Game Design Thoughts - Struggling with the Passes

 

A journeyman locomotive; first on the Colorado & Northwestern (later re-organized as the Denver, Boulder & Western) as #30 from 1898 - 1919, then on the Colorado & Southern as #74 from 1920 - 1943 and finally on the Rio Grande Southern as #74 from 1948 - 1952. This is a 2-8-0 Consolidation built by Brooks and is an excellent example of the potential life span of a steam locomotive. At the time it was built for the C&N it, and its two sister locomotives, #31 and #32, was among the largest narrow gauge locomotives in its class.

Needed to start off this one with a little bit of history that I can actually verify although it doesn't really settle the train "rusting" question. However, it spurs thoughts that maybe a slightly less 18xx traditional approach to trains might be in order, maybe as simple as making more trains of each type available as well as solidify that the "upgraded" engine that was introduced in 1869, The Golden Spike, is a useful item. This issue that comes up with messing with the trains is upgrading tiles which is keyed to the current trains available. Another discussion to be saved for later.

I recently discovered that there is a Colorado 18xx game currently under development. I was going through BoardGame Geek when I stumbled across it. Its called 18CO: Rock & Stock by R. Ryan Driskel. It looks pretty solid with a couple of interesting twists, particularly in the taking over of companies. Its focus is definitely very different from what I have been throwing around; it doesn't have narrow gauge, it doesn't worry about mountain passes and it doesn't really represent the hodge podge of small and minor companies that created the rail network. It is definitely a different game and I look forward playing it. There are a number of pictures of games in progress and the one thing that strikes me is that the huge (comparatively) amount of rail building in Northwest Colorado which didn't happen historically (and for good reason) and the lack of rail building in Southwest Colorado which did happen. He also included the Durango & Silverton RR which is a tourist railroad operating over the old D&RG RR track between Durango and Silverton through the Animas Canyon. I get the impression that it was included to encourage rail development in the area but its an anachronism that probably needed a different solution. Of course its hard for me to really say anything about it without playing through the game, but Ryan's work is definitely a very interesting take on a Colorado 18xx game.

Which brings me around, finally, to the whole point of this particular post: Mountain Passes. I have previously mentioned that I feel that the mountain passes should be included and the game play I see in Ryan's version reinforces this. There are reasons that the railroads didn't build in certain areas; accessibility. If you want to travel from Fort Collins, Colorado to Steamboat Springs, Colorado more or less directly you would take State Highway 14 to US Highway 40, its about a 3 hour trip covering about 160 miles and takes you over the Continental Divide over at Muddy Pass where it connects with US Highway 40. In addition to Muddy Pass (elevation 8,772') you will cross Cameron Pass (elevation 10,276'). Cameron Pass was surveyed several times by railroads (including the Union Pacific) but no railroad ever built over the pass. The only information I have on the pass is that the grade from the west is gentle and steeper from the east. Its prone to heavy snow and avalanches, certainly not unique to other passes in Colorado that were crossed by railroads. So why? I have been trying to dig up railroad survey reports for Colorado and I'm coming up empty except for the Transcontinental Pacific Reports which aren't of much use to me for the time period my version would start.

Let's take a look at US Highway 40 which is a major east-west highway running from Utah to New Jersey. Going south from Steamboat Springs it first crosses the Continental Divide at Muddy Pass, again at Rabbit Ears Pass (elevation 9'426) and a third time at Berthoud Pass (elevation 11,306'). Three mountain passes that no railroad ever built over. I know that Berthoud Pass was surveyed by the Denver, South Park & Pacific and felt to be to steep to build over. The Denver, Salt Lake & Pacific railroad elected to build through Gore Canyon (after it crossed Rollins Pass) rather than build over the other two passes. Again I would love to see some documentation as to why?

I have fallen back to looking at two other games that featured a Colorado railroad theme; Rails through the Rockies by Adventure Games and Tracks to Telluride by Winsome Games. All three of the games that I have mentioned have bonuses for completing an east-west route over the divide, to much so in my opinion. The real goal for most of the major railroads was to provide a direct connection to Salt Lake City and open up the area economically, not so much to create a transcontinental route which already existed at that point. In fact if you really read about Palmer's desires for the D&RG was to build more of a north-south route down to Mexico and then the Pacific (in broad terms anyway). We already know that 18CO doesn't really address mountain passes specifically, while the other two are very focused on construction over the passes. Tracks to Telluride (TtT) has 30 passes on the board, Rails through the Rockies (RtR) has 15 passes and a unpublished re-make of RtR (by Mayfair Games) features 20 passes. Which brings us back to the issue of what mountain passes (I consider the Royal Gorge to be treated as a pass) to include. You can't just through in every pass, there are 90 mountain passes in Colorado and some of them can only be crossed on foot although the majority are probably reachable with 4WD vehicles with good ground clearance (like a Jeep). Obviously they can't all be included and I think that is one of the failings of TtT, it includes passes that are only crossable by 4WD vehicles and would never be considered viable by a railroad.

An example of such a pass is Slumgullion Pass in southwestern Colorado that is included on the TtT board. Slumgullion Pass is 11,530 feet in elevation and is crossed by a paved road (State Highway 149). The north side of the pass has a 9% grade which is just impractical for a railroad even using switchbacks. The costs involved just out weigh the benefits. 

It comes back to information. There are passes that were surveyed by the railroads that were practical but were not built over, where are these passes? I have a couple of candidates that I think were surveyed and were practical but not used; Loveland Pass and Argentine Pass. But those are suppositions at this point and I would really like to see some evidence of why decisions were made. For instance the crossing of Rollins Pass by the D&SL was because there wasn't money at the time to build the tunnel (6 miles long, known as the Moffat tunnel completed in 1928 and still in use). Once the tunnel was built the pass route was completely bypassed and only used after that when there was a usage fight over the tunnel itself. If anyone has ideas on a good source of information I would appreciate it. I would like to get to the Library at the Colorado Railroad Museum but their hours are impractical for me and I'm not so desperate (yet) that I'm willing to pay a researcher there.