I've been thinking about this one. From my perspective it's a map that ideally suited to train rides. The scenery is very well done, and the geology of the area in question is interesting. So, as a virtual tour of the region for people who have never been there, this map has a lot of appeal. I'd be inclined to play to that strength, and I'd do that by changing the selection of locomotives available.
If you're playing steam, at the moment the Black 5 is the only logical choice for the 1930's. Although it makes the most sense in terms of return on investment, it's not much good for train rides. The mesh bears no resemblance to a Black 5, and the skinning is very crude. The available selection also heavily emphasises other UK and Euro locomotives. None of these would ever have been anywhere near this region of the world, and IMO they don't really suit the map. Some of them are pretty crude too.
The Northern is a good choice. For another default locomotive that would suit the map, the H10 Mikado is an obvious option. Apart from that, how about including some of the third party locos? These are freely available. Anyone who doesn't already have them will probably enjoy them anyway, so just point them at the downloads page. It's an eye candy map, so give it some extra eye candy. WP&P's N&W trio are good ol' Murrican grunters and look the part. The J class is ideally suited for the later years when passenger traffic gets going. There's also the Berkshire, which is good for mixed consists.
Some of the strategy tips that are given with the beta are quite honestly only going to hold less experienced players back. For a start, up until the middle of 1939 this is a freight hauling game. Passengers are mostly irrelevant. You'll pick up a few loads here and there, but they're not worth paying attention to. Dining cars will, in general, only cost you money by burning extra fuel and taking up space that could have been taken by freight.
While hotel and restaurant profits really get moving in mid to late 1939, before then their profits are negligible no matter how many of the things you build. That means you're better off not building them at all. Putting them at every station before mid 1939 will chew up a lot of cash that could have been put into expansion, and expansion is worth a lot more. By the middle of 1939 you should have a network that is big enough to start generating useful passenger traffic, and you should have taken enough upgrades to really get passenger production moving. This is when you want to be throwing hotels and restaurants around everywhere, starting with any major hub points on your network.
The same applies to post offices. In the early years I can't see them being a useful asset. You can start chucking them around later if you want to, although even then I have my doubts about how much good they will do. I suspect they'll be a break even proposition on this map. In the early years there is hardly any mail anyway, and in later years you want to be hauling as many passengers as possible.
The best way to tackle this map is to get all the major towns and major scenic sites hooked up as fast as you can. That means St. George, Witmore, Freedonia, Jacob Lake, Piute Basin, Glendale, Panguitch and Cedar City for towns, and Bryce Canyon, Grand Staircase, North Rim and Zion Canyon for major scenic sites. After you have those hooked up, along with any minor sites that are on the route anyway, start hooking up the rest of the scenic sites.
Take all the tour, advertising, whatever upgrades that are offered, regardless of whether you have the cash to pay for them or not. If you don't have the cash your company cash will go into the red temporarily, but you'll still have the upgrade. This is going to be worth it. There is plenty of freight traffic around, so your company cash will be back in the black soon anyway.
Use bonds heavily once the UP subsidy ends and the interest rate starts coming down. Do not pay them back as soon as you can. The whole point of bonds is to use the money for expansion, so just keep expanding. You can pay them back later when there is nowhere left to expand to.
to all who beta tested Canyon Lands. I wrote down a full page of your comments and suggestions. Extremely helpful to me. I hope to finish the edits this week-end and then test the version for the next couple of weeks.
) and ran one and one (freight/express) to them.