"The railroads are about to make a big comeback in the world."
Eric Flint, 1632.
The railroads will be the steel backbone of the inter-modal rail/water transportation system of the United States of Europe (USE). The first rail line will provide a link for Grantville into the existing road-and-river transportation network and to the capitol in Magdeburg. The tracks will then spread across the State of Thuringia-Franconia (SoTF), more tightly connecting its important towns and providing them with easier access to the rivers of Elbe, Weser and Main.
Railroads, together with improvements of other infrastructure, will create a system capable of real mass transportation. They will reduce transportation times from weeks or months to days, and will vastly improve the reliability of the transportation system. At the same time, they will drive the cost of transport down, thus allowing vendors to produce for a greater market. Finally, railroads act as a classical military "force multiplier," by improving the speed at which armies and their supplies can move.
We don't have enough oil to fuel lots of cars with internal combustion engines. Granted, there are oil wells near Wietze, but it will take much time and effort to develop them. In the first few years, only some 150-200 barrels a day are expected, and that's definitely not going to impress a Texas oil tycoon. Moreover, even if we had the fuel, we would still need to upgrade the highways. In most parts of the USE, the roads, outside the immediate vicinity of towns and cities, are unfit for horse-drawn carts, let alone motor traffic.
Rivers might be an alternative for transport in many parts of Europe, but not for Grantville. The nearest river is the Saale, which runs north, past Saalfeld, Rudolstadt, Jena, Naumburg, and Halle, and empties into the Elbe (the junction is 18 miles upstream of Magdeburg, the USE capitol). Unfortunately, the Saale cannot meet our rising demands for transport. Upriver from Naumburg, transport with barges is almost impossible because the Saale is small and shallow. It is a nice trout stream, not a navigable river. Even rafting has to wait for snow melt for enough water. The Saale river can be improved to a certain degree, but the process would be laborious, costly and time-consuming. Going in any direction other than straight north with waterways from Grantville is absolutely impossible anyway.
Thus, railroad is not the best, but rather the only, solution to Grantville's high volume transportation needs. The first rail line will provide a link for Grantville into the existing road-and-river transportation network, and in particular to Magdeburg. The tracks will then be spread across the SoTF, more tightly connecting its important towns and providing them with easier access to the rivers of Elbe, Weser and Main. Ultimately, the railroads will be the steel backbone of the entire USE.
Starting the railroad infrastructure will be the first really big infrastructure project outside the immediate scope of Grantville. As most up-timers with appropriate knowledge are committed elsewhere, the project will rely heavily on, and be run mostly by, down-timers.
It will not be in the top priority list but will be ranked perhaps just after the military, very high in the secondary list. That's because we already have lots of most important projects to do. Projects like winning a war while retrofitting an army and simultaneously building our own army, navy and even our air force, just to name a few. But this project has great importance both in military and economic terms, so in the end it will get what's needed.
We should initially establish a railroad system comparable in capabilities to an 1870-vintage secondary railroad.
Our focus will be on transporting freight. Initially, we will make only a bit of additional money by transporting passengers. Average people from this time rarely leave their village or town if not forced to do so by war or other urgent circumstances. And the ticket for a train ride will be very expensive at first. So, at first the principal passengers will be up-timers, novelty-seeking nobility, very bold and rich businessmen and couriers.
There are two exceptions to this rule. First is transporting military units. But in most wars in which trains were used to transport soldiers, they were given only a modest increase in comfort in comparison to their horses. So, we too will consider them as freight, if a valuable and demanding one.
The second is public transport in urban areas. Industrialization tends to draw workers into the city; public transport becomes a tool to reduce the concentration of people. Commuting helps to keep prices in urban housing lower and allows for greater flexibility in working while maintaining a more stable private life.
So, when a railroad is already present, it should also be used to run cheap commuter trains, if possible. In major centers such as Grantville, Nürnberg and Magdeburg, tramlines which share the railroad track, either with the same gauge or in a double gauge track, might be established. If the big employers and the railroad company coordinate shift times and timetables properly, a few trains can transport a lot of people.
Railroad didn't start from zero in Grantville. A rail line went into Grantville for servicing the power station. Also, some rolling stock and even a kind of a small car workshop came with us through the Ring of Fire. Regrettably, there was not a single engine in Grantville.
Later, some forty miles of two feet rail track and other equipment were salvaged out of old abandoned "dog hole" mines around Grantville. But it was put into good use by the establishment of the 141th Railway Battalion (See Ernest Lutz and John Zeek, "Elisabeth," Grantville Gazette, Volume 4).
Most of our precious heavy rails from normal gauge track is going to become armor for the ironclads of Adm. Simpson's navy which is being built in Magdeburg, but we might be able to preserve at least some track for our railroading needs. We have to give up all double track, all unnecessary sidings and a lot of rails in the stations. Perhaps we can convince the Powers That Be to let us keep the switches intact, as switches are difficult to make and not so readily converted into armor. But we have to strip the whole system to a bare skeleton.
The overwhelming majority of all the stuff for the railroad will have to come from down-time. The use of up-time tools for building the high-tech items of the engines and perhaps the track is more effective in the end, anyway. Even with critical items we will rely on down-time manufacture as much as is technically and economically possible. These solutions might be less effective than up-timers are used to, but it's more sustainable in a long term perspective.
We expect that the railroads will be built and operated by corporations, that is, companies which raise at least some of their money by selling stock (ownership shares) to the public, and which offer the shareholders the legal protection of limited liability (that is, their potential losses are limited to their investment). The stocks will probably be sold primarily to governments (including those of towns and cities along the proposed route), wealthy merchants, and other companies (including the mutual fund, "Other People's Money," Grantville Gazette, Volume 3). The railroad corporations can also borrow money, either by obtaining loans from bankers or by selling bond issues (these pay interest until they mature). Bonds, like stocks, will tend to be purchased by governments and the like.
Governments can also provide indirect financial assistance by granting tax immunities and other benefits.
The traditional animosities between rival cities could work to our advantage, as they will bid against each other to sway the railroad company to run the line to one and not the other. We have to bundle our resources with others. For example, every major railroad needs a telegraph system for managing the line. We will have to team up with a company like AT&L (See Dave Freer, "Lineman for the Country," Ring of Fire) for telegraphs. To cater to the needs of our passengers we will license some peddlers to offer refreshments in trains and at the stations, as is done in India today.
We can improve the financial footing of our railroad by contracting, in advance, to carry mail for the USE, the SoTF, and so forth. Of course, we cannot safely enter into these contracts until we are sure that the facilities and personnel will be ready to meet these commitments, on schedule.
We have to build the whole railroad on a very tight budget. So, structures which are costly and time-consuming to construct, such as bridges, tunnels and dams, have to be avoided whenever possible. But lines should be designed with potential for growth in speed and better track in the future.
All turns on the main track should have a radius of 650 feet (200 meters) or more.
Branch lines to mines and factories should be considered only for later extensions. A company paying for its own branch is always welcome and will a get higher priority.
The stations will always be outside the walls of a town and be aligned in a way to skirt around the town if the existing track will be extended later.
We need one or more survey teams to find the best route for the railroad. The necessary methods and personnel have been already defined in Laura Runkle's article "Mente et Malleo" (Grantville Gazette, Volume 2). It may be advantageous to add local Markscheider to the survey teams. Markscheider's job is to plan and survey the construction of shafts and tunnels in mining. They should be up to the challenge. Planning track lines for a mine is also common. In neighboring Saxony, the mining is actually in decline in 1632, so Markscheider should be available.
