a fairly rapid expansion north to Atlanta and east to Jacksonville.

So, anyway, there are a couple of scripted events ("Invention of the Sewing Machine" is one) that cause the textile economy to sky-rocket. You could ship a train full of clothes to practically every new station at $300K-$500K per trainload. Hauling 50 lumber & 100 cotton was pretty much accomplished by running full "mixed-cargo" trains.

Was finally able to max out 5% bonds during a rare "Boom Times" period at about the 10th year; started issuing stock at about the 8th year. Laying 5,000 miles of track was the last goal, and when completed nearly the entire map was covered with rails.