Great Overland Railway

GOR as of February 2018, red=planned

The Great Overland Railway (GOR) refers to two iterations of a network of surface rails connecting several nations in CivClassic, and the Eastern Continent in CivMC. Conceived by bgbba, the original purpose of the railway was to connect the original Yoahtl settlements, but once Yoahtl evacuated to New Yoahtl City following the Yoahtl-Laconia Wars, it was revived with the intention of connecting all the way to the initial Yoahtlan claims. A revival of the GOR has also been constructed by bgbba on CivMC, with the intent of connecting players to major cities on overground, visible infrastructure.

CivClassic2.0

The railroad was a comprehensive backbone of the southwest quadrant, notably separate from all other rail services which had KANI routing. It connected homesteaders, small towns and settlements, farms, and great trade cities, in its familiar curved style. bgbba has stated that its purpose will eventually include freight services as part of a supercart network, and no part of the rail has a sharp curve that would prevent supercarts.

Route

The main trunk line of the railway stretched between Vinland and Icenia, stopping at major cities on the server such as New Yoahtl City, Westminster in The Commonwealth, Mount Augusta, Bloom among others. Branch lines were also built to other notable cities not along the main route such as Southshire, Bloom, Hjaltland, Airhaven, and Pacem, among others. The original goal was to expand the railway across the entire server, however the server closed before pending extensions to Gensokyo and the eastern continents.

Main Route Station (Northwest to Southeast)	Branchline Station	Line Name	Line Status
Icenia		Main Line	Finished
	Airbud	Bloom Line	Finished
	Anguila	Bloom Line	Finished
Bloom		Main Line	Finished
Gabon		Main Line	Non-Automated
Kaltsburg		Main Line	Non-Automated
	Lusitania	Lusitania Line	Isolated Line
	Atlantis	Lusitania Line	Isolated Line
	TdC	Lusitania Line	Isolated Line
MtA		Main Line	Finished
	Albion	Albion-Taliesen	Finished
	Taliesen	Albion-Taliesen	Junctions Functional
Westminster		Main Line	Finished
	Southshire	Southshire Branch	Finished
Barrow		Main Line	Finished
NYC		Main Line	Finished
Kobylinski		Main Line	Finished
Olympics		Main Line	Finished
Hillshire		Main Line	Finished
	Resimere	Resimere Branch	Not Started
	Airhaven	Resimere Branch	Finished
	Falstadt	Pacem Branch	Finished
	Hjaltland	Pacem Branch	Finished
	Pacem	Pacem Branch	Finished
	Vinland	Vinland Branch	Finished
	Okashima	Vinland Branch	Finished
Jungle		Main Line	Finished
Kraken		Main Line	Finished
Xyphros		Main Line	Manual
Goodsprings		Main Line	Manual
Danville		Main Line	Manual
Axochitlan		Main Line	Finished
Laconia		Main Line	In Progress

History

Upon the railway's creation in April 2018, the Overland Railway was setup such that users would temporarily add themselves to a NameLayer group in order to route themselves to their destination. When reaching their destination they would be routed into the station itself, otherwise being routed through other stations along the route using snitch switches. The system served as a concentrated precursor to today's Civ plugin RailSwitch, introduced in June 2019, which circumvented the need for JukeAlert switches. Eventually the railway was converted to a RailSwitch system entirely.

The railway was not immune to controversy. The railway's projected extension in Mount Augusta was widely detested as it would violate property rights in the city, and efforts to block progress in its northern end became a hotly contested topic in the Holy Jaded Empire. The country's dislike came from supposed "rail imperialism" method of expansion by bgbba was concerning as rails were being put into the land without expressed permission. Eventually, it was agreed upon that the railway would connect up with an overland bridge built by SPQR to Kaltsburg. During the Infinity War, a section of the railway in The Commonwealth north of Westminster was converted into a trap by Mir officials to capture NATO fighters who had been raiding the city in January 2019. The official Yoahtlan and SATO view of the incident was to maintain neutrality during the conflict, and using it for military purposes was disallowed. As a controversial character, bgbba became entangled in server drama during the war and was banned for a time, but after his ban was reversed in 2020.

After 2020, a number of revitalization projects came into fruition to revamp the system into one with RailSwitch, smoother curves, and expansion to destinations across the server. One such expansion was a line to Airhaven via Resimere, a southwest Yoahtlan territory.. Icenia, Mount September, and Gensokyo branches were completed or planned in 2021, with the completion of the Southshire-Yoahtl Friendship Bridge in 2021, finishing work on the branch since its creation in 2018.

CivMC

GOR route map as of October 2023

The railway returned on CivMC, with the right of way being cleared and rails being laid down by October 2022, a few months after the server's launch. The GOR currently stretches from Katipan district in Lambat at its northern end, making intermediate stops at Yoahtl's capital Altepetl and its territories, and heads towards its southern territories before terminating at Portucale station in Lusitania. It also has a branch line to Nara's exclave, Q'barra. The railway currently uses its own destination routing scheme, separate from the OneDest system.

As of October 2023, expansion is expected from Lambat southwards to Mount Augusta, along with a station being constructed in Exilus.