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The story:

Introduction. At Richard's Lighthouse, on board of "Juneau". 1908.

I'm Quintus Mayfair from England and everything I own is that sailor's bag. It contains all my belongings: a used and dirty paperback which I call diary, some clothes, a second pair of shoes (mostly to impress a kind Miss), my Sunday suit and - what I'm most proud of - a camera. You're my diary, so I can trust you. And you won't steal it, will you? I had learned some lessons back in England: Don't ever tell anybody about your belongings, especially if they were expensive.

Today, the 1st January 1908, my ship "Juneau" arrived finally in the New Lancaster region. After weeks and weeks on board of a rolling sailing vessel I was glad to stand on solid ground, and never was I luckier to see a lighthouse before (later on, I heard that it's called Richard's Lighthouse). My plans to join the gold rush here have become real, and it's hard to believe it.

Another long journey. At Nova Bay. For god's sake! I didn't know that the gold mines are located so far in the interior. But there's no other way than this one and I've to take a ride in a horse carriage for weeks! Luckily, I earned enough money in England... We'll start in a few hours. In the meantime, I'll go for a promenade in the biggest city in New Lancaster, Nova Bay. The only bank in this country is located the street down and all the gold from the mines goes there.

At Lake Ruth. The first destination on my route to the gold. The landscape is stunning! The call of civilisation hasn't arrived here yet. Only a few trading posts beside the road amidst the wilderness. Mr. Sparkley, a dubious person and one of four of my fellows in the carriage, tried to scare us others with his atrocity stories. I wasn't able to shoot a photograph as long as he was in my presence.

At Fielding's Pit. The trading posts have curious names. Unfortunately, Mr. Sparkley has seen my camera. Mrs. Defoe, a kind but very conservative woman, told me to pay highest attention to it. And I thought that the manners have changed between England and New Lancaster.

At Fort Caldwell. A military oupost. We had to change the vehicle and are now sailing across a lake towards another fortress in a small sloop. Mr. Sparkley is wibbling all the way but I'm trying to give the wilderness my undivided attention.

At Fort Dunham. A carriage, again. The last frontier has been crossed, the last garrison said farewell. Mrs. Defoe and two other fellows left at Fort Dunham, now it's only Mr. Sparkley and me.
Small notice.
--- All has gone! My diary and my camera are lost. I can't find it anywhere! I asked Mr. Sparkley but he assured he hasn't seen anything. Angry. Very angry. ---

At Fort Harper. A week later I got them back. Although we're in a fortress now, there's no soldier at all. Mr. Sparkley had to be frightened by its name or whatsoever - and accidently my paperback and my camera came to light! What suprise! But he didn't want to admit he stole it. Damn fool.
In the meantime we have crossed another lake and stopped in Mount Carver and St. George.

At Indian Creek. What a strange night it was! Mr. Sparkley got kidnapped by several natives. The station's guard told me that it could happen every once in a while. I sympathise with the natives - if they knew who they have catched?

At Bear's Ground. My destination. The gold mines lay around the mountain range, but only a few are connected with a road. Sigh. If I have learned only one thing on that journey from the coast through wilderness to the inner heart of New Lancaster - it's the idea of a better way to travel. I can't imagine to take the gold back to Nova Bay without being stolen or kