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…