Carmine Gauge

Cordelia Vane inherits a bankrupt railway company: a cold roundhouse, one surviving Wren locomotive, and a strongroom with 240 Gilt Marks in it. Relay the velvet and brass line through the Ashvale valley, township by township, across twelve stops on a hand drawn chart. The ground sets the price. Moor is cheap, mire is not, a freshet wants a viaduct and a fell wants a bore driven through it. Before you tunnel, three sightings through the theodolite let you read five columns of rock and put the portal through the shallowest one, which takes forty percent off the bill. Signal boxes behave the way a real lever frame does, so pulling one lever throws its neighbours with it, and reaching the pattern a route wants inside par takes some thought. A working set clean earns more for as long as it stands. Five marques run the line, from the little 0-4-0 Wren up to the 4-8-4 Behemoth, and you name every one of them yourself. Work an engine and its boiler settles into a character: quicker steam, a wider firebox, truer bearings. Work it too hard and it starts arriving late. There are six stalls in the roundhouse, so the choice matters. Timber pays six a carriage and letters pay eighteen, while a hamlet that grows into a city pays sixty percent over base. Six chapters of company minutes open as you build, with Tobias Rook down in the roundhouse, Mrs Verity Quill on the telegraph, and Lord Aldous Greyholm putting an offer in front of you that is worth reading twice. Your workings keep running for up to eight hours while the app is closed, fourteen once the yard is lit, and a morning newspaper is waiting when you come back. No ads, no purchases, no account, no connection required.