Great Eastern Railway

From Dogcraft Wiki

The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was established as a way for the city of Leon to create a fast and lucritive way to transport people and goods to the newly-established Spawn, and the city. It has gone through many changes over the years. The lines that once constituted the GER are now part of the Survival Railway Network (SRN), and the Eastern section is run by 20.png Slomo_1994.

Planning and Initial situation

The line would start at a large, grand station building in the centre of the city of Leon, aptly named Leon Central Station. However, the scale of this build produced some pushback from residents. During early planning stages, it was decided that for maximum profit, the route would need to pass through important industrial sites, such as the small mine at Two Lakes (incidentally, the area was also owned by the Greater Leon Mining Co, which nearly all of the Leon leaders were involved in). A goods area was constructed at the site, which eventually became an important dockyard. A proper station was also built here, named Two Lakes Station. The line would also carry on to a station at Kirwick (at the time this was a small village we now know as Old Kirwick). The station was build a few hundred blocks over across the river. It was originally known as Kirwick Junction (here the line split off with a branch to the city of Caelon, a tactical decision to earn money from tourist passengers visiting the city). The station we now know as East Station was originally the end of the line, because the company were unable to get a route into spawn due to insufficient funds. At this time it was known as Spawn Station (East), to let passengers know they could get to spawn (even though this would require other methods of transport). The company was only able to build a small station here becuase of this. This situation remained for many years, until new new financial backing was found (in the form of Northold Investment Group, 20.png eybwam), which let the company finally get to spawn, using a large bridge design. The station was renamed to East Station after this.

Early changes

As part of renovations at Spawn, the station was completely rebuilt in a more modern style. While some routes were changed slightly (e.g. the South Line with its new viaduct), the East Line remained with very little changes. East Station has not changed since its renaming (other than the addition of stables, when the RHN was formally established). However, Kirwick Junction has changed a lot, with a whole town developing around it, including new sidings for a massive factory complex producing dried kelp, which also included a smelting facility. The town grew with workers for this site, but many people from the town would also commute to Caelon and Leon. Due to its popularity, and to remove any confusion, the station was renamed to Kirwick Station. Many storage facilities were built along the dockside, including one which has been retained, and is now part of the Kirwick CSC port, quite unlike some of the other facilities, which fell into disuse and disrepair when new and quicker methods of transport were developed. While the station at Two Lakes remained the same, the area around it deveoped massively, and many workshops, warehouses, and a lift were constructed around the goods area. The line into Leon Central has not changed much, but a series of commuter lines were established, linking areas of Leon and the wider Regencies together.

Political Reformation

After a long time, it was decided by the powers that be at the Dogcraft Government that the main railway companies (the Great Eastern Railway, along with the Grand Western, North-by-NorthEast Rail Company and the Southern Railway) were unprofitable, and were reformed into Dogcraft Railways (DCR), (lead by 20.png _edo) with each of the previous companies working together as a single network. For the first couple of years, the main aim of the DCR was to upgrade and look after the previous stations, with new benches, facilities and updated redstone systems. You can see examples of this at Kirwick (the yellow extention and benches that still carry the DCR sign), and at Two Lakes (again, the benches).

This change also brought about conversion of the commuter lines around Leon into the Leon Metro.

As part of these changes, the old station at spawn would be knocked down, and a new, modern building would be constructed to better serve the 4 old lines.

After 15 years, DCR would also bring a new idea to the table: the ring line, linking every 2nd station on the DCR network. At Kirwick, the old GER line to Caelon would be repurposed for this, and the siding to the factory complex would be extended for the line heading South. However, the DCR had other plans at this time too.

A New Age

Roughly 20 years after DCR's inception, it was decided that a complete rebrand was neccessary, and the company became known as the SRN, utilitsing a Yellow and Cyan colour-scheme. This iteration still exists today, but with a little digging you can still find many references to the GER and DCR. The following graphic shows the current state of play on the server.

The lines would continue to be expanded, with a new connection at Two Lakes to 20.png zacattack2097's town of insert_town_name_here, connecting the SRN to the Leon Metro and the regencies.

Notes: Images needed (reconstructions of how the stations originally looked?)

Background Dragon Slayer - Retriever by Ironboundred