Developing a Railroad Game (HELP!!!)

[BrianS]

I have been asked by one of my teachers to develop a game to teach his American History students about railroads. The game is very basic because it was designed for the non-railroader. In a nutshell, a group of students runs one railroad. The teacher, acting as the shippers, announces a pair of cities between which shipments are made. The railroads will then bid on the account. Bid price and transit time all play into weather or not they get the bid. The groups will be provided with how long each route segment is and how much it costs to operate over it. From that they can determine how much they want to charge.

What I need from you guys is some help with the game details. I've developed different railroads to be controled by the groups. Now my problem is finding out route distances on the different lines. I've gaken some liberties in developing these system maps, they are close to the real ones, but not totally accurate. (Remember, these are for non-railfans.) I also need information on shipping rates. I guess looking at my lines, I'm representing the late 1970's. What would be realistic costs per mile to operate trains on each line? I'll probably represent two levels of service in the game. Getting down to it, I need mileages between the cities listed, operating costs per mile between each city pair, and an average line speed between the cities. I know not one person will have the answers, which is why I'm calling on the entire board for help. Without further waste, here are the selected line segments:

Burlington Northern
Seattle - Spokane
Seattle - Portland
Portland - Spokane
Spokane - Butte
Spokane - Minneapolis
Butte - Billings
Billings - Denver
Billings - Minneapolis
Minneapolis - Duluth
Denver - Ft. Worth
Ft. Worth - Houston
Minneapolis - Chicago
Denver - Omaha
Omaha - Chicago

Milwaukee Road
Seattle - Spokane Jct.
Spokane Jct. - Spokane
Spokane Jct. - Butte
Butte - Minneapolis
Minneapolis - Duluth
Minneapolis - Davenport
Davenport - Chicago
Davenport - Omaha
Davenport - Kansas City

Missouri Pacific
El Paso - Ft. Worth
Ft. Worth - Texarkana
Texarkana - Little Rock
Little Rock - Memphis
Little Rock - St. Louis
Little Rock - Kansas City
Texarkana - New Orleans
St. Louis - Kansas City
Kansas City - Omaha

Rock Island
Chicago - Des Moines
Des Moines - Kansas City
Des Moines - Omaha
Omaha - Denver
Kansas City - Herington
Herington - El Reno
El Reno - Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City - Little Rock
Little Rock - Memphis
El Reno - Ft. Worth
Ft. Worth - Houston

Santa Fe
Oakland - Los Angeles
Los Angeles - Albuquerque
Albuquerque - El Paso
Albuquerque - Ft. Worth
Ft. Worth - Houston
Albuquerque - La Junta
La Junta - Denver
La Junta - Kansas City
Kansas City - Ft. Worth
Kansas City - Chicago

Southern Pacific
Portland - Oakland
Oakland - Ogden
Oakland - Los Angeles
Los Angeles - El Paso
El Paso - Santa Rosa
El Paso - San Antonio
San Antonio - Ft. Worth
San Antonio - Houston
Houston - New Orleans

Union Pacific
Omaha - Gibbon
Gibbon - N. Platte
N. Platte - Cheyenne
N. Platte - Denver
Cheyenne - Ogden
Denver - Marysville
Gibbon - Marysville
Marysville - Kansas City
Ogden - Los Angeles
Ogden - Pocatello
Pocatello - Pasco
Pocatello - Butte
Pasco - Portland
Pasco - Spokane

Western Pacific - Rio Grande
Denver - Albuquerque
Denver - Ogden
Ogden - Keddie
Keddie - Oakland
Keddie - Portland

The plan is to play the game in class starting Tuesday, so I need everything ironed out before then. Thanks for all the help, guys!

[ 09 February 2001: Message edited by: BrianS ]

[ 09 February 2001: Message edited by: BrianS ]

[Gregg Mahlkov]

As someone who has spent the last two decades in charge of marketing and pricing for s major short line, i can tell you that there is no way you could hope to create a realistic scenario for rates between those points in less than a month, working 60 hour weeks.

First, rail rates do not reflect cost per mile, because the major costs are in terminals, the line haul costs very little, therefore rail rates are telescopic, i. e. the rate for 500 miles may be 3 times that for 100 miles and the rate for 1000 miles would be 1.5 times the rate for 500 miles.

If you are dealing with the 1970's, your marketing officers would be looking at jail terms if they bid for the traffic. Prior to the passage of the Staggers Act in 1980, rail prices were set by a committee or cartel if you will of all the railroads in a geographic area and all railroads charged the same rate. Rates could only be raised or lowered on 30 days' notice and the ICC was likely to "Investigate and Suspend" any major changes for a year or more until they had held exhaustive hearings.

Historically, rail rates were really "what the traffic will bear" in that they reflected the value of the service to the customer rather than the cost of the service. The excuse for charging high rates on valuable commodities was "freight claim experience and costs".

That said, costs would be around $50. per car to spot or place and $100. for each terminal handling. Road haul costs would be about $0.02 per ton mile. In the 1970's equipment costs would have been about $0.25 per hour, and $0.05 per mile.

Since it would ber impossible to recreate the actual or realistic circumstances in the time allotted, suggest you all just pretend and "wing it". :eek:

[BrianS]

I understand your points as well as any other student of railroading, but he's pretty dead-set on this game. (The basic concept was the teacher's, he just left the details up to me. :rolleyes: ) I told him a better railroad simulation would be on cooking the books to make it look like you're breaking even, but he didn't enjoy that suggestion much. What I'm trying to do at this point, because he's not changing the concept, is just following orders. If you saw what they tried to do with railroads last year, you'd think this game was light years ahead of that one.

I guess I'm trying to simulate unit train service more than anything else. There's no way I can show the local delivery of cars, so I'm concentrating on moving between the large cities. By the time they got enough traffic to make up a train, and figgured out the rates (sic) the period would be over.

[Gregg Mahlkov]

If your teacher is bound and determined, suggest you go to the Class I railroad websites, especially BNSF and UP and root around, they both have a limited amount of "public" rates on their websites. These actually move a car here and there, but mainly serve as a basis for negotiation. You don't say what commodities are involved. Some, such as coal, grain, and some chemicals are still technically regulated. This mainly means the shipper can complain to the Surface Transportation Board, which succeeded the ICC. But, the Surf Board is deaf when it comes to listening to shippers.

Can you access Rand McNally's "Milemaker"? This provides highway miles, but many railroads use it for prices, as the truckers use it. It is a program that users pay a fairly hefty fee to use, so you would need to know someone in the logistics department of a large company. :rolleyes:

[Dwightman]

Brian,

As a cheaper and more accessible alternative, check out this link:
http://nyow.railfan.net/pfmsig/atlas48.html

It's the 1948 Rand McNally Handy Railroad Atlas. You'll have to add up the distances, but you should get pretty accurate route miles that way.

Dwight

[ 10 February 2001: Message edited by: Dwightman ]