Entry 15: Chugging along

And so it was, in the Summer of 1920 that Jim Steinbach finally completed his railway at almost ruinous cost. The route stretched from Dart River to Sarah's Cove and primarily conveyed freight. Unfortunately, due to the enormous cost of the project his services weren't that cheap, but they were cheap enough for large businesses to transport bulky goods.

For smaller businesses the railway was not yet cheap enough to use, so they had to stick with Bob Ribblesand's barge company. Luckily for them though, Mr Ribblesand had lost all of the large business and was forced to reduce his prices to encourage the smaller businesses to use his services more.

Jim Steinbach's railway operated this type of steam train for both freight and passengers. It was a Norman B20.

The picture of the train was taken during testing before they decided on a right hand drive for the tracks. Below is the train in action.

Let's take a look over the new track. It starts out at Dart River where there are separate passenger and freight terminals before a short trip to Dartacre.

The track moves on the new village of Twin Tracks. This village is owned entirely by the railway company as a major source of income from rent to help offset some of the costs of building.

The tracks travel through the outskirts of Sarah's Cove before ending up at the port at Fisher. This is where most of the expense was. The earthworks for the raised track and bridge were very costly for the company.

Jim Steinbach hopes that his company will make a long-term profit. Only time will tell.