Consolidated Railway Corporation
The Consolidated Railway Corporation was the largest and most powerful corporation in Meristal's history, operating a vast network of railways, factories, ports, aerodromes, and mines. It controlled 85% of transportation systems across the planet in 30 separate countries. Through their endless pursuit of larger profit margins, they revolutionized several individual industries and completed some of the largest megaprojects in the world. Its demise took a military seizure of billions of Pena of assets across entire nations.
History
The Consolidated Railway Corporation can trace its roots back to the initial invention of the ArLo drive and the subsequent boom in arcana-mining. Due to the expensive nature of large condenser chambers and the short average lifetime of many of these mines, the condenser chamber complexes were often positioned many miles away from the actual mining sites. Transportation was an early and significant obstacle originally solved via advanced portal links and large river barges. These early methods were inefficient and slow, requiring the recruitment of powerful mages and skilled craftsmen that effectively formed a bottleneck in the utilization of the new element. As more uses were discovered for arcana, the Union of Helsor Republics commissioned a group of artificers and early engineers to design a self-propelled transportation engine. They developed a vehicle powered by what they called the ArLo drive, utilizing gaseous arcana. The prototype broke multiple records for pulling power and Helsor immediately subsidized more engines. It only took a decade until ArLo engines were widespread across all major nations and the arcane revolution was well underway, stirred on by the immense decrease in transportation costs. The companies that sprung up to serve this emerging market were numerous. By 590 PS, 30 years after the start of the arcane revolution, failures were still plentiful and shipping confidence was at an all-time low. A key part of this problem was the thin profit margins caused by large and expensive fleets of first-generation ArLo engines. To combat this, four companies serving the northern mines of Helsor merged into one singular large company, named the Helsor Ore Transportation Company. One of the first things this newly formed conglomerate did was push for the development of a more efficient and powerful ArLo engine. This emerged in the form of the Class A1 4-2-2 freight locomotives, utilized exclusively by the new company, which lowered operating costs by nearly 20%. The sudden threat of this new railroad supercorporation forced other previously successful railroads to consider combining. While a couple of railroads escaped the mergers, the majority joined together into several separate railroad systems rivaling the size of the Helsor Ore Transportation Company.Global Economic Crisis and the Founding of ConCor
Despite nearly two decades of progress, by 620 PS the same problems of thin profit margins and expensive locomotives came back, with a vengeance. By this time, almost all corporations were burning through money. On the outside, it simply looked like the locomotives had gotten bigger and the problems were still the same. However, on the inside, it was chaos. Stemming from decades of mismanagement and flat-out ignorance, railroads found themselves in deep trouble. Years of reckless borrowing and investing made capital hard to come by, even as the balance sheets reported excesses of money. Expensive locomotive fleets and long maintenance periods meant that on average over 50% of a railroad's fleet was inoperable at any time. Poor safety standards led to more and more derailments, most fatal. The entire railroad industry was ready to go up in flames. All it needed was a spark. That spark came in the form of a mine closure. Croyjen's principal arcana mine ran dry, forcing the railroad serving it to declare bankruptcy. A vicious cycle of loan seizure followed, ripping the foundation out of the global market. The value of the Croyjen Pjuk plummeted, bringing the entire country to a crisis. Fearful national governments began to nationalize industries to protect them from the collapse, raising rates for transportation, and jepordizing railroad profits. This sent railroads into a destructive spiral, and with all confidence lost in them, their only option was to merge to survive. Through a series of acquisitions and joinings, in 622 PS, the Consolidated Railway Corporation was formed. From the beginning, it struggled to find its footing. The corporation suddenly found itself in control of over 58,000 miles of trackage across the entire world. From small colonial railroads to large multi-nation systems, the new management team quickly found itself overwhelmed. To fix this, the company brought in Jefferson Myers, a shipping line executive who had recently been ousted from his own company. Myers's first move was to cut almost all passenger service, which he deemed redundant to the primary goal of a railroad, shipping freight. He then began mass abandonment of unprofitable lines, much to the governments chardigran. 10,000 miles of track were either put in mothball or ripped up to be sold for scrap. This spawned a number of lawsuits, including from national governments who claimed that the Consolidated Railway Corporation was jepordizing their national security. Myers reacted to this by denying service to many of the prosecutors, and, as there was no other option, they were forced to back down. The abandonment of unprofitable lines helped dam the losses the system was suffering, but by itself, wasn't enough. Employees of predessor companies had enjoyed relatively high pay to retain their service, but Myers was about to change that. Pay per hour was slashed in half and days off reciended. Mass layoffs of 'excess' employees also significantly decreased expenses, but sent an estimated 5,000 families into poverty. When workers in a plant in southern Helsor refused to leave and demanded compensation, the corporation hired mercenaries to beat down the employees, while paying police to look the other way. Multiple factories were closed and sold, investments pulled back, and locomotives scrapped. These measures brought the corporation back into the black, and a large PR campaign kept the things taken to do so supressed.Standardization and Innovation
Having secured some wiggle room and solidified his position, Myers began to implement his grand vision for a railway empire. First on the agenda was the standardization of track gauges. Before the mergers, railways had simply built whatever gauge they had needed, paying little attention to interoperability with neighboring lines. This resulted in large interchange stations where trains had to be manually unloaded and then loaded again, increasing travel time and costs. Attempts to establish a standard gauge had been met with some sucsess within countries, but an international standard had yet to be decided upon. After the merger, this meant that the Consolidated Railway Corporation was stuck with vast amounts of rolling stock and locomotives it could not operate across its whole network. After a series of studies, the engineering branch of the corporation reccomended the installation of 4ft 4in gauge railway track as the standard. However, as no tracks of that gauge existed currently, the width settled on was the Helsor Ore Transportation Company's 4ft 5in gauge that was settled on. The cost estimates for the standardization was prohibitive. 500 million Helsorian Pena was required to complete the project. That much could not be put up immediately, but Myers approved the first phase of the reconstruction, rebuilding all of south Helsor, Xuia, and Aelsa's railway networks to the new standard. Over a period of 3 months, construction crews labored day and night, ripping up spikes, sliding the rails anywhere between a couple inches and a couple feet, and respiking them into place accordingly. Through all kinds of weather, ranging from deep fog to torrental rain, across massive bogs and through treachorus mountain passes. In some cases, the previous route of the railway was no longer viable for a number of different reasons, and an entire second line had to be constructed. On top of the existing widening, a need for infastructure improvements along the route were identified in multiple sections, including the Sundial Corridor, a principle link between the manufacturing centers of Xuia and the prosperous cities of south Helsor. Despite the additional cost of 70-100 million Pena, the upgrades were approved through various channels, abeit notably not by Myers. To help out with footing the bill for these improvements was an unlikely ally, the Aelsan king. The king had long complained about a lack of rail service to his penensula, and when the improvement work was brought to his attention, he made his move. In exchange for investment into the railway, he mandated an extention of the Sundial Corridor to the capital of Aelsa, Buq. Myers ultimately took him up on his offer, and the Sundial Corridor began to stretch south as money flowed in from the king's vast gold reserves. However, that wasnt the only thing streaming in. Complaints from both the Xuiah and Helsoran governments complaining about the presence of traditionally poorer Aelsans being allowed acess to their wealthier nations. Rumors were spread that Aelsans carried dangerous diseases, or were incredibly violent, to try and sway public opinion to protest the changes. Aelsan-desended residents started seeing more and more discrimination, and this event lead to xenophobia against Aelsans for many more years. Thanks to investments from the king, critical infrastructure was modernized and the project was completed by 625 PS. However, another issue was emerging. Antiquated engines were deteriorating and almost 70% of the time was spent on maintenance. First generation ArLo locomotives were still in use, while the second generation ArLos had become too expensive to order due to low production volumes. This was particularly problematic on the newly upgraded Sundial Corridor, where trains were only reaching a maximum speed of 20mph despite the track being able to handle speeds up to 60mph. This was negatively impacting the railway's public image, with outdated and noisy equipment being associated with the company. Despite an increase in demand, passenger services were still suspended on most routes as Myers prioritized freight over passengers. The railway desperately needed to revamp its image, which meant investing in new locomotives. Myers turned to the oldest manufacturer of railroad equipment in