I elected to start in 1920 and get the railroad built before the great crash of '29 I managed to connect Fitchburg and Bellows Falls VT in eight years, but it took all of the 25 years to win gold on medium. I elected to build service tracks and it is a major job to schedule your trains to visit them in regular order. It is necessary in order to keep up your express speed to get the extra points needed to win. You can not build any water tanks or lubritoriums between cities or your trains will make undesired stops. This is the first time I have used service tracks and despite the extra cost and effort they did the trick. Speed is also hampered by the many steep grades and curves one has to build in this hilly terrain. I also elected to use steam power (sorry Lama) to pull my trains. I will go to my grave, a steam man! With carefull planning I managed to keep my average express speed well above 40 thoughout the game.
I had to wait about five or six years into the game to begin passenger service because there was not enough passengers to fool with for awhile.
The map is beautiful of course, like all of Lama's maps. The only gripe I have is that the areas around Fitchburg and Bellows Falls are too hilly to get a decent gradient of track into those places. A little smoothing out would be in order :D
This is an entertaining scenario and I recommend it highly
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