When creating a freelanced model railroad, it helps to visualise things – at least for me – in order to create a coherent and somewhat realistic world.
Because questions arise when building the individual models, like:
- Where do the railroad go?
- How old is it?
- What does the terrain surrounding the settlements look like?
- What is transported on the railroad – passengers, goods and which types?
- What gauges are used – standard, narrow or even broad?
- Is the railroad connected to other railroads? Are cars interchanged?
Instead of trying to keep most of it in my head and forgetting lots of it, I decided to draw a map, just like in the old days of being a gamemaster of Dungeon & Dragons with my friends 🙂
So here it is!
The overall setting is the Northeastern US in the 1920’s. The small city of New Arcadia is located at the coast at the mouth of the river Sarum. In the 1870’s, a narrow gauge railroad was built here for connecting to the town of Augusta further inland, at the foot of the mountains of the north.
Leaving New Arcadia, the railroad crosses the river Sarum and travels through fertile fields before reaching the town of Genova. Although already connected by river, the port town was the obvious next stop before heading into the hills.
Further north, the tracks reach the town of Samaris, a long time ago the site of a fort during the battles between the British, French and native Americans in the 18th century. Now, the ruins of the old fort are barely visible outside the town, which now is an important junction of the railroad, where a branchline heads east – more about that later.
On the way to the mountains and Augusta, the railroad passes the small towns of Troy, Armilia and Mylos. The mines of Mylos at the foot of the mountains were early on very profitable. Thus, the Mylos Mining Company now runs a large part of the mining operations in the northern mountains, although several smaller ventures exist.
Building the last stretch to Augusta through the mountains were quite a challenge for the engineers of the 1870, but the railroad proved to be worth it, connecting the many mines with the port of New Arcadia.
After the initial succes of the Augusta & New Arcadia RR, its owner decided to expand into a branchline, going from Samaris to Ascania.
The town of Ascania was founded to take advantage of the deep, old forest surrounding it, but transporting the logs was a challenge. The river Sarum was narrower and thus difficult to traverse for the loggers.
The arrival of the railroad led to both consistency and safetybin transporting the wood, bringing wealth to the settlement and traffic to the railroad.
On the way, the tiny farming hamlets of Beckville and Springfield provide a bit more traffic – both passengers and agricultural products.
In its heyday, the Augusta & New Arcadia was the pride of the local communities and the arrival new rolling stock was widely announced.
The small city of New Arcadia is the gateway for this small world in the larger world. Here, a far-away branchline of the standard gauge Pennsylvania Railroad provides passage to larger markets.
The docks of the city are also a gateway, and a little ferry connects to Port Van Dyke in the hills to the east, where geography provided an obstacle to the rails.
In the present day in the 1920’s, both the towns and the railroad show their age. Many buildings hail from an earlier age and neither the mines or the forests are as productive as they once were.
Roads and automobiles provide new competition, while the present owner of the Augusta & New Arcadia seems more interested in buying shining new foreign sport cars than improving his well-worn railroad.
The steamers of the railroad is still running, and the only motors heard on the tracks are the small speeders for inspecting the many miles of track.
But what will the future hold for the Augusta & New Arcadia Railroad? Now, at least we have a map to guide us 🙂
Epoch 