the world, Sawyer Locomotive Works. The engineers from the railroad laid out specifications for a series of locomotives, to be known as the US series, or Universal Service. Sawyer came back with proposals for 4 different locomotives. The first, or the US-1, was to be a traditional 4-4-0 configuration modernized with new larger wheels, more powerful pistons, better construction methods, and compatability with the burning of gaseous arcana. The second, the US-2, utilized a 4-6-0 configuration that was relatively uncommon up to that point. The mounting of lead guide wheels on bogies allowed it to take tighter turns while being longer than its counterparts. It utilized the same gaseous arcana technology as the US-1 design, but was able to increase fuel capacity by almost 50%. The US-3, the third design, was a 2-8-0 locomotive that promised to be almost twice as powerful as previous locomotives while actually decreasing cost through more efficient fuel burning methods. Finally, the pinnacle of the series, the US-4, was a 2-8-2 design. On paper, it was marginally different from the US-3, but where the US-3 was designed for power, the US-4 was designed for speed. It posessed pistons with a bore double that of its predessessors, drive wheels of a size never seen before, and a rear trailing bogie, allowing the long locomotive to make tighter corners with ease. After assessing all four locomotive proposals, it was decided to proceed with a limited production of all four series. The first third-generation ArLo locomotive was already in production, and the public relations team was gearing up to announce the launch of these new locomotives to the people of Meristal. In a grand ceremony, all four types stood side-by-side while multiple executives delivered flamboyant speeches explaining how they specifically made this possible. The new locomotives entered into service seamlessly, a testament to their design and rigorus testing phase. Within the year, they had already proven themselves on the Sundial Corridor and were preparing to enter into service elsewhere. With immediate problems secured, Myers once again turned to the full-scale standarization of the network, and with exess profits, by 630 PS, the entire network was up to standard.The Golden Age of the Railway
In just 8 years, the Consolidated Railway Corporation has turned a series of unprofitable and failing railroads into a force to be reckoned with. Now making profits well into the millions, Myers finally approved the restoration of passenger service, and stations long dormant once again bustled with people. Trains were once again viewed as glamorus and luxurious, and passenger routes began to turn a profit. A new technology, however, had begain to turn heads. Previously, all arcana generating technology was based on the condenser, which produces heat to power stoves, heat homes, and fuel lanterns. At a exposition of science in 631 PS, a revolutionary new technology was demonstrated, taking advantage of new advances in transmission technology. A man named Dr. Herbert Tesol showed off a device utilizing a new form of condenser that instead of using the power made when arcana condences, riped apart arcana. It then piped the lighter form of arcana through cooled cords, causing the arcana to stay near the cord. Once it arrived at its destination, the arcana was used to power generation turbines, making something he called electricity. The railroad's engineers were quick to start obsessing over this new form of generation. It only took weeks until requests for more budget allocation flooded in from multiple seperate shops across the system. One enterprising shop purchased one of the generators and mounted in on top of a railcar, while stringing the cord above the track and attaching it to the railcar with a metal pole. Using this method, the engineers were able to sucessfully propel a railcar without the need for a locomotive. They called it an SePo locomotive. This remarbly ingenious method of propulsion quickly caught the attention of leadership. Tesol was hired onto the railway's newly established electrification division and took charge of constructing, from the ground up, a prototype SePo locomotive. In 634 PS, the product of years of effort rolled out of the Consolidated Railway Corporation shops as the GP-1, a heavy freight locomotive. The desision to go for a large and powerful locomotive instead of a smaller switcher confused some onlookers, but the reason was that switcher power on the railway was abundant, and mainline power was lacking. The GP-1 looked different then any other locomotive that came before it. Unlike the sharp lines of the previous US-series and its improvements, the GP-1 was streamlines and smooth, projecting an air of futurism and moderintiy. Management was impressed. It immediately started studies on the feasability of converting the mountain lines, where motive power was needed, to this new form of transmission. It was determined it was indeed viable, and in a remarkable show of confidence, the company invested in This is incomplete, but im submitting it anyway.Demise
Legacy
Culture
Rolling Stock
Forward, into the frontier.
622 PS - 655 PS
Type
Corporation, Transportation
Alternative Names
ConCor
Predecessor Organizations
Successor Organizations
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