For building a rail we need land in a very long small line and also unlimited access to it. The tracks will go straight through land belonging to hundreds of different owners and landlords. It will belong to nobles, commoners, towns, abbeys and other entities. Why should an owner sell you this particular piece of land or a right of way? What would be the price? We will need some really good land agents, who can acquire the land quickly before the locals realize that you are making major purchases and raise their prices.
Germany is a confusing patchwork of many different administrative entities and special legal situations as well as local taxes and customs. If we start negotiating separate deals with every single landowner we are doomed from the start. For a clean approach, we need an imperial law providing the railroad with a general exemption from ALL old prerogatives, customs and taxes. A immunity from impoundment of railroad track and rolling stock will also be necessary. Issues of right of way, policing in trains and blockading of these tracks should be solved here, too. Eminent domain, allowing the government to take private property for public purposes, with compensation, but without the landowner having the right to refuse is unknown in the period.
This law is a "Conditio sine qua non." Without this there will be no railroad. To get this law the USE will most certainly have to swap a lot of horses with all those very nice and very petty nobles.
So far we have discussed the "freedoms of the railroad." But the railroads will also have responsibilities. They will need to adhere to "Eisenbahn Normalien" (Railroad standards) both to ensure public safety, and also to avoid expenses (e.g., "gauge wars") that we can ill-afford. The standards will need to address gauge, track laying, masses & dimensions of vehicles, coupling devices, signals, brakes, engines and a lot of subsystems. The standards might be developed through open system with public proposals from participating engineers like the "Request for Comment" for defining the standards of the internet. We will certainly avoid several costly detours made in development in OTL. We will need to set standards early and avoid the blind alleys of the past.
Different rail companies will have to connect their tracks and be interchangeable in rolling stock from the beginning. As Jere Haygood says in "In the Navy," Ring of Fire: "we're going to make damned sure that when we get around to building our railroads, 'standard gauge' means just that—standard gauge. . . . None of that business of every outfit building its own private set of rails to whatever gauge suited it."
The USE should introduce only three gauges. Standard gauge (Standardspur) 4 ft 8.5 in (1435mm) will be standard in this world, too. Narrow gauge (Schmalspur) 3ft 3in (990mm) will be for cheaper track on secondary branch lines. And then there will be Tactical gauge (Grubenspur) 2 ft (610 mm) for military tacrail, mining and temporary industrial purposes. Together, these should satisfy almost all needs for the foreseeable future.
The best compromise, balancing functionality against scarcity of resources, is to use steel rails weighing forty pounds per yard. The length of an individual rail will be sixty feet. But rail is only the most obvious part of a track. We must start by creating a foundation; grading the land to create a level track bed. This bed is typically elevated, and slopes down on both sides to allow drainage. On top of the bed we have six to nine inches of ballast (gravel). Then we need sleepers, which are the wood ties which are perpendicular to the actual rails. Sleepers will be 25 to 30 inches apart, and thus there are about 2,100-2,500 sleepers in a mile of track. The rail is spiked onto the sleepers; we need at least six spikes per sleeper.
So, for each mile of track we need about 140,800 pounds of rail, 2,100 sleepers (weighing over 100 lbs each), 12,600 spikes and 18,900 cubic feet of ballast.
For the sleeper, a treatment with either creosote or mercury compounds is necessary. Otherwise the sleeper will not last for long. Both substances are expensive, poisonous and difficult to acquire. The additional cost will be more than the price of the sleeper but will actually pay off because a treated sleeper will last about 25 years while an untreated sleeper will last only five years. Creosote is essentially coal tar or wood tar. Because we still don't have enough industrial capacity in the chemical industry, we have to import wood tar from Sweden. Mercury is more difficult to obtain as it comes mainly from Spain or Tuscany.
Building the track will be an incredibly laborious, costly and time-consuming task. While the bar-topped track from Grantville to Halle has acted as our test bed, the real railroad will have much higher demands in durability and reliability. Despite the track having been planned with regard to the work involved, there will be a lot of logging, gravel moving, grading and building little bridges. Most work will be done by hand.
Initially there will be only one construction site advancing through the countryside. In later years it will be possible to advance with much faster pace, due to building bridges or dams well in advance.
Considering the situation in Germany in 1634, our workforce will be comprised of three parts. The core force will be permanently employed workers, probably those refugees who do not mind a hard but honest job. Job training for a trade should be offered as incentive. This may cause conflicts with the guilds, but is important for a high quality of work. In the longer run, many educated personnel from our crew will be lured out by better opportunities and settle down elsewhere. This will provide an additional bonus for the development of the country. But another part of the permanent workers will remain and form the backbone of the whole organization. The guys who get bitten hard by the railroad bug will oversee the whole moving construction site. They have to find a good solution to every challenge, really quickly. They will be true engineers by trade, if not by education.
There are lots of lessons about railroad construction, logistics and organization for them to master. Consider the monumental logistical challenge to have all the many parts and huge amounts of material needed for only one mile of track ready at the right place at the right time, and within budget, too.
The second component of our workforce will be seasonal workers, mostly farmers who seek employment between seeding and harvest. This will funnel a bit of money into war torn rural regions. If given a free ride in the employment contract, it will expedite their transfer and make them available much earlier.
The last part of the labor force will be local farmers ordered by their nobles to do work in the construction site. There is no use in complaining about this system right now. For the nobles it might be the only way to earn some money, for the farmers it's the way to pay their rent for their land and for the railroad company it might be the only way to get enough transportation capacity and draft animals. If the farmers get fair and decent treatment on the site and the work is organized well enough, they might be fairly effective while picking up some new ideas.
The main season for large scale ground work will be in summer and after harvest. In winter the frozen ground will prevent such activities but might enable us to work in some previous inaccessible swamps. In spring, the mud after snow melt and labor shortages due to the planting season will hamper our progress. But even in the midst of winter there will be much work to do.
What sort of locomotives can we build? Replicas of huge American "Big Boys"? The fast British "Flying Scotsman"? Sturdy workhorses like the German "01" or "50" Series? No, not for another fifteen years or more. A reasonable decision would be to settle initially for a moderate top speed of 25 miles/h (40 km/h) and average speed 10 miles/h, a modest weight of ten metric tons per axle, and a respectable endurance of about 50 miles for coal and 25 miles for water while running a train of 300 tons on even ground for the first engine type. A engine class with three powered axles like the German Baureihe 89 should do nicely. This robust simple and flexible engine will weight about 32 metric tons when in operation. When used in short hauls a tender is optional. With modifications, this type was in use in OTL for over 80 years. It had about 290 horse power (215 kW).
Aside from this workhorse, a small engine for switching in the Grantville area and other nodes like Magdeburg is all that's needed for the moment. The classical "Western Style" engine design familiar from a lot of movies is better suited for fast passenger trains. It will have to wait for later.
For the switcher we need a really tiny engine class with two powered axles. With a power of about 100 hp, it should be capable of hauling about 100 tons at low speed. As it works only in a station, endurance is not so important. The type could be tailored in two variants. One for standard gauge and another suitable for narrow gauge.
