Railways

Land transport in Ill Bethisad is best accomplished by rail. Rail networks connect almost every part of Europe, large parts of North America, India, New Granada and Japan; Southern Africa, Australasia and the rest of South America are also fairly well connected. While many areas still use steam and diesel-electric motive power (notably India and South Africa), Europe and North America are almost entirely electrified. Much of the mileage is rated for TGV type trains.

Railways of North America

NAL

See the Railways of the NAL.

Louisianne

Rail is also important in Louisianne: http://www.geocities.com/bo_arthur/ltb/cfle.html

FK

Vidu ankaǔ; British railroads

Railway History in the Spains and Spanish America

HIGH SPEED TRAINS. TGV type trains have been used in Castile and Leon for several years now. Operation speeds are usually not higher than 120 mph (there have been experiments near 200 mph that seem to work but safety regulations prevent such speeds for operational traffic), and is limited to a few intercity locations. I guess this is in pair with other European countries. These TGV railroads include: Valladolid-Seville and Santa Fe-Cartagena-Panamá. (A Guayaquil-Quito-Santa Fe TGV line is being planned as well as a Panama-Guatemala TGV line).

Note that Castille-Leon had been one of the pioneers in building railroads in the Americas when they inaugurated the Panama railroad in 1854, the first interoceanic railroad ever, but then it had a lag in both Europe and the Americas. A fair railroad network was built in European Castille, using mainly faceout FK technology, and in New Granada and Central America most improvements were done by North-American investors (Tejas and NAL mainly) exploiting oil or bananas.

In 1896, there where plans to improve the railroad network, mainly in European Castille, but little was done. After the republican coup in the 1920's, the king had to move to the Americas and his transportation minister decided that improving the railroad situation in New Granada and Central America should be a priority. American Castille was by that time well behind Peru, Chile, Araucaria, Paraguay, Rio de La Plata, Uruguay, Parana and Venezola and quite behind Mejico, Tejas and Florida-Caribbea.

Only Antioquia had a decent railroad network, and there where the banana railroads in Magdalena and Central America and the Panama railroad that became almost irrelevant when the Nicaragua Canal was opened.

The republican regime in Europe, while concerned about the deficient railroad network, had by far many more priorities but after the Castilian Civil War, the Phalangists set the communication problems higher in the priority lists.

By 1950, New Granada and Central America were on an equal footing with their neighbors and in 1954, the Darien railroad, connecting Panama with Antioquia, was innaugurated as a nice commemoration to the first Panama railroad. For the first time ever, a traveler could take a train in Alyaska and travel by land all the way south to Patagonia. A NAL adventurer completed this trip in 1956, taking six mounths. It should have been faster but he was imprisoned in Mejico for a couple of weeks, and had to wait for a month in Tawantinsuyu until a war between Charcas and Chile was over, among many other problems.

By 1960, Phalangist Castile had a better railroad system than most southern European countries, except for the Russian Union, and not too far from the FK, France and the Scandinavian Realm.

Note that the efforts from the Kingdom in the Americas and the Phalangist Republic in Europe where isolated form each other, but it seems that some rivalry was a pushing factor. With the restoration in Europe and the reunification of Castile and Leon, a great deal of cooperation made significant advances in both railroad systems. Fortunately both efforts had agreed on the FK gauge standard, wich was also promoted into the MCN (Castilian Commonwealth of Nations). The MCN has a comittee dedicated to communications coordinating common policies in transportation between Castile and Leon, Peru, Chile, and Alta California.

Castile and Leon is not the only nation that has TGV, but as the pioneer, it had agreat influence on its development.

Railways in Europe

Baltic League

Europe's longest trail is the Traginarium Panbalticum, circling and connecting virtually all major cities around the Baltic. Traditionally, the Baltic League has always relied heavily on ships, and many transports still take place over the sea. But the League is a powerful economic body and the technical developments which led to the invention of high-speed trains did not go unnoticed within its ranks. The trail has been in service since the 1990s. It uses the Swedish X2000 high speed train, and runs in a circle:

Køpenhavn - Stockholm - Turku - Sedigord - Petrograd - Tallinn - Riga - Skuoda - Mąć Rzegał - Danzig - Stettyn - Stralsund - Rostok - Lybæk - Køpenhavn.

