How did railroads begin in India?
Any account of the history of railroading in India must of course begin with James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, the 1st Marquess of Dalhousie Castle, referred to hereafter merely as “Lord Dalhousie.”[1] He served 8 years as the Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856 at the very end of the first century of British colonial occupation of the subcontinent (Battle of Plassey, 1757).
Transportation in India at the time, both of people and goods, was by ox-carts, camels, and elephants for the rich and by foot for everyone else. There were no roads—only dirt paths that, during the monsoon months, became impassable bogs, if not outright death-traps.[2, xii ff] Much of each harvest rotted, causing famines, due to the lack of proper storage or transport for the food that was produced. Against this backdrop, Lord Dalhousie began to take deliberate action to build a transportation system, for reasons both altruistic and colonial. Today, we will have a look at two key historical components that Lord Dalhousie had an opinion about and how they are featured in 18 India: track gauge and early Guaranty Companies.
Track gauge
Surely the railroad to Hell is also paved with the best intentions. It was recognized very early on, given the experiences of early British railways, that a single track gauge, standardized early, could avoid major frustrations in the future:
The British Legislature fell unconsciously, and perhaps unavoidably, into the grievous error of permitting the introduction of two gauges into the United Kingdom. The numerous and grievous evils which arose from that permission are well known, and will long be felt throughout all England. The Government of India has it in its power, and no doubt will carefully provide that, however widely the railway system may be extended in this Empire in the time to come, these great evils shall be averted, and that uniformity of gauge shall be rigidly enforced from the first.[2, xxvii]
Thus, in India, a gauge of 5’6” (1776mm, or “broad gauge”) was settled on at the time to afford greater stability to the rolling stock that must travel in mountainous regions. Then, as it became clear that the increased cost of laying broad-gauge track everywhere simply was not economically realistic, narrower gauges proliferated in the following years.[2, lix][3] By 1884, there came to be no fewer than five distinct track gauges in use across India![2, lxvii] So much for the best of intentions…
Multiple track gauges, and the complications that come with them, are portrayed in several 18XX games (e.g. 1849, 18Ireland, etc.). However, these games only deal with two gauges of track by printing two types of track—plus track segments that cover both called “dual-gauge”—on their tiles. Clearly, it is not practical to print ten types of track tile, so, in 18 India, we abstracted the concept of multiple gauges into “gauge regions,” separated by red dashed lines. Track built inside a given region is understood to be of a different gauge than, and hence incompatible with, the track built in other regions. A “break of gauge” marker is placed everywhere the track crosses a gauge boundary. This token models the “friction” caused at these crossings by introducing a worthless stop that wastes train capacity and encourages the players to deal with the regions in creative ways. Some will be discussed below.
Regularization of gauge
In 1992, Indian Railways began a concerted effort to (at long last) convert all remaining rail lines in the country to Broad Gauge.[4] One and a half centuries later, Lord Dalhousie’s originally-intended standard would start being realized! By the present day, 95% of India’s railways are Broad Gauge.
In the game, we model this gradual transition from mixed gauges to a single gauge by ending the placement of new break-of-gauge markers once the first train after the 4/4E is bought. After this point, a player may remove a break-of-gauge marker as a tile upgrade action, thereby regularizing the gauge on that track.
Guaranty Companies
Right from the beginning, Lord Dalhousie realized that starting up the industry of rail-building in India would be a sticky wicket.[2, xvii] Toward that end, the Indian Government determined to guarantee that certain railway companies would always pay at least a 5% dividend, thus promoting investment in those companies. However, by 1869, it was argued that continued artificial support of the guaranty railways was discouraging further independent investment. Thus did the Guaranty Companies fall out of favor and were subsequently repealed.[2, xxi]
In 18 India, we model these factors by randomly assigning Guaranty Warrants to three of the nine starting companies. Even if these companies fail to pay a dividend from their own operations, their stockholders receive a 5% dividend, and the Guaranty company’s stock price does not decline as it normally would. Then, once the first train after the 4/4E is purchased, all Guaranty Warrants are immediately removed from play.
Example of Play: Escaping the Tyranny of Gauge boundaries in the early game
Sometimes, the gauge changes in 18 India can feel extremely restrictive. The Bengal-Nagpur railway starts in Nagpur. Nagpur lies in the central region of India, known as the Deccan Plateau, and has limited access to lucrative red off-board locations, which are crucial in the early game. If either the Kolar Gold Fields railroad in Bengaluru or the Madras Railway in Kochi have started in the same stock round or before, the Bengal-Nagpur is not assured that it can get a token into Chennai—the only red off-board location in the gauge region. What can it do? The key is to realize that, though you cannot run a 2-train across a gauge boundary, you can build track across them without penalty and establish an entirely different initial area of operations in a different gauge region! One of the stronger options is to build northward toward Allahabad, a full two gauge regions away and make a play for up to four Commodity Concessions in the following rounds. To do this, start out by using all four yellow track lay actions to build North from Nagpur.
Then on turn 2, continue to Nepal and token.
The Bengal-Nagpur now has a route to Allahabad, access to a red off-board location, and two lucrative commodities on its track that it can pursue as the game continues. As you can see in this short example of play, track develops very quickly in 18 India, so with a little bit of ingenuity you are only ever a couple turns away from operating in a new area, beyond the reaches of those pesky gauge changes!
Now, let’s consider what might happen as the game proceeds, especially if the Bengal-Nagpur is a Guaranty Company. It has already established itself with the initial opportunity to capture the opium and spice concessions if it can make its way to their ports and run them. Note that cotton is readily available to the southwest of Nagpur, and tea and rice lie close by to the east of the Nepal off-board tile. How to capitalize on these opportunities, especially with the double gauge boundary cutting your routes in half? Why, the 4E train, of course!
The express trains in 18 India are able to ignore gauge boundaries and cities they do not wish to stop at to create long routes that are extremely useful in connecting commodities to their destinations. If the Bengal-Nagpur drives toward acquiring the first 4E train, it stands a good chance of collecting several of these lucrative commodities. But getting to the 4E quickly may require the company withholding its revenue a time or two.
In most 18XX games, withholding is either to be avoided altogether or done once (and once only) at a strategic moment in order to afford a crucial train. In 18 India, double, triple, and even quadruple jumps on the stock market allow a company to make up most or all of the stock position that is lost by withholding. Falling back in stock price only makes multiple jumps easier to accomplish.
In the case where the Bengal-Nagpur is also one of the three Guaranty Companies, its stock price does not suffer when it withholds its revenue. This allows a bit of the best of both worlds—the company can advance to a larger and more strategically valuable train while still potentially benefiting from the multiple jumps that the better train will bring.
Once the company has obtained a 4E train, it can then drive toward either Lahore in the northwest or toward Haldia in the east to collect both the spices and opium concessions! It could then build south from Haldia in the next turn to Visakhapatnam to collect the tea concession.
We hope this gives a glimpse into the richness of options that exist when playing 18 India.
Bibliography
[1] Wikipedia [Internet]. James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie. 1-May-2022 [Cited 25-May-2022] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Broun-Ramsay,_1st_Marquess_of_Dalhousie
[2] Andrew, William P. Indian Railways. Fourth Edition. London: W. H. Allen & Co.; 1884.
[3] Indian Railways Fan Club [Internet]. Railway Gauges in India. [Cited 25-May-2022] Available from: https://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-gauge.html
[4] Wikipedia. Project Unigauge. [Cited 25-May-2022] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Unigauge
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18 India: Mitigating Randomness (Part 2)
18 India: Mitigating Randomness (Part 1)
Author: Michael Carter
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