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The State of Pennsylvania, and More, MEGALOMANIAC

This 1:1 (24x24km) megalomaniac map covers one of American railroading's most important regions, stretching from Lake Erie to the Chesapeake Bay. I've done my best to include Pennsylvania's most important cities, with a guest cast of various important cities on its periphery as far South as Washington DC and as far North as Niagara Falls. Pennsylvania is a scenic state with gorgeous terrain, and I have done my best to do it justice with thorough landscaping and a handful of scenic farmscapes.


This map begins in 1850, at which point the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) railroad was already operational from 1830, along with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) which ran its first trains in 1849. You're already behind schedule, but that shouldn't stop you from trying.

The state of Pennsylvania was one of America's industrial powerhouses, criss-crossed by dozens of railroads and bookended by the major cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The two most important railroads in this region are also two of America's most famous of all time, but there are many more; the Lehigh Valley, Reading, Pittsburgh & Lake Erie, and so many more (one can find vehicles and/or skins for many of these companies in the workshop). The various works of the Lehigh and Monongahela valleys fueled American growth for a century-- may they fuel yours in game even longer.

Between the factories though, separating the industrial corridors, stand the Appalachian mountains and miles upon miles of farm country. While most of the farms on the map are modest in their landscaped scale, a large agricultural zone was carved out in the plains just East of Lancaster. The mountains make for some of America's toughest terrain for railroading, and at the scale of this map, unfortunately a lot of your ability to wind through is lost. Perhaps a 1:2 narrowed down would have been preferable, but I have sunk far too much time into this not to release it. You will have to tunnel and it will be expensive. Even when I play tested this map with a map of the railroad's route on a second screen, following it perfectly was seldom possible-- one will have to settle for "yeah that looks about right" from time to time.



Map Size: Megalomaniac 24x24km (enable experimental size!)
Towns: 38
Industries: 81
Navigable waters: Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, Lake Erie, Seneca Lake, and Cayuga Lake. The Delaware River is navigable to Philadelphia.

Many but not all roads are hand laid. To compensate for the B&O already having trains to Cumberland by the time of the game's start, a rough approximation of their route is already drawn with a road from Martinsburg for you to parallel or delete and replace with tracks. Cities were typically given a few of their major roads and then plopped, to provide them with a grid somewhat reminiscent of real life despite the scale. See photos for examples. All landscaping done by hand. Most industries were hand placed for thematic reasons; Connelsville for example has coal, while Pittsburgh has a steel mill. I was also careful to make sure that both the Eastern and Western sides of the Appalachians had at least one complete supply chain for all final products.

Note: The Ohio, Monongahela, Allegheny, and Susquehanna rivers are all above sea level. I used roads with water texture on them to model all four rivers rather than dredge them and create horrible cliffs (even more horrible cliffs, in the case of Pittsburgh). These roads which are by default set to player owned and bus only, so they should never be used or modified by the AI. Treat them accordingly!

You can and should cross the mountains, but it will be an expensive affair. During play testing I found it most economical to build systems on either side first to finance the inevitable tunneling you will need to do due to the scaling of the terrain-- those tight curves from real life are not always possible here (sadly including horseshoe curve, unless someone better than I with tracks can manage it). I will also point out that at this scale, not every city's grid was really able to be done justice. Some, like Washington DC and Philadelphia, turned out quite well. Others, like Pittsburgh, really did not. I gave Pittsburgh the Cathedral of Learning and Philadelphia and row of townhouses for thematic purposes (note: these townhouses have a country road under them to prevent the AI building on them. They have a population of 5). Buffalo's train station is a dependency (accidentally, turned on by mistake during mapmaking) but it's all the better as Buffalo is on this map. Baltimore and Philadelphia also both have unique train stations available in the workshop I would recommend.


This map should not be that difficult to turn a profit on. There are multiple chains of cities laid out in a linear fashion. There is also a Lake Erie shipping zone intended to serve as an early game profitability crutch when one is dealing with horse carts, and to incentivize steamboat shipping on the Great Lake.