Thus, the Panbalticum connects no less than fourteen countries: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Nassland, the RPN, Estonia, Latvia, Skuodia, the RTC, Danzig, Premaria, Rygen, Mecklenburg, Lybæk, and Schleswig-Holstein.

Because the lands surrounding the Bothnian Gulf are too thinly populated, the trains are ferried across between Stockholm and Turku by high speed ferries.

To make the circle round, the train runs through Denmark. Denmark is not a member of the League, but can be crossed when the sound levy is paid. The Fehmarn Bridge is also now open, and together with all the other bridges in Denmark, it is easy for a train to travel from Holstein to Sweden via Denmark.

Until the early 1990s, several member states of the League were connected by the so-called Hansa Trail, running from Lybæk, via Stetyn, Danzig, Mąć Rzegał, Skuoda and Riga, all the way up to Tallinn. After the fall of the SNOR regime in Russia, the trail was soon modernised and expanded in both directions.

Another important trail in Central and Eastern Europe runs from Berlin (Prussia) to Moscow (Muscovy), connecting through Siodawa, Warsina, Vilnius (RTC), and Minsk (Belarus).

Bohemian Kingdom

In the late 1960s the Bohemian Kingdom started to build the so-called Pentälcukpón (Shuttle Railroad system). It uses rail and locomotives which are able to do 160-180 km/h. Bohemia's landscape is not much suited for faster trains. The last part was finnished 2001.

• Kénik-Ólprecht-Pón (King Albrecht's Road) goes ... - Perlín/Berlin - Kotbus - Paucen - Tréstän/Dresden - Ósik (Usti n/L /Aussig *here*) - Prák - Pémiša Trýba (Ceska Trebova/Boemische Truebau *here*) - Pryn - Luntänpurk (Breclav/Lundenburg *here*) - Vína/Wien- ...
• Kénik-Típolt-Pón (King Diepoldt´s Road) goes ... - Warsina - Lodz - Kalisza - Presla (Wroclaw/Breslau *here*) - Tropa (Opava/Troppau *here*) - Tešän (Tesin/Cieszyn *here*) - Zilina *here* (Slevanian name?)

Three smaller roads are:

• Kénik-Hons-Pón (King Johannes´ Road): ... - Liublin - Kronin - Piniat - Ostra (Ostrava/Ostrau *here*) - Olmyc (Olomouc/Olmuetz *here*) - Pryn - ...
• Kénik-Anton-Pón (King Anton´s Road): ... - Pryn - Ikla (Jihlava/Iglau *here*) - Nojhaus (Jindrichuv Hradec/Neuhaus *here*) - Pémiš Putvajs (Ceske Budejovice/Budweis *here*) - Linz - ...
• Kénik-Rútolf-Pón (King Rudolf´s Road): ... - Prák - Pilsa (Plzen/Pilsen *here*) - Nuerrenberg - ...

Dalmatia

Rail is the most common means of transport in Dalmatia as well: http://www.geocities.com/dalmatesku/t1.html

Nassland

At least in NV, there are for sure two major internal lines: Sedigord-Bergugord (Kem *here*) and Sedigord-Sinevo (close to Kajaani *here*). Sedigord also lies on international Baltic magistrale (Way of Ice) ...-Peterugord-Sedigord-Riiko/Riikibut-... (Turku *here*).

Jervaine

The Audraele Traenaerun (High-Royal Railway) of Jervaine employs modern Helvetian-built trains to complement the extensive net of regional and local bus lines and ferries.

http://www.cinga.ch/ib/traenaerun_spiffier.png

Union Internationale des Chemins De Fer (UIC)

The UIC is an international organisation overseeing the cooperation and standardisation of railway systems in Europe and the Middle East to allow for easy inter-system movement.

Rail gauge

North American countries, Britain and Western Europe use the standard gauge of 4 feet 8 1/2. This gauge is generally considered to have its historical roots in the usual distance between Roman waggon wheels. Ireland is an exception to this as, through historical accident, it uses a wider gauge of 5'3".

Russia is also an exception, using a gauge of 5 feet. Nassland, Turkestan, Uyguristan and Mongolia use the Russian standard as well; Finland and the SR use standard gauge. In the mountains of central Dalmatia, there are still one or two narrow-gauge (1/2 Dalmatian ell [eulu] = 952mm) railway lines still in use as industrial lines, but all the former narrow-gauge magistrals have been relaid to standard gauge. Railways in Dalmatian Africa, however, are all to 1/2 eulu gauge.