Any engine will have to be able to use a wide range of solid fuel such as wood, peat, lignite or coal. Therefore we need a spacious firebox. We have to rely on low pressure (wet steam) because the boilers are easier to build and safer to operate. Water supply is abundant in Germany, but it might be useful to mount a steam powered vacuum pump (called a pulsometer) on every engine to get it on board. Some device to fight sparks out of the chimney is needed and real "bells and whistles" for signaling.
The first engines will be rather low tech, with boilers having leakage problems because they are riveted and not welded. Only the controls, cylinders, pistons, pins, bearings and suspension systems will be built with the help of up-time tools. Most parts will appear crude. The engines will most likely be unruly even at moderate speeds, either over- or under-boilered, prolific in their consumption of coal, water and oil, and prone to a lot of general mishaps. But that is to be expected.
It might be possible to build some Heissler or Climax type engines with the help of unused truck transmissions. This type of engine, with its central mounted steam pistons, has a lot of very favorable qualities. It can cope with light, uneven track, and steep grades, and would be usable on bar topped rail lines.
The ability of Grantville's industry to supply appropriate, durable bearings and transmissions after the initial stock is gone is doubtful. So for now we will be able to build only a small number of Heissler/Climax, if any.
For secondary tracks and branch lines, cars drawn by draft animals or hand cars might be a good idea. Those could service marginal freights or a few passengers. A steam engine or a vehicle with a rare internal combustion engines is much too valuable to use for this purpose.
The engines just provide the motive power; it is the rolling stock (cars) which carry the passengers and freight. After the start of operation there will be a steady increase in demand for rolling stock. For every goods car hauled in a train, there are a minimum of five cars just being loaded or unloaded. So when we consider only five engines running with five cars each, we're talking about one hundred fifty cars total.
Box cars, cars for livestock and flatbed cars will be needed first. It would be very nice if we could copy those special tipping cars for ore and coal. That type of car has a really short loading time.
Passengers, mail and express freight may initially share a hybrid car. Perhaps it will be the caboose at first. Growing demand will make it feasible to put dedicated passenger cars on the road, and a more elaborate fare system will develop. Look at the airline classes or passenger classes in trains in the nineteenth century for inspiration. The average level of comfort will be much lower, of course. For instance, glass for windows is very expensive. Glass windows for coaches appeared as luxury items in urban centers like Amsterdam only a decade ago, because clear, flat glass plates are ridiculously expensive (See Iver Cooper, "In Vitro Veritas," Grantville Gazette, Volume 3).
For all cars, only the truck and the main structural elements will be made from steel or iron. The rest will be built mainly from timber.
Private cars might be sold to nobles and wealthy merchants for whom it might be a symbol of status. For "merely" wealthy persons, we could offer private cars for lease.
The railroad would need to be able to assemble an imperial or presidential train from time to time. This would probably take the form of a government-owned private car for the emperor or the president, with several standard passenger and freight cars reserved for their entourage.
The interconnections of engines and cars are an example of a problem for which it is both desirable and feasible to adopt the standard twentieth-century solution, i.e., the knuckle coupler. The spring inside a modern coupler which enables automatic coupling will not be available initially but everything else will be just the same. One exact position for coupling will be mandatory for all railroads of the same gauge. And interconnection between both coupling systems should be considered from the beginning, too.
For other problems, such as steam injectors to force water into the pressurized boilers, good proven designs exist but might be more difficult to recreate with down-time technologies. The experienced workers, up-time tools and workshops of Grantville will be needed to overcome these difficulties.
Braking will be a problem for which we don't have an easy fix. For switching duties a mechanical brake on the engine might be enough, if barely. The brake itself is not a big problem. Press something on the wheel to slow it down. To do this at each and every car in the trains with the at the same time with the same power poses the challenge. Up-time, braking a train is accomplished by air brakes, air pressure keeps the brakes from engaging, while springs cause the brakes to press against the wheels. There are strong doubts that the challenges of manufacturing such a system, with its steel pipes, valves and flexible pressurized connectors, can be met in 1632. It would be very costly in terms of resources and time. Employing a lot of brake men to hop from car to car to operate the individual brakes is very inefficient and dangerous. Early on, it will be the only choice Eventually the engineers have to find a better solution.
In essence, they must develop an automatic mechanical brake for the whole train. One possible design is that of the Heberlein Bremse. It was developed in Germany around 1850 as one of the first automatic braking systems for the whole train. The system was fairly low tech to build. It was effective if the speed was not too high; it even prevented runaway cars. So it would be excellent for our use, but it's highly unlikely that more than a tantalizing general description could be found in the railroad books in Grantville.
Until engineers can come up with the desired brake, the speed and the size of trains will be limited.
The railroad has to win a reputation for punctuality, reliability and fairness. Toward this end, the rail companies may organize duties for its employees in clear structured quasi-military manner. Each railroad company will develop a set of procedures, which have to be drilled then into the employees. This would cover a variety of topics, such as using the telegraph, counting axles of bypassing trains and bookkeeping. Hopefully, either retired railroad folks or model railroaders will have a Guide to Operating Procedures around. Possibly it will be more of a problem to stop the up-time folks from inflicting this on the poor, unsuspecting Germans all at once.
To give future down-time operators and crewmen a better understanding of railroad operations, some of the model railroads from Grantville could be used. This training could start well in advance of the real operation. Every lesson learned here will probably prevent an error that might have to be paid for in blood. Promotions should be given only on account of meritorious railroad service and relevant training and education.
A normal train crew would consist of an engine crew of at least two men, a conductor crew of two, and, if necessary, a security crew of several gunmen . If no central braking system is being used, we have to add a braking crew with one man for every other car. The engine crew will consist of a driver doubling as machinist. The assistant will act as brake man and the principal mover of coal.
For every station we need at least a crew of four persons to maintain a 24 hour availability. As a station keeper is responsible for the work, he should be allowed to hire additional hands out of his budget. His family will most probably do a lot of the additional work. But unscheduled audits will have to be conducted to make sure that the station is always up to the standards of the railroad company.
It is conventional to divide a track into blocks. A block may be empty, it may hold a train which is stationary, or it may be in use by a train moving in either direction. Transmitting information concerning the status of various blocks of a track is essential for operating a railroad.
The chosen device to deliver this service is the telegraph. Every track has to be accompanied by a telegraph line. Every block needs a telegraph station. A newly founded or cash strapped company will be tempted to avoid this big initial investment. But when trains become more frequent, the telegraph becomes a must for managing the track. For the challenges and costs associated with a telegraph line, see Rick Boatright, "So You Want To Do Telecommunications in 1633"( Grantville Gazette, Volume 2).
Some of the cost of the telegraph line can be recouped by telegraphing other communications for a suitable fee. Of course, train messages would normally have priority.
After having obtained information of the status of a block, we have to convey it to the train crew. Here we use some combination of various hand or flag signals, whistle sounds and, of course, signs. The actual form of a sign could be taken out of a up-time book of railroad code but may have to be adapted and simplified. The colors for all the signs may cost a small fortune. All fixed signs will be moved by hand and no remote control will be employed at first. Station keepers will walk a lot.
As railroads rely on timetables, providing a reasonably accurate time everywhere on the track is very important. Every station and siding has to have a clock. Worse, no universal time exists in Germany. Every town sets its own. The railroad have to use big, easily visible standard clocks, that perhaps look like those famous, not yet invented "Cuckoos." Time synchronization will be done by telegraph. Imagine: "Eight PM at the next click . . . Click" The keeper has to check at least every morning and evening. As the Grantville time will be the standard time for the railroad, it will set a standard for Germany.
