Railroad Tycoon II
Handle on the Bread Basket

Now that you have established the B&O, America's first railroad company, you face the challenge of building Vanderbilt's New York Central. Actually, part of the groundwork has been laid with track stretching for New York to Albany.

The Challenge

The mission for this scenario is straight forward. Connect New York and Chicago and run 8 loads between the two cities by 1870 for Bronze. Build the company net worth to $4 million and you will collect a silver. Do both by 1858 for gold. By the way, if you win the bronze, I assure you, that silver will also be in your possession. The $2 million bonus for connecting the two cities will put you over the top easily.

The choice between opening options in this particular scenario are extremely easy.

$80,000 extra cash. (BUG ALERT!)
15% cheaper track building.
20% increase in steel revenue.

The extra cash might be nice, but since this choice actually decreases your cash by $80K when choosing this option, I would remove it from my list of choices. The third choice of extra steel revenue has no bearing on the game whatsoever. This leaves 15% cheaper track as the obvious choice.

Fixing the $80K Bug
Thanks to some guidance from PopTop, fixing the $80K bug is easy.

From the starting screen select Editor.
Select Load Map.
Select #02 Han-1 from the list of available maps.
Once the map has loaded select Map Options using the 2nd button on the tool bar on the right side of the screen.
Select Events.
Scroll down to find "Choice 1:$80K" and Select it.
Select Edit.
Select Effect.
Use the scrolling selector to change the amount from -$80,000 to +$80,000.
Select OK (Twice).
Save the map and Exit.

Forget the Freight

Building the NYC requires almost no freight. Don't worry about connecting industries as the game provides you with plenty of passengers and mail to build your revenues. Of course, if there is a natural connection of industries on your lines... exploit them as best you can. As the game begins do the following:

Change the dividend to zero. You don't need the cash for this one.
Build one train traveling from New York to Albany and load it up.
Build a train going from Albany to New York.
Double up the track where needed to avoid blockage.
Once both trains have arrived, we are ready for the next step.

1848 Syracuse to 1850 Buffalo

Allowing the revenues to flow in from the Albany/New York should get us quickly to our next connection, Syracuse. $500K should be all it takes to add a single line of track, a $100K station and a train loaded with passengers and mail from New York.

In 1849, we'll add the 4th train to our fleet. It's initial destination will be Syracuse. However, just before the train arrives in Syracuse, we'll extend our track to Buffalo. With this connection complete, re-route our train on to Buffalo for a much larger payoff.

As 1849 passes and the 1850s begin, we'll need to start adding trains and preparing for the final leg of our journey to Chicago. Our next few trains should be routed from New York to Buffalo, but they shall be switched to Chicago in mid-route. This is the only way to insure, that they reach the Windy City before 1858 arrives.

The Final Link

In April of 1850, the city of Chicago and the NYC reach terms to connect New York to the Windy City. $2,000,000 should be enough incentive to drive us to our goal.

To link to Chicago we should run our tracks along the flatest ground between Buffalo and Erie. We should add a cheap station to Erie, to collect $150K. From Erie, we connect to Cleveland and then run a long stretch of track to Chicago. Make sure you have enough cash to reach Chicago and build a $200K station. Once the station is in place, re-route all Buffalo bound trains to Chicago. With the cool 2 million, build several trains to run between Chicago and New York. Only load these trains with 2 or 3 cars. They will arrive much faster, than the longer trains and insure that we deliver all the loads necessary to achieve a Gold victory.