New Map: Australian National

[djf01]

It's been a while, but here is my latest map: Australian National.

Set in the period 1991 - 2011, it's a model of Australia's interstate rail network.  It starts as an operators map, but you need to make it profitable, then expand to win the medals.

No mail or passengers, you have to do it with low margin cargos.  Concentrate on the cross continent freight runs with the starting fast diesels.  Autos -> Perth are the most profitable.  But gauge restrictions make this impossible for the first few years.

Make use of any mail that appears at startup. 

I needed to pull all sorts of tricks to get this to work.  Line in RT2, running a second load of AUTOS into a different station in the same city gets pretty much the same as the first load, but only half as much if run into the same station.

Anyway, I found this a really satisfying and challenging map.

Australian_National_V0.91.zip

[djf01]

It's been a while, but here is my latest map: Australian National.

Set in the period 1991 - 2011, it's a model of Australia's interstate rail network.  It starts as an operators map, but you need to make it profitable, then expand to win the medals.

No mail or passengers, you have to do it with low margin cargos.  Concentrate on the cross continent freight runs with the starting fast diesels.  Autos -> Perth are the most profitable.  But gauge restrictions make this impossible for the first few years.

Make use of any mail that appears at startup. 

I needed to pull all sorts of tricks to get this to work.  Line in RT2, running a second load of AUTOS into a different station in the same city gets pretty much the same as the first load, but only half as much if run into the same station.

Anyway, I found this a really satisfying and challenging map.

[MaglevForever]

I love this map. A quality freight-hauling map in the late 20th century. Many thanks to the author! Strategic possibilities and goals are good.. I also like the geography better than other  Australia maps I have tried. The mountains there are modest in reality. On this map most engines are usable on routes that climb the Great Dividing Range not just those with an ocean of grunt. No need to place stations "on top of the cliff."

 

My attention was drawn to this map because I was looking for maps that use AI with pre-built electric track and engines. It turns out that they behave fairly well here. Sometimes they will get stuck when non-electric routes are available thanks to your connections, but most of the time they behave, unlike on the US Crossroads map which I gave up on trying to fix. I didn't ask for permission to upload maps to the Downloads section as I haven't made any maps, but I would vote to put this one up there so more people can enjoy it.

[jeffryfisher]

Just downloaded the zip, but the file has zero bytes. Is the OP from 2009 mangled? Is the original zip file still in the system somewhere?

 

[MaglevForever]

What is it with attachments disappearing? I hope whatever caused this to happen has been fixed.

 

Here's the map file. If there was a readme, I'm sorry. I didn't find the original zip file.

Australian National V0.91.zip

Edited October 24, 2016 by MaglevForever

[jeffryfisher]

17 hours ago, MaglevForever said:

What is it with attachments disappearing?

The web site has been moved a few times over the years, breaking tons of old links in threads like this one from 2009 (just try to follow any link from one old message to another old thread). The files are probably still out there somewhere, but the link code is no longer valid. Still, we're lucky to have any archives at all.

Thanks for the upload.