Every major station should measure and record meteorological data as soon as basic instruments become available. This will allow us to predict the conditions on our tracks and will become the foundation of USE Meteorological Service.
All station buildings with a common purpose should be built according to a common plan to reduce costs and to render them recognizable. If possible the buildings should be modularly designed, which facilitates later upgrades.
For stopping points we only need a closed shelter and a ramp for passengers and loading goods. No personnel will be here, as ticket sales and loading/unloading will be managed by the train crew.
On a siding we should build one standard house, either from stone or half timber. It would be two stories, with a waiting room, a ticket/telegraph counter and a kitchen on the ground floor, and the apartment for the caretaker family above. Don't forget the public outhouse. A truck garden for the caretaker would be very helpful.
A true station has a bigger core building, with more room for people and employees. The station complex could include additional buildings, such as a dining room/inn, a hostel, stables, a carriage hire, and warehouses. If a town wants to have buildings in a special style, it's welcome to do so, as long as it comes out of their purse and doesn't obstruct the function. The building usually will become property of the railroad company after a certain period of time.
For water supply we need a basin near the track. An iron pipe is needed for connection to the pulsometer of the engine. Raised basins with windmill powered pumps will only work in some flat areas.
For coal supply, a gravity feeder for quick reloading will be built. The coal will be supplied by box car. Refilling the coal supply will be a tedious but necessary task for the caretaker.
At stations where the route ends, we need a turning Y because most steam engines don't run well in reverse. If space is restricted, as in most hilly areas, a turntable might be a better but much more costly solution. Another alternative, of course, is to build an engine that doesn't need to be turned around.
Bridges are a special case. We have to build a lot of small constructions over little creeks and smaller stuff but we should lay out the track so as to avoid bridging the big gaps. If a big bridge is absolutely necessary, we have to consider investment, time for construction and expected service life carefully. For low investment we should build a detour. Most bigger bridges will be trestle works. They can be built in a short time and are suitable for the intended train weights. Treatment with creosote will prolong the service life. For really high weights and big gaps we should resort to concrete and stone pillars with wooden or iron grinders.
Our railroad companies need a steady feed of the following materials to operate.
Fuel: It would be only lignite in most cases. Lignite is available in many areas of Germany. Notable resources are known near Merseburg, Halle and Stassfurt. It is always very helpful to have local sources. Otherwise we have to transport the coal to all stations by trains. This will cut in the revenues. Railroad companies are encouraged to buy some Kuxe (shares) in promising mines to secure supply.
Water: Water is rather easy to come by in Germany but to always get a steady, clean supply we need the above mentioned buildings.
Lubrication: We will need a lot of lubrication for all those axles and bearings. We might settle for oil out of oilseeds for some purposes, but for the majority we will need a chunk out of the daily production of Wietze Oilfields.
Batteries: We have to recharge all those telegraph batteries and to deploy them in time to the stations. Some suitable stations could be equipped with a small water powered generator to serve as a local hub for this task.
Trains and engines are symbols of progress and of the power of the USE. They are highly visible throughout their daily travel. Before railroads settle into normality for the general public they will set the trend and be very much "en vogue." Trains or engines could be named. This will give the fearful and doubting public something familiar to cling to.
The name for one of the very first engines will certainly be The Eagle = Der Adler. Names of towns, battles, states or mythical animals could be appropriate. Old biblical names might be a very good idea, too. But engines are items of business. Opposed to the contemporary style there will be no bright works. The color will be mostly black with some red part in the carriage. Black is convenient because the smoke will give the engines this color anyway. The red paint will probably be red lead (Mennige). It's easy to produce and not dangerous to man and environment if not subjected to abrasion.
For accounting purposes, each engine will have a numerical designation. The number could look like < 01 004 > where the first two digits identify the type and the rest are the individual engine.
The signs will be simple numbers and letters of brass riveted on plates. Thin brass, as we are on a budget.
One train per day for all major stations can be considered a good level of service, initially. An appropriate size for a regular train would be five cars. The trains will load only previously contracted freight because of the limitations of cars and space. But a "catch-all train" will collect goods from all those local branches and stopping points at least once per week.
The basic economic measurement unit for every railroad is the price for carrying a certain good over a distance of one mile. Fares, utilization, revenues, costs and profitability will come down to the very figure of how much shall be transported how far. Fares will be published as so much per cubic foot per mile for "measurement" (low density) goods or so much per ton per mile for "bulk" goods. The price is usually set so that the fare is the same for one ton and for somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-100 cubic feet. Passenger fares, expressed on a per person and per mile basis, are in essence the same.
Additional charges for special or dangerous goods, as well as for priority shipment will have to be considered. Big customers such as US Steel could negotiate special freight rates if they are willing to pay in advance for a large block of transportation capacity. Indeed, the railroad may find that it needs to grant rebates to customers that give it a lot of business.
To reduce operating costs and ensure safety, the railroad will limit its operating hours and conditions. No trains should go at night or in really bad weather, when visibility is impaired. We can add illumination systems, and then extend operating conditions, once the trains are bringing in some revenue, and the cost of lighting has been brought down by industrial development.
After heavy snow, we will have to accept a closure of some or all tracks as long as this condition lasts, maybe for some weeks. Eventually, purpose-built snow plows will alleviate this problem but for now keeping a track open immediately after a major snowfall boils down to the question: You and what army?
Theory says that railroads will enable fast moving of troops over long distances. Praxis will show that a major amount of testing and training will be necessary to use this capability effectively. How many trains will be needed to transport one regiment? Which sequence of loading men and material is the most efficient way to get a combat ready regiment to the other station? Has all the shiny new equipment been designed to fit on railroad cars? What about regiments with legacy stuff?
I expect that rifle, cavalry and particularly artillery regiments stationed near Grantville will endure many loading-unloading exercises. They will make the trip between their barracks and an unloading place in their designated training area quite often just to give the generals some hard facts to count on.
The military, besides using the civilian railroad for long-range, strategic purposes, will also avail themselves of the railway battalion to construct temporary, narrow gauge railways (TacRail) for smaller scale, shorter duration, operations.
By early 1633 there will be two rail lines operating in the SoTF. One will be the local track around Grantville while the other will be the bar topped rail line to Halle, constructed by order from the government as a interim measure. Parts of the track around Grantville came with us in the Ring of Fire.
Our first task will be connecting the coal mine to the power plant by rail. Over the course of 1633, the iron and limestone mines at Kamsdorf will be linked up as well.
The track to Halle is a jury rigged, desperate attempt to get at least some transportation capacity to a halfway decent harbor. It will be ready in 1633 if resources permit. Initially it will use converted pickup trucks for engines and whatever can be improvised for rolling stock. Like most stopgap measures built on a shoestring budget, it will have a lot of issues from the start. It will have serious operational shortcomings and wear out fast. Maintenance problems for the track, like the use of poor or green wood, insufficient bedding, shortages of converted trucks and very heavy use, pushing the link to the limit, will see to a quick degradation after only a short time of operation. But it will raise the transportation throughput by about tenfold while freeing a lot of men, carriages and draft animals for other purposes. Reloading goods at Halle will be the limiting factor then. So the bartopped rail track will act as a bootstrap for the real railroad.
