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The Chesapeake & Ohio

From humble beginnings in the rolling foothills of southern Virginia, expand an empire westward across the rugged Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains toward the Ohio River and the industrial heartland. The nation's factories will soon hunger for Appalachian coal, and a handfull of railroads will stand poised to capitalize on the opportunity. Leverage your railroad engineering skill and motive power knowledge as you set the course for this history-steeped enterprise!
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The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway was a prominent force in eastern American railroading throughout much of the 20th century. Beginning as a small-time agricultural hauler in rural southern Virginia, the line would eventually span from the Mid-Atlantic to the Great Lakes, in time gaining a reputation as one of the country’s foremost movers of coal. Piercing through the Blue Ridge and Alleghany Mountains, the C&O’s many branches tapped rich bituminous veins along its route to the Ohio River. The output from these mines would soon fire the furnaces of American industry—first by way of coastal ports, and later via the C&O’s expansive network into the manufacturing heartland of the Upper Midwest.

In this scenario you will be faced with the task of building up your own eastern railroad empire. Standing in the shoes of Collis P. Huntington, you will be charged with growing your road from a quaint regional carrier into a titan of the 20th century. Along the way, you will need to exercise skill and judgement in surveying the most feasible routes, identifying the best suited locomotives, and managing your company’s bottom line to achieve your objectives.


This scenario has been heavily customized on several fronts with the aim of encouraging a more realistic approach to the game and placing greater emphasis on player decisions regarding route design and equipment choices. Factors which the vanilla game chooses to either ignore or minimize, such as the impacts of track curvature and gradient, have been adjusted sufficiently to require some consideration when designing your routes. A short, steep branch to reach an industry might be feasible, but not if you’re planning on full-length loaded trains making the climb. Alternately, you could construct a longer route hugging the natural contours of the land—typically a pricier option up front, but one which could pay dividends over the decades if it means faster train speeds.

In addition to the global changes above, the properties of each piece of rolling stock in the game have been extensively customized with a similar goal: Choosing the right locomotive for the job should be at once intuitive and rational. A large locomotive with small driving wheels should be the natural choice for heavy freight trains, while a high-drivered 4-4-0 should be poorly suited to handing more than a few light cars on a significant grade. From a gameplay standpoint, consideration has been given to ensuring that every locomotive has an appropriate role to play, though some may be more versatile than others.

• Both train speeds and the passage of time are somewhat slower than in the vanilla game. The objective is to shift the focus away from frantic clicking and building and encourage players to think through their approach to designing the best possible system to meet the scenario’s goals.
  
  
• The map has been extensively customized, including changes to many cities and creation of several more from scratch to support the scenario. Industries have been thoroughly overhauled to provide a more realistic resource distribution versus the random dispersal in the original game without damaging gameplay. Most rural industries have also been entirely reconfigured to create a more realistic and natural-looking landscape.
  
  
• The scenario and its objectives are roughly based on the history of the actual Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, including route development and market growth. I’ve aimed to balance historical accuracy with gameplay wherever possible, so there are concessions on both fronts, but in my playthroughs I’ve been quite satisfied with the overall pacing and moderate degree of challenge (at least given my personal playstyle).
  
  
• The scenario runs from 1836 to 1930 and is based around the game’s default ‘100-year’ mode. Given the adjustments to game speed described above, the scenario takes quite a bit of time—technically doable in one very long sitting (as this is how I had to repeatedly test it), though probably not recommended.

For additional pointers on route design and locomotive selection, please see the pinned post 'Helpful Tips' on the discussions tab.