Marsden

I double track one block at a time but I can't remember ever laying the line like this. I don't suppose this works in an "all track must connect" scenario.

As an addenda, before you do this buy as much of your company's stock as you can afford, then buy back all of the stock until you own it all. You might have only 3,000 shares and no starting money but then get the 1,600k and you're all set to go. All this was done on pause, of course. Then have fun buying up as much stock as you can from the other three companies and you should be fine. One time I had 3,000 shares of my railroad and with the 1,600k and any extra profits I had my stock split 30 to 1!

Hi, hope I'm not butting in on a private conversation on a public forum, but I understand the welfare situation pretty well as I work for a gov't agency that hands out over 50 million checks every month. Sadly, what happens is a person that works and tries very hard to support themselves doesn't qualify for any help because they make too much, but a person that doesn't (can't or won't) work qualifies for help and can get it. Then they tax that working person to pay for it. It's becoming not worth it to work, and less people are, which causes unrest with those that do. Additionally, the determination of certain classes of people to defraud everything they can out of the government is bad. Gwizz is right on about the people moving into the housing destroying it right after it's given to them. Meanwhile, other people in need are waiting for years. I know my a highter up person in my agency stated that for every dollar spent on investigation of fraud they could save eight, but they aren't able to budget that dollar because of the huge amount of work with new claims every day. Everyone has a reason why they need help, no one can help themselves and if they do they're taxed to oblivion. It's very disturbing. I'm fearful of the next president because it looks like no matter who it might be, they are going to tax the weak economy into failure because they are the party that the welfare receiving support. Sorry to be so pessimistic but this is a depressing topic for me. I don't want to deny help to someone, but I also don't want to support their laziness because they feel like the world owes them everything.

Thanks, Gwizz, I knew it worked some way.

Sorry, but like I said, I can't do that. I know it's supposed to happen but I've never been able to have my trains pass through, one of them always waits.

I just hate it when the lumber camp I am depending on or something disappears even though I'm depending on and it disappears. This is one of the reasons I try to buy as many of the industries as possible, but in some scenarios you can't buy the industry, then good luck, because it doesn't matter if you're servicing them or not.

I'm sorry, I can't remember the town names, but there is usually a town just north on the far west side of the map that has 1 or 2 Aluminum mills, and then just a bit further north there's usually about 4 bauxite mines in range of a big station. I go for cheaper engines usually and try to haul lots of aluminum. There's usually a canery on the line to the south, I send half there and half to a tool shop that is usually down the line heading for the coast. I don't get much for the goods, but they help defer the fuel costs, but the place I make my money is buying the mills and canery and what ever else I'm servicing. A well supplied Al Mill can turn a 100k profit easy. Add in the wool farms and the Textile mills and there you go.

One advantage could be to devalue the railroad to make a future merger less expensive. If the railroad that you want has a lot of cash, you can assume ownership and have it buy back it's own stock to use up it's funds, then let it go for a little bit and when the artificially high stock price drops in a few months you can buy it up much cheaper. If you really want to get the value down, you can retire all of their trains. Just make sure you keep it on pause while you do this or your own railroad will go to heck while you are away. You can safely switch back and forth on pause.

:O It's not strictly an overpass in the rules, but the trains are supposed to pass through each other, but maybe that's why I could never get that to work, I don't have 3

It can be tricky. I try to keep the trains that start out north to service Liverpool and the rest I start with the town on the south (Plymouth ??? I can't remember) coast and then to Oxford. Don't forget Liverpool makes troops so you can set a train to pick up a car of troops and go to a way point and turn around and deliver the same troops and it counts. A good source for the food is the cattle farms in the center and the slaughterhouse near Birmingham. Try to get your ammunition from the ports rather that hauling chemicals and aluminium to the plants, if you can stop to 2 ports that should satisfy what you need. It's actually been about a month or so since I looked at this particular scenario, so sorry if this is sparse on details. I remember some frustration at not being able to get the one fast loco that starts in the southeast out of that corner because it takes 3 years to get enough track to repair the bombed parts to get it free. Also, don't bother with London, you really don't need it and it requires too much repairs. BTW, always fix the track right by Liverpool right away. And always have your track set to double, it doesn't take any more resources and you can slightly increase capacity in some areas.

Sorry, barney. I can't seem to get that to work myself. You're supposed to lay the track at an angle, not perpendicular, to allow both trains to run through the same cell without stopping.

;D It's not too late, I think I've played both campaigns through about 5 or 6 times each, although not in a row. I can't explain it, but there's something about the campaigns I enjoy more than the stand alones even though the campaign is really just a series of stand alones really. No amount of failure or success actually affects the next map, that's why I say they're stand alones. Now, if you needed to meet your goals by a certain date and then went to the next scenario with only the amount of your severance bonus from the last scenario, that would be a campaign.

The blue one is the Mallard, and it's fuel is expesive. I'm just the opposite and drop the steamers asap. But that's one of the nice things about the game, you can pick what you want. Do you like that expensive steamer that comes out in 1999(?) ? I found that never to be profitable.

How would one get the gold for the India map, "Crumpets or Crossaints". You need to be the only surviving railroad, but I can't figure out how to beat either of them, especially the Indian national, the chairman starts with 40% holdings! Also, does any one notice the huge difference in the Alps between Brenner pass and When Walls Come Down? I just noticed last time I played this, I usually built through Slovenia to avoid the Alps to get to Venice, but if you just go south of Munich through Austria and follow the "path" through the mountains, you wont have a grade in the red! I still didn't use it actually, as I just wanted the connection to get the gold.

It's not just the human mind in this case, although that is a good point, but historically the US did fear invasion of Alaska by Japan and moving the same car of troops back and forth probably wouldn't add to security like actually bringing additional troops from the contiguous states to reinforce Alaska. But, I'm reading too much into it, probably.