1634 will be a breaking point for the railroad. While steel will be available then, there will be many demands for it. Because of the great military and economic importance of the railroad, it will certainly get some of that precious steel, but it will not be able to move forward with all of the proposed lines at one time. We have to make some very careful choices whether to update the Grantville-Halle track first or to start the Halle-Magdeburg section. About 25 % of track nominal length has to be factored in for sidings and connection to mines, mills etc. Building various tramlines for passenger transport in Grantville will make our raw material problems even worse. Hopefully we will eventually get enough steel to get the whole Grantville-Magdeburg line completed in late 1634 or the first half of 1635.
In 1635, at least parts of a "Saxon Highway" should be built, too. Connecting Erfurt, Weimar, Jena and Gera will be an economic imperative by this time. Afterwards, we can afford to choose projects a bit more freely. Some rail construction may still be by government fiat, but a growing percentage of rail should be sold without a predetermined purpose. The companies will now know where they can enjoy good business.
The two most likely options for expansion in the 1636-1639 timeframe will be going south to Nürnberg or going west to Kassel and eventually to Frankfurt and Mainz.
When all of the lines proposed below have been built and demand is surging, we might think about improving the rail and rail telegraph systems.
Heavier rails will enable both faster trains and heavier cars. So, over time, the major lines will certainly be rerailed and repackaged. The old rail could be put into some local branches. In the Grantville-Jena section double track will be started.
If our business is booming and customers demand faster connections between our major stations and other points, then there are lots of possibilities for improvement:
* Introducing an engine which needn't stop as frequently for water and coal.
* Deploying some kind of lighting system could allow the trains to travel at night.
* Changing train car mixes. (New express trains with only one passenger car and one for express freight/mail could go much faster, approaching the technical speed limit of the track. If the express has priority over the other trains, it should be possible to go from Magdeburg to Nürnberg during the day and back overnight by 1642.)
These rail lines are suggestions for future railroad lines. For obvious reasons Line No. 1 and No. 2 will be built first. The mentioned additional sidings are future updates to allow more crossings and overtaking of trains.
Track length: 12 Miles
We should first revive the railroad in Grantville. It can be used to transport both coal and commuters. We need coal brought from the mine to the power station. According to the maps of Grantville, we don't have a direct branch line to the mine. This must be changed first, to enable the transport of coal. Coal will go from the mine first south east , then change direction and reach the power station on the eastern rim. The coal mine line is a branch or "annex" line off the main line running from USE Steel to the power plant.
A second big consumer of coal will be the steel factory. The construction site for the steel plant is just outside the eastern rim of the Ring of Fire. So the existing line will almost go there already; it needs only a small extension. Inside US Steel many things certainly will be moved by rail. So they will have to use heavy (up-time) rail, too. The coal mine will initially have an output of less than 50 ton/day of coal. We would only need a few railcars. A few (3-4) up-time rail cars with gravity assisted unloading would be absolutely marvelous.
The continuing track of the main line (3.5 miles to northwest) will be abandoned and totally reclaimed.
So we have initially four stations on line No. 1:
Line No. 1a: Grantville Local
Mile 0
Grantville Junction
near the USE Steel construction site outside the western rim of ROF
Mile 1.3 (annex)
Grantville Annex
at the coal mine. Branched off the mail line at Mile 3.5
Mile 3.9
Grantville Central
in downtown Grantville
Mile 4.6
Grantville Station
at the power station near the eastern rim of ROF.
As the existing line runs through the Grantville area, it seems worthwhile to use it for transportation of people, too. We need only some light rail cars and a small engine. Stations will be very simple, consisting only of a platform and some kind of shelter. The station track will consist of a siding for crossing trains or switching directions. An additional stop could be built near the North Central High School on mile 1.0. It would only be a walk of about 1/4 mile uphill.
Line No. 1b: Kamsdorf Mines
Track length: 6 Miles
The branch to the mines at Kamsdorf is the next logical step. We have to start at Grantville Junction, heading south along the western bank of the Saale to the northern part of Saalfeld. We could either cross the Saale via the Island in Saalfeld (with two bridges) or just north in one longer bridge. The latter bridge needs to be 65 feet long and should be usable for trains, carriages and persons. After that we go west along Weira creek to Gorndorf and Unterwellenborn / Kamsdorf. Constructing these tracks would allow us to use the railroad to feed US Steel with almost all needed bulk resources. Additionally we would be able to link up Saalfeld and Kamsdorf to our public transport system.
Initially we should be able to service these tracks and US Steel with only 2-3 small engines.
The planned stations for Line No. 1b are as follows:
Mile 0
Grantville Junction
near the US Steel construction site outside the western rim of ROF
Mile 2.7
Saalfeld
on the northern Border of Saalfeld near the bridge
Mile 6.1
Kamsdorf
Near the mines and quarries. Another village nearby is Unterwellenborn.
Track length: 156 Miles
This line will be the backbone of the new CPE as it connects its two centers. While building the track we should attract additional transports as much as possible. Therefore, we will connect all towns on our way if they accept the offer.
Line No. 2a Grantville to Halle
"The Lifeline"
This line will be started at first as the bar topped wooden rail line to Halle. These pickup drawn cars are only suitable as stopgap measure. When demand surges up for the growing industries in Grantville this setup will not be able to cope. The line has to be converted to a real rail track as resources permit. The bar topped rails and rolling stock should be sold as horse drawn rail line to some secondary projects elsewhere.
Mile 0
Grantville Junction
major station, with water and coal supply, train
depot, engine workshop, turning Y.
This is the railroad HQ.
From GV we head north on the western Bank of Saale to Rudolstadt. Just before Rudolstadt the track turns east, following the Saale, turning north further downriver. Notable places along the way are Burg Leuchtenberg, belonging to the Wettin family, and the town of Kahla with nearby resources of Kaolinite (white clay).
Mile 2.9
Rudolstadt
stopping point
The track will pass between the town wall and the river Saale. A station and additional track to provide access to the lumber mills is will be built. Rudolstadt should be part of Grantville's public transport system. Possible further sidings are Uhlstädt (mile 10) and Kahla (mile 17.5).
Mile 27.8
Jena Göschwitz
station, water supply
The station will be built a bit north of the actual town, bypassing it on its western borders. On the journey to Jena we follow the Saale closely . Sometimes the valley is rather narrow.
Mile 40.75
Bad Kösen
Town with salt deposits and some industry. Possible further sidings are Camburg (mile 39) and Saaleck (mile 49).
Mile 56
Naumburg
station, siding water and coal supply, harbor
Here we are on the wrong side of the river. Naumburg is on the confluence of Saale and Unstrut. The Saale makes a turn from north to east while the Unstrut comes from the west. A bridge over Unstrut has to be built. The station should be just behind the confluence on the actual "north shore." It will be about 1-2 Miles to Naumburg. Here is the first point where reloading goods would start to make sense economically. So we should use the little harbor here. A new ferry over Saale to Naumburg city is also a good idea. As the valley widens, we stay hard on its left side.
Mile 63.5
Weissenfels
About 10-15 Mile east from here are lignite resources. After it has been studied by the Geologic survey, the railroad company may wish to build a branch line and to buy a share of the mine. Ensuring a second source of coal is important.
Mile 74.75
Leuna
On our way to Merseburg we pass by a little village named Leuna. In OTL this was the site of big ticket chemical industry. As geographic and logistic factors are the same now and then, this promises the village a great future. A branch line to the big resources of Lignite in this valley should be considered.
