Western fruit express

[ishaybas]

Hi Orange,

When did you achieve gold and in which difficulty level?

[Orange46]

I don't remember, but as I said above, I set the gold 5 years later than the year I achieved it. I always play on the highest level of difficulty, which is probably expert, when designing scenarios. I think I gave the extra 5 years because the last test went much better than some of my earlier ones, which usually happens with repeated playing, and I really wanted people to finish the scenario.

[RulerofRails]

I set the gold 5 years later than the year I achieved it.

Um, this puzzles me. This map seems quite open ended with a start date range from 1880-1970, and medals report "at end of 2010." People report medalling after 40, 50, 60 years, I assume using the default starting date of 1900? So, should this be qualified that when starting in 1970 it took you 35 years to medal?

I do find it interesting that people seem to go the express route on the start here. That wasn't very interesting to me, so after numerous attempts at freight starts (without using countryside stations), I settled on one I liked. A Cincinnati-Louisville-Evansville-Nashville line, all large stations without bridges. The cargo being hauled was a little Logs from north Michigan (may not be on every seed) and Milk. Please note I didn't ignore the express traffic building Hotels before expansion.

The key with any non-bond expansion is not so much what connections you start with, but having an affordable, profitable option lined for your first few expansions. Here this was Memphis, then Little Rock (Dairy Processor), then onto Dallas for Oil. I purposely underhauled to keep prices at source lower, esp. for Oil. Once the wheels were spinning, I kept the freight theme and went after the connections that would get freight produced, for example out to Omaha and beyond for Livestock, Birmingham-Atlanta for Clothing and by extension to Jacksonville for Diesel, then going after Iron in Toronto and Quebec, and then adding the run to New York via Pittsburgh and on to Bangor for Iron for the Pittsburgh mill. Focus on freight (no doubt at the expense of some profit) meant that I never connected to some cities even if they were close to my line, for example I never connected to Indianapolis, Springfield or Lansing.

Without giving spoilers, once taxes kick in if you are making $5+M profit per year then as an approximation the tax system lets you keep on average $3+M to go towards CBV. So essentially, this means the medal can come within 20 years of taxes kicking in (my run was 1925). In terms of the haulage constraints, the western mountains are a bit tough to handle without tunnels before the H10 (made my first Bauxite deliveries {special case for using countryside stations} with Pacifics!) and production and haulage takes some time (estimate 5 years after Aluminum Mills seed when not using tunnels and H10 hasn't showed up). So when starting super early there may be a little waiting, but otherwise your path is pretty much set.

[RulerofRails]

I tried a 1970 start. Gold medal at the end of 1996, with the same start except left off the Cincinnati connection so that I could afford a train, didn't take long to add the connection though (by the end of the first year).

Used the F3 until it was no longer available, then switched to the USA 103. Only exceptions were a pair of GP7s, a DD40AX and FP45 for for the western mountains and long hauls. Express revenues were just over half what I saw in the 1900 run. The starting years were noticeably slower, but Plastic and the tax system limited the damage. I was actually a little surprised that the attempt was within a couple of years.

Here's a pic of how I routed the mountains. Probably one of the more sensible routes without using tunnels.

[low_grade]

Played this one that you mentioned. Perhaps I didn't self-challenge enough, ran many years only stopping in June to build with the cash on hand, so that I didn't get into the red in January. Atlanta-Birmingham-Memphis, then Evansville, StL... Main theme was reaching resources and sending them to industries, cash just piled up the whole time. Went electric in 1904 and never looked back, utilizing the EP-2 for the first time perhaps even eventually. Easy gold on Expert 1931, start date 1900. A couple of big tunnels through southern Cal and again up to Oregon, lazy, but when you've $12M laying around...

I appreciate the concepts he's developing, and he eventually got it right with Crystal Cotton, once it was polished. +200% production giving heavy input streams, but great distances to industries. I never got cheese going, but meat, goods, steel, autos, ammo, diesel, alcohol, and from the beginning textiles all developed production chains in my play. Had the highest stack I've ever seen on Lubbock, 93.8 loads on one cell, mostly oil. I'd stopped working on efficiency and profits years ago, so I didn't add locos to haul to Jacksonville and Tampa where a couple refineries were undersupplied...

Saw that it was going to be easy early on, and relaxed. With tightened play, 1925 probably within reach. 1920 start would be even easier with more resources and engines available.