RAILROAD TYCOON MAP: KVR

RAILROAD TYCOON MAP: KVR - V2.00

“A SECOND CHANCE”

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For those privileged still remembering using the Kettle Valley Railway this attempt to recreate its operation might be just seen as a feeble effort to mimic this once proud railroad. For those of us familiar with the name and its operation through reading, word of mouth or otherwise, it is hoped this will help us not to forget this marvel of engineering. For those never heard of this railway your knowledge will hopefully be enriched by knowing of a railway that was like no other.

This map is based on Globe topographical information converted into a .pcx file format and supplied by David Gross in Aug. 2000. It covers the area between -121.650734 to -117.159248 in Longitude and 51,201550 to 48.293335 in Latitude. In more familiar terms the map covers the area in British Columbia, Canada, between Nelson (East) to Hope (West) and between Revelstoke (North) to Omak – USA (South). Present day cities are placed using Spreadsheet tools (based on geographical data) also supplied by David Cross and should be extremely close to their actual locations.

All railroad tracks laid are placed very closely to their actual locations. River crossings of the CPR/CNR over the Fraser and Thompsons rivers are recreated at present day locations (not that much has changed there though). As an example, the track between Merrit and Spences Bridge mimics the location of the former line.

An effort was also made to recreate all of the KVR’s stations with the minor stations being placed in their approximate locations. You will find that many of those stations do not serve any real purpose in the game and are added for historical reasons only.

All rivers are adjusted for a downward flow except perhaps for some localized areas. The vertical scale (mountains) is somewhat exaggerated to provide a greater obstacle to some otherwise easy track building.

Map play starts in January 1916, just shortly before the official completion of the Coquihalla section of the KVR railroad on July 31, 1916.

This is the end of an era that was dominated by such great railroad tycoons like James Jerome Hill. Within 6 months of this maps starting date he will succumb to illness on May 29, 1916 in his home in St Paul, Minnesota. There have been many battles fought by him to expand his Great Northern Railway into Canada but his efforts were to a large degree thwarted by strong Canadian nationalistic views. This was somewhat ironic since he, a born Canadian, at the helm of an American railway company was battling with Shaughnessy, a born American and at the time president of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.

For much of the maps timeframe Louis Warren Hill, son of James Hill has control over the GNR which was given to him in 1907.

By 1916 most of the railroad development of the area was over and now the period of reaping the benefits (or not) was about to start. The cost of building the KVR was staggering and placed a heavy burden on both the KVR and the CPR. The CPR concerned about their large investment kept a watchful eye on the KVR but to a large degree gave it a free hand. It did have confidence in Andrew McCulloch, Engineer and builder of much of the companies’ railroad lines and he proved to be a worthy administrator. In 1930 however the CPR took over all of the KVR operations.

In the later years it was largely the building of roads enabling automobile and trucking as well as a diminishing of the mining industry related activities that made rail operations unprofitable. Therefore, in 1964 Passenger service was cancelled and most of the service on other lines was delegated to a very minor role.

Your main challenge is to make the KVR survive past 1964 or be in a position in which the KVR dominates the railroad and industrial affairs of the region. Achiving this task is helped or obstracted by many other activities making a very busy undertaking, at least in the first few years.

The primary goals of the map are two pronged with each of them leading to a Gold Medal finish.

One direction is meant for the railroading type of player and culminates with the operation of a feasible railroad company in 1964. The added requirements are that you completed the Bronze and Silver requirements, a debt free KVR and you are in control of the KVR.

The second direction is more suitable for a “Tycoon” type of player and will lead to a Gold medal finish once the player has managed to dominate the map area. Dominating the map area can be accomplished by reaching a “Tycoon” score of seventy points or more. Points are awarded for the absence of other railroad companies, KVR mergers with industrial companies or simply by performing tasks worthy of a tycoon status. In addition you will be required to complete the Bronze requirements, operate debt free and be in control of the KVR.

Deliver/pick up 100 loads of logs or lumber to the Nicola Valley Lumber Company.

Deliver/pick up 400 loads of bauxite or aluminium from the Granby Consolidated Mining Company smelters.

Deliver/pick up 100 loads of bauxite or aluminium from the Canada Copper Inc. smelters.

The above deliveries were commitments made to the companies by the KVR for their financial contributions or other services provided by those companies, when the KVR was founded. Needless to say those deliveries should be the makings of an active railroad schedule.

You will not be eligible for the Silver medal if you fail to repay the $7.5mill. CPR loan in time.

For requiring the Bronze Medal you will need to ship 24 or more loads between the cities of Hope and Nelson. One trip without major interruptions should take about four and one half years. An easy task if you can predict your losses en route of rolling stock from avalanches and forest fires.

Repayment of all outstanding bonds. – You are maxed out at a high interest rate.

Finding and building an alternate route to Hope, bypassing the Coquihalla route.

Delivery of coal to your yards. – Will keep your engines operating efficiently.

The KVR has at some locations stations called “Yards”. Those locations are primarily the receptacles for coal and steel to your railroad. Your yards are located in or near the following cities:

The coal is required to keep your steam engines running at optimum efficiency. This is a very important delivery requirement since not providing the required 6 loads of coal will add to fuel cost and slow your trains down both in speed and in traction. The delivery of more than 12 loads per year will give you an added speed/traction bonus. You have sufficient coal at hand to last you until the end of 1917. By the end of 1917 you will however need to have next year’s requirement of coal delivered. This yearly requirement is in effect until you have electrified more than half of your railroad track.