Mile 76
Merseburg
siding, water supply
Merseburg is known for producing and exporting a good beer. Good news for the Thurinigian Garden chain and all those thirsty fellows. The valley is becoming wider and also a swamp in some areas. We stay hard on the western side of the valley and the track will cut all those bends the Saale river does, but we will have to reinforce some ground before laying the track.
Mile 78.5
Schkopau (Buna)
Here it's the same as with Leuna. Artificial rubber was invented here in OTL.
Mile 88.25
Halle Salineinsel
major station, siding, water and coal supply, harbor, turning Y
The station in Halle is outside the town on the western bank of the Saale. The Salineinsel is an island with wells of brine. On the opposite side is the center of Halle. A bit south of the town in Ammendorf are small resources of coal, but bigger ones of lignite. Bigger resources of coal are in Wettin on the right (eastern) bank of the Saale about 12 miles to the north of Halle. Establishing some coal mines here would be very convenient because we don't have to carry our own coal. If a mine is being established it should be connected with the existing line. But for that we have to build a bridge over Saale or rely on transport with carriages.
Line No. 2b: Halle to Magdeburg
The Copper Track
We now have two track-laying alternatives. The direct way to Magdeburg is shorter only 53 miles but must cross the Saale twice, once in Halle and again in Bernburg. The other route, which is 67 miles long, could be called the copper track because it makes a detour to the mining area west of Halle while going around a bend in the Saale. It is the preferred path because it give us access to an important industrial area, and allows us to avoid building two bridges and laying our line over a lot of muddy ground at the price of just 14 extra miles of track.
Mile 88.25
Halle Salineinsel
major station, siding, water and coal supply, harbor, turning Y
From Halle we have to find a gently sloped way out of the Saale valley. The height difference to the countryside in the west is about 85 to 100 feet. With a sharp bend just before the village of Kröllwitz, we change direction from north to west and venture into a small valley. Here a considerable amount of groundwork will be necessary to allow for a track with a moderate grade.
Mile 90.5
Teutschenthal
Here are resources of Halite (rock salt, NaCl) and a bit of Sylvin (KCl). The place feeds its products into Halle. We might able to expedite that.
Leaving Teutschenthal, we pass alongside the Süsser See (Sweet lake) on our way to Eisleben.
Possible further sidings are Teutschenthal and Röblingen (mile 101).
Mile 108
Eisleben
siding, water supply
From here it's only about 40 Miles west to the manganite mines of Illfeld.
Mile 112
Helbra
Mile 114
Kloster Mansfeld
Mile 119
Hettstedt
siding, water and coal supply
From Helbra to Hettstedt, in about 7 miles we cross an area of intensive mining and processing of copper. Two fifths of this area belongs to Magdeburg, the rest is owned by the Wettins. The copper ore is being transported to the various smelters in the area. If there are branch lines to the major mines and smelters we should station one engine here to carry copper from the mines to Line 2b.
The towns and mines have been devastated by plundering armies and neglect but are trying to rebuild. One major limiting factor of growth before the war was the lack of wood to feed the furnaces. Some lignite might be welcome here.
Another problem here is the processing of copper into goods. It is being sent into the Harz mountains, where a lot of water driven rolling mills , such as the ones near Harzgerode and Mägdesprung, are in operation. These could be replaced with steam powered rolling mills and hammer works. In fact, in OTL the first steam engine in Germany was erected here in 1783-85. The Hettstedter Maschinenwerkstätte (Hettstedt maschine workshop) played a prominent role in copying the Watts steam engine.
From Hettstedt, we head south again. For about 15 miles there are no notable towns except Aschersleben about 7 miles away from the track. A possible further siding is at Mile 126 near Gross Quenstedt.
Mile 134
Stassfurt
siding, water and coal supply
Stassfurt is a place of great interest. This city seems to be one of the best places to start a chemical industry. The main reason are the valuable resources of Halite (NaCl), Sylvin (KCl), Gypsum (CaSO4), Bitter Salt (MgSO4), Glaubersalt (Na2SO4) and lignite only two miles away. Because of this abundance of resources, in OTL a serious industry started here and some discoveries regarding the soda were made in Stassfurt.
If the decision is made to establish an industry here again, we could gain early access to a river transportation link by building a bar-topped rail line to the Saale at Bernburg. The line would be about 7.5 miles, and would run over flat terrain. The cars should be drawn by horses. Bernburg has also big resources of limestone and therefore could become a center of lime and cement production. A branch line of two miles from Stassfurt going northwest to the lignite mines of Löderburg may be desirable too.
For the next 17 miles we go north. There is nothing important around here—except for the most fertile soil in Germany. Wheat, corn, oil seeds and sugar beets grow here very well. Imagine, Sodawerke Stassfurt could even offer some additional fertilizer in some years. But for now farming is still depressed here because of the devastation brought by Tilly and others.
A possible further siding is at Mile 126. It's about 2 Miles west from a village named Biere.
Mile 151
Salbke
siding
A little village that will get an big upturn, because land for housing can be obtained cheaply. Work is nearby in Buckau and access into Magdeburg will be easy because a tramline through Magdeburg will be established on our rail track.
The area between the villages Buckau and Salbke in the west and the river Elbe in the east should be used as place for establishing industry. The area is about two miles square. The banks of the Elbe are suitable for getting sand for construction works. Near Buckau, a small harbor or even yard might be possible.
Some miles of track will be needed for branches to connect newly founded companies. Two miles west of Salbke is a promising spot for the airfield of Magdeburg.
Mile 153
Buckau
station, water and coal supply, train depot, engine workshop, turning Y
Mile 155
Magdeburg Central
major station, harbor
The station is at Fischerufer at the banks of the Elbe. It's just below the Alter Markt (The Old Market) right in the heart of Magdeburg. All important places in downtown Magdeburg are just nearby.
Passenger ships to Hamburg and also up to Dresden can depart from a pontoon just in front of the station. Just prior to the station we will pass the Domfelsen in the Elbe. This underwater rock is a major obstacle to shipping. Even if the rock is blasted away we still have to cope with a strong current. In OTL they used chain tugging to get the ships over this point.
Mile 156
Magdeburg Harbor
harbor
Magdeburg Harbor is also the place where the new shipyard is being built. It's just a mile downriver (north) of Magdeburg Central, between a part of the town called Neustadt, and the Elbe. The banks of Elbe are much wider here than in downtown Magdeburg. While the old harbor is at Magdeburg Central, here there is much more room to grow and to use heavy equipment. The suitable area goes up to the next village.
Mile 158
Rothensee
stopping point
The village of Rothensee is the last stop of the track for now. It is a suitable area for loading livestock and other very bulky freight. Easy available resources of fine sand as well as the possibilities for building houses will make this place viable.
Further tracks from Magdeburg will most probably go west to Braunschweig, Hannover and, of course, Wietze. Later this will undoubtedly extend further west into the Ruhr area and eventually to Amsterdam. But from Magdeburg to Braunschweig there are no valuable goods or big towns for about 60 miles. We would have to build this track only for Wietze oil or for strategic reasons. In the short term, a track starting in Hettstedt and going along the northern rim of the Harz Mountains to service centers of mining and milling such as Mägdsprung, Thale, Ilsenburg and Goslar, eventually reaching Hannover, would be much more promising.
To go east to Berlin we would have to cross the Elbe and its muddy valley. As Havel is a navigable river all up to Berlin, and Brandenburg is not our best ally anyway, we should think twice about this track.
