Entry 22 on hold

I'm away from my computer and I'm having trouble uploading images. In the mean time you'll have to look at my CSGf or SC4D entries since they'll work there.

Entry 21: Learning Difficulties

Entry 20: Secret Machinations

As the years and months wore on, industry was booming. Gradually, the industry was changing from small operations to increasingly large.

These large factories of J.B. Magnusson and Son (where they make other factories - the question is if they're the factory that makes factories then which was the factory that made this factory?)

This was unremarkable until it was remarked by one thinking resident "but where do they get their resources from?"

Where indeed?

Simcity Community Magazine

One of the many SC fansites is Simcity Community. They publish a magazine of various articles, about City Journals, custom content and websites. My Network Widening Mod review from CSGdescussions was published there.

Custom Content Reviews

I've got a couple of custom content reviews out.

The first is on the Network Widening Mod and the second is on CSGdesign's Basic Ferry Pontoon.

Entry 19: Fighting Fire with, er, Water

After having installed the water pipes for the thirsty residents, the village of Dartacre could get on with pitting in place what had been planned all along - a fire station.

When Dartacre was a small village, people used to put out fires by stamping on them, filling buckets from the river, or catching themselves alight and rolling around in a carpet.

Many years have passed since then and the village has a number of very flamamble industries not to mention homes and fields. A major disaster was just one careless cigarette away.

A fire station was erected on the edge of Dartacre so to cover both villages of Dartacre and Dart River.

Residents were able to relax in peace, knowing full well that any careless mistake would be dealt with by the volunteer firemen and women and that they would no longer have to roll in their Axminsters, except for fun, of course.

Entry 18: On the Grid

The inhabitants of Revis Island are a pragmatic bunch.

The northern end of Revis Island is a farming region and in order to make the most use of the narrow stretch of land they had to find some way of organising their plots of land.

It was Morten Andersen, one of the original farmers, who came up with the idea of a grid system. A system completely unknown in any other part of the Oak River region.

Morten, a pumpkin farmer, who was 48-years old at the time, was looking at his stone-worked kitchen floor one day and noticed how pleasing the rectangular shapes were to look at and how well they fitted together.

The following day when the new settlers on the island were dividing up the land, he suggested the radical approach. His grid was greeted as innovative by some, but was not welcomed with universal acclaim. As settlers in a new land, the people had shaken off the rigidity of the rules and regulations of their former homes. This new grid reminded them of such rigidity and yet they could not deny how useful this system would be.

Eventually they settled on a compromise. They would keep the grid system but it would not be completely rigid. Each farmer could take a parcel of land as long as it was rectangular, but they could be of varying sizes.

Entry 17: What a load of rubbish

Every Sunday morning, faithful citizens in the Oak River region meet at the Church of St. Raphael. Every Sunday morning they read the hymns and readings from printed sheets of paper and every Sunday morning they throw the pieces of paper in the bin. Apparently, the doctrine of stewardship hasn't quite made it to this church.

Unfortunately, there was no-one to empty the bins and so the local area became strewn with litter and what was once a desirable place to live became infested with rats, ants, cockroaches and other unwelcome neighbours.

Since this was not the only place in the area to have rubbish problems the council decided to do something about it. The council members were not very imaginative however and decided that the best solution would be to move it away from civilization. The only suitable place was in an area of `The Hand ', a region shaped a bit like a pointing hand. A landfill was constructed and soon started to fill up.

This was clearly only a temporary measure, so the council better start thinking of new ways to deal with the unwanted side-affects of daily life.

Entry 16: Will you start the taps, please.

Despite being separated politically into Townships, the individual villages still had some degree of autonomy.

Early in 1921, local councillors in Dartacre were pondering fire protection. Up until now, residents put out fires using bucket chains from the river. As the village grew, the fire risk became greater and so the local council decided to think about investing in a fire service. Unfortunately they discovered that fighting fires would be impossible without water.

They discussed all this with the other villages within the townships, but the cost was too much for the others. As a larger settlement however, Dartacre was able to raise the extra revenue to build a water distribution service that would only encompass itself.

Dartacre's groundwater was heavily polluted however from agricultural chemicals and so they had to build the pumping station out of town.

The local residents of this unaffiliated neighbourhood did not mind since the got a free water supply in turn.

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.