Once you have electrified more than half of your track, your requirement of shipping coal will change and you are required to ship the same amount of coal to the B.C. Hydro power stations in order to get favourable electricity rates. Those Power Plants are located at cities in the following locations:

There are two areas that are affected by those events. One is near the top of the Coquihalla section near the Coquihalla station and the second one is near Lakevale between Beaverdale and McCulloch. Two groups of events are used for this purpose. One is to only halt traffic for a month due to imminent danger the other is actually destroying track and rolling stock and remains unconnected until replaced with new track. Those track mishaps are declared with a Newspaper event when they happen as well as the reopening of them when repaired.

“Docks” are small stations belonging to the B.C. Lake and River Service Company and are the location for shipments to/from the ports of that company. The Silver medal requirement as an example requires you to ship to those locations. All of those Docks belong to the B.C. Lake and River Service Company and have adjacent or nearby a depot that has “Docks” as part of the station name. Those depots are the termination of all traffic destine for dock shipments.

“Power Stations” are the delivery point for coal to produce electricity for your electric engines. They are located at the following locations:

“Smelters” are stations that are located at or near Bauxite Mines. They represent stations that are the delivery/pick-up points for bauxite and aluminum (actually copper ore and copper ingots) and are owned by the mining companies. Two of the silver requirements use those locations. Smelters are located at/near:

“Mines” are Mining Company locations from where coal or bauxite (copper) can be picked up. Some of those locations are connected via a depot. You will find pre-planted “mines” near or at the following locations:

“Lumber Mills” are locations used to receive logs and remove lumber and have a depot as the source/destination of your deliveries/pick-ups. There are two such pre-planted stations at designated locations belonging to the Lumber Companies. Those locations are in or near:

This map is setup with limited track availability. You are starting out with only 100 sections of available track which can be used to expand your rail network or replace damaged sections. To build more track you require steel which is available from your ports if you supply them with alcohol. You can also buy some on the open market through randomly available offers or obtain it from other available deals.

There are four track upgrades available roughly based on the maximum speed available from engines. Each successive upgrade will make faster engines available. The type of engine available with an upgrade will be shown in the dialog box. The exact time of availability is random.

NOTE: Most of the above mentioned locations have planted industries with depots. There of course, will also be randomly generated resources/industries available that one can use to reach the goals.

The first decision you are faced with is that of making the choice of taking a closer look at the map for the purpose of orientation and familiarization or to just simply jump into it and play a game.

If your choice was to check out the map further you will be given another option of play. You either play a very event limited (Lite) version or you play a wide open, no event version. In the Lite version there are just a few selected events available giving you a flavour as how things might be in the fully featured game. The wide open game can be very much looked at as a sandbox version with nearly all engines available to try out.

Once you have decided on the full game start you will be asked about accepting a loan from the CPR or funds being made available from your family fortune. This could very well be the time where to decide if one goes for a “Tycoon” finish or for a lengthy normal win. The difference between those two options is where the funds will end up. The CPR loan will be added to company cash and the family fortune to Personal Cash.

The next scheduled event to happen is an introduction to the “Tycoon” win. In addition there are two comments I would like to make. Firstly, you will get the bonus points even if another train operating railroad goes bankrupt and disappears all on its own. The second one is a warning not to attempt any mergers without first saving the game. The results of some mergers might not provide you with what you are hoping for or expecting.

The very next thing that might happen is that one or more random events will show up. One of the events might be asking if you like to purchase additional rail.

The next main step will be to schedule your trains and prepare your railroad for normal operations. This is somewhat a tedious process and will take a bit of good planing.

The next scheduled event in February of 1916 will be a notice explaining that you are required to deliver coal to your yards. This event is a bit trickier then what it sounds like and needs good planning.

You will find that the cash on hand will disappear quickly and it might be well into the second year before your train income will provide you with a positive cash flow. Therefore, you might be well advised to have some spare engines available to take care of the accumulating loads until you are able to buy some more engines.

Your main traffic in the early stages might very well be between Penticton and Princeton. You however might want to also be planing for the Bronze deliveries while traffic is light.

If you like an addition to your rail inventory, (track availability is limited) take advantage of one of the offers for rail and/or supply your yards with steel. You need to ensure that you have sufficient rails in inventory at all times to deal with either avalanche or fire damage to your tracks.

Should any player be inclined to play the “stop the train” trick in the first year and not provide any deliveries, they will find themselves at the mercy of the CPR. Therefore, be warned (I have not found a good reason so far to do it anyhow). Furthermore, it might be tempting to jump right into the “Tycoon mode” and start manipulating/merging with other companies. Be carefully since not all that glitters is gold.

Foremost, I would like to thank all people that generously offered their valuable time to help make this map happen. I am grateful and indebted to the following people:

MrMathy – Even though this is not your type of map you have again come through for me.

In addition I would also like to thank the author of the book “McCulloch’s Wonder”, Barrie Sanford and the authors of the book “Cycling the Kettle Valley Railway” Dan & Sandra Langford. Both books providing in debt information about the railroads of the area that, in one form or another, was used shaping the map into what it is.

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Please be aware that this text file is subject to updates and will be expanded to also include a hint/guide section as soon as I get a few good games under my belt.

You are also invited to share your experience and provide me with suggestions and/or ideas on how to improve this map. Please email to johnschwarz@hotmail.com.