The Elbe courses north and later northwest from Magdeburg. It's a navigable river all the way down to the North Sea. Some towns like Lauenburg might pose a problem with customs and tariffs. But after having a closer look at one of the new monitors/ironclads, they will listen to reason. With a channel going from Dömitz to Lake Schwerin, we can go almost to Wismar. Ideally, the yard in Magdeburg would be able to build some steam-powered dredges for digging the channel. Shipping on the Elbe could be sped up when we start tugging the barges.
So, building a railroad seems not so important here, at first. But certainly the telegraph line will spread out to west to Wietze and north to Wismar, Hamburg and Bremen. From Hamburg it will be extended to Ritzebüttel (aka Cuxhafen in OTL) on the mouth of the Elbe.
Track length 113.5 Miles
Needed rail about 240 Miles.
Trip time (one way): One day
Most of our allied cities like Jena, Weimar and Erfurt are actually towns just north of the Thüringer Wald. They are lined up east to west. So it seems wise to interconnect these towns by railroad, even if the roads between them are improved.
For service reasons, the Jena station should be updated to include a coal supply and a turning Y before starting Track 3.
Track 3a: East Branch
Mile 0E
Jena Göschwitz
station, water supply
North of the station the track branches east, crossing the Saale over a new combined rail and road bridge and then gently climbs a side valley. Passing Stadtroda, we reach Hermsdorf at the very end of this valley.
Mile 12.5E
Hermsdorf
siding
Hermsdorf is a village in a poor area, with only about a dozen houses. The siding here is only for traffic purposes. We go into a little creek valley for the next 10 miles to Gera. Just for the last half mile we turn south into the valley of the Weisse Elster. We stay on the western side to avoid having to construct a bridge.
Mile 23 E
Gera
siding, water supply and coal supply, turning table
The town of Gera is near the border of Saxony. It's a center of production for wool and linen and associated manufacturing. In the hills around here, sheep farming is very common. Gera has escaped destruction in the TYW rather well. The ruler, Heinrich Posthumus Reuss, did well in the last decades, too. His realm belongs nominally to Bohemia but in practice is rather independent.
A branch line to Eisenberg may be desirable. Near that town are resources of red clay which might be usable for pottery, bricks and roof tiles. It might be that usable resources of iron ore are underneath the sediments. Geologic survey will have to check this.
The Eisenberg branch line would go north from Gera along the valley of Weisse Elster, then turn west after 8 miles into the Rauschebach valley. This valley is dotted with several mills of various kinds. The line reaches Eisenberg after another 4.5 miles.
Track 3b: West Branch
Mile 0W
Jena Göschwitz
station, water supply, coal supply, turning table (see below)
About a mile south of Göschwitz and west of the town of Jena, the 3b line will branch from the Capital line, and head west into a side valley. After about 2.5 miles, it will turn southwest for a short while and pass Gross Schwabenhausen. Swinging back to west it enters the valley of the Ilm. Crossing the Ilm shortly thereafter, it goes along the far bank, eventually reaching Weimar.
Mile 13W
Weimar
siding
In Weimar we go west around the city to the siding north of the town.
Mile 27W
Erfurt
station, water supply
In Erfurt, we stay south of the town. The Erfurt region is the center of woad production which gives a nice blue dye. With Lothorien Farbenwerke producing aniline colors out of tar we might encounter a bit more resistance to the new times here.
Between Erfurt and the next stop, Gotha, is a small but fertile plain with some prominent hills. On three of them are Castles called "Die drei Gleichen."
Mile 45W
Gotha
siding, water and coal supply
The economy of Gotha is similar to that of Erfurt. Woad is the cash crop here too, albeit on a bit smaller scale. The station is south of the town, and is reached just after crossing a little creek.
Two miles west from Gotha we leave the valley and climb up a bit to the valley of the Hörsel. We will stay in this valley all the way to Eisenach and Hörsel. But we have to be careful because this little creek is known for flash floods. We stay on its right side (north shore) as there are fewer tributaries to cross there. Just before reaching Eisenach we cross the Hörschel. A possible further siding is at Mechterstedt (Mile 55 W).
Mile 65W
Eisenach
Station
A bit of woad, a bit of copper, a bit of timber. It's a small sleepy town. About 10 miles south east is the town of Ruhla, renowned for its knives.
We stay between the river and the walls of Eisenach and go west for 4 miles. The valley opens up to the Werra river here.
Mile 69.5 W
Hörschel
siding, water and coal supply, turning Y loading point/small harbor on the Werra
This station is built only to facilitate loading to ships on the Werra river. The neighboring village Wartha (1Mile) might be suited as well. The Hörschel (or Wartha) siding will give access to the river system of the Weser, which allows waterborne traffic downstream to Bremen and to Kassel. By using the Weser river we are able to go even to Minden, about 35 Miles West of Hannover.
Upriver, Werra goes around the Thüringer Wald and meets Schmalkalden and Meinigen. But it soon becomes too shallow for any shipping. An upgraded ferry or a combined bridge for carriages and railroad here in Hörschel would help all road traffic that goes further west to Kassel and southwest to Fulda and Frankfurt.
Track 3c: The Suhl Annex
Track length 14 Miles
This is a typical example of a branch line. The only special feature of this track is that it sits on the best way to Suhl, a town important for its gun making business.
Mile 0
Gotha
siding, water and coal supply
The track branches from the mainline just west of the siding. It turns south and passes some small villages. After four miles, it meets a small creek with a collection of mills. It follows the creek for about a mile, then turns west and climbs a bit for half a mile just to turn south again to get into Ohrdruf.
Mile 10
Ohrdruf
siding
Ohrdruf is a town with craftsmen, lumberjacks, a bit of sheepfarming and a small smelter.
From Ohrdruf the line goes along the Ohre creek. This creek is lined with over twenty water wheels in mills of various types over the next few miles, as the water supply is good and steady here. One of the mills is the famous Tobiashammer.
Mile 12.5
Luisenhain, el.450m
stopping point
Lumberjacks and hands for the mills live here. Their beer is well regarded.
Mile 14
Schwarzwald, el.480
station, water supply
Small village with five lumber mills. Just above is the Käferburg. Our track ends here because the conditions for railroad make it too difficult to continue. To get to Suhl on the other side of the Thüringer Wald with rail we should use a different valley and we still would need a tunnel about two miles long. So, it's not possible now.
But we have a road (the "Leubenstrasse") passing through to Suhl here. It's fairly old and well regarded. It can be refurbished to create a 1634 version of an "Autobahn." Two broad lanes, drainage along both side of the road, reliable bridges over all small creeks, the surface sealed with cobblestones and all maintained regularly. This road of 16 miles should go via Oberhof (elev. 800m), Zella St. Blasi (elev. 500m) to Suhl (elev. 450m). A pickup with a snow plow and spike wheels/snow chains should be able to keep this track open for much longer in winter. The telegraph line will go with the road and "island" stations will be established in Zella and Suhl for acquiring freight for the railroad.
The main track could be extended on the west end to Kassel, the capital of our ally the Markgraf of Hessen-Kassel. We would start in Eisenach and go via Bebra to Kassel. Another idea is to go from Bebra via Bad Hersfeld, Fulda to Frankfurt/Main and Mainz. But politics are not clear here for now. On the Eastern Part the line could go from Gera to Zwickau (Coal), Chemmnitz, Freiberg (Silver), Freital and Dresden. All this track would go though Saxony. We have to wait until the political situation has improved and the Saxons are firmly on our side.
Track length 75 Miles
The Franconia line will cover our southern connections. Access to Bamberg would give us access to the Main and therefore to all rivers of the Rhine. Bamberg is the traditional port where the road transit to the Danube River starts. Nuernberg sits on this way.
Our biggest challenge will be the crossing of the Thueringer Wald. With the chosen track we will have a average grade of 1.5 % for about 10 miles. To get a train to the other side with its full load, we could use the help of double traction or a bank engine. But I think for most trains that would not be necessary.
As the higher regions get more than a meter of snow for about two to three months of the year, we should consider some snow plows to keep the track open as long as possible.
Mile 0
Grantville Junction
near the US Steel construction site outside the western rim of ROF Elevation 230m
Mile 2.7
Saalfeld el. 240m
stopping point on the northern Border of Saalfeld near the bridge.
Line 4 starts just after this stop. It stays south while the line to the Kamsdorf mines branches and turns east. Line 4 proceeds on the left bank of the Saale for about two miles. At Kaulsdorf the track leaves the Saale river and heads south up into the rather small valley of Loquitz creek.
A possible further siding should be at mile 8 at the village Loquitz (elevation 277). Along the Loquitz creek are some water mills and we have the opportunity to build some more.
Mile 17.2
Probstzella el. 340m
siding
There are slate mines here. This durable and light material is used on roofs and walls in the region. (Probstzella is barely visible in the southeastern corner of the biggest of John Biel's maps.)
Mile 19.7
Lauenstein
stopping point
This is a small border village between Thuriniga and Fraconia, with a castle brooding on a hill nearby.
Mile 21.5
Ludwigsstadt el. 446
siding, water and coal supply, meteorological station
Just before Ludwigsstadt, we crossed the highest point in our track; we are in Franconia now. We have access to the path/road of Rennsteig on top of Thüringer Wald.
We have to construct a big bridge (650 feet long, apex 85 feet high) over the Trogenbach valley. A detour is not viable as it would need two very steep climbs. For the bridge I propose a wooden construction, as it could be built fastest. Because of the long building time, the bridge has to be started well in advance of the actual laying of track. The trestle work has to last for only ten years as it will be replaced with a stronger structure once there is enough traffic to justify it.
As we are still high in the mountains, the bridge will be subject to strong winds. The keeper of the nearby station will have to act as a keeper of the bridge, too. When the winds become too strong, or ice is on the bridge, the track has to be closed.
From the bridge, the track continues straight south. A possible further siding is at Mile 29 in Förstenberg.
Mile 35
Rothenkirchen
stopping point
This little town and its surroundings belong to Bamberg. Notable is the big Rittergut Hasslach (manor Hasslach) nearby which escaped the destruction of the war. It might be an notable customer before long.
Mile 39
Stockheim
station, water and coal supply
A source of coal! Not only in this valley but just 100 meters away from the track. After Stockheim, the track heads southwest.
Mile 44
Kronach
stopping point
Just before Hochstadt we cross the Main river. Here, it's still small. We are now in the Main valley and will stay on its left (southern) bank.
Mile 55
Hochstadt el.268m
The best road to Bayreuth starts here. It's in essence up the Main in direction southeast. The Main is going in the general direction west but with many bends. We follow the valley but cut the bends for our track.
Mile 56
Michelau
stopping point
Mile 58
Lichtenfels el. 271m
station, water and coal supply
Lichtenfels and Michelau have business of making cane furniture and are starting points for rafting timber down the Main. The area we crossing now is called Fränkischer Jura. The Main comes gradually from direction west to south in the next 20 miles. We will follow the Main until it makes another a sharp bend to west, where the city Bamberg is situated.
The whole area to and around Bamberg is well suited for growing vegetables. A possible further siding is a Mile 69 in Zapfendorf.
Mile 77
Hallstadt
station, major harbor
Just north of Bamberg, on the confluence of Regnitz and Main, we should build a major service center to exchange freight between ships, trains and carriages. While the Main has a lot of bends, it gives easy access into virtually all western parts of Germany and as well as Alsace and the Netherlands. The river is also well suited for chain tugging.
Establishing a small yard here to build ships either of local resources or out of parts prefabricated in Magdeburg seems to be good idea, too.
Mile 78
Bamberg
station, water and coal supply, train depot, engine workshop, turning Y
We go further south from here and stay as usual on one side of the river, in this case, the Regnitz. The general direction is straight south. The Regnitz doesn't have many bends but the area is swampy. The whole area around the Regnitz valley up to Nürnberg is rich in places for mills.
Mile 85
Hirschaid
stopping point
Cane furniture, like that made in Lichtenfeld, is also made here.
Mile 89
Eggolsheim
siding
Mile 93
Forchheim
stopping point
Mile 97
Baiersdorf
station, water and coal supply
The area is renowned for its horseradish. A dire necessity if you consider the price of other spices and the dubious taste of salted meat after a few months.
Mile 103
Erlangen
Station
This town is now rather small but in OTL was well known for its university and its breweries. As Erlangen could become a kind of a suburb for Nürnberg in the future, Erlangen should be part of any railbound public transport system that is being established for Nürnberg.
Mile 112
Fürth
station
A industrial town. Mirrors, glass, furniture, needles and jewelry are being made here. Fürth is under simultaneous rule of the bishops of Bamberg, the count of Nürnberg and the elector of Brandenburg. A bit complicated, even by German standards.
The area between Fürth and Nürnberg is called Garlic Land (Knoblauchsland). Here is the battleground of Alte Veste. Here Gustaph Adolph won, with the help of new guns "Made in Grantville," a decisive victory over the imperial troops. With the help of his American allies, he was able to break Wallenstein's army, having Wallenstein himself disabled by Julie Sims in the process (See 1632 by Eric Flint). Probably some more permanent military installations will be built here, as the place remains of strategic importance.
Just before Nürnberg, we cross the tributary river Pegnitz. The bridge has to allow for the passage of occasional boats out of the town.
Mile 117
Nürnberg (Nuremberg)
station, water and coal supply, train depot, turning Y
In Nürnberg, we will skirt around the southern part of the walled town and place the station on its southern outskirts. In view of its craftsmen's reputation for very fine and delicate work, it could be an excellent place to start industries in fine mechanics. Nuremberg also has a well known trade fair and good road connections. Having no guilds here is also fortunate for business.
From Nürnberg, one can go by road to various towns on the Donau (Danube). One of these roads could be replaced with a rail line. We could choose either Ingolstadt or Regensburg as our railhead later. Regensburg seems to be a bit more appealing, but we would need to build the station there on high ground because of frequent flooding. We should build this access as soon as resources and political situation will allow, because a rail linkup to the Donau gives us access to the biggest trade network into the Balkans, Turkey, Black Sea area and even southern Russia. If we ever come to more friendly terms with Austria this link will see a lot of traffic to Turkey and over the Brenner Pass to Venice and Italy. Until then, we will see a lot of military transports. The distance from Nürnberg to Regensburg is about 30 miles.
Rossberg, Ralf Roman, Geschichte der Eisenbahn, Sigloch Edition Künzelsau 1977/1984
Weisbrod, Manfred et al., Dampflokarchiv Bd.1-4, Transpress Berlin 1979
Samter, Sr. Heinrich, Reich der Erfindungen, Reprint from 1901, Gondrom Verlach Bindlach 1998
Grosser Weltatlas, Planet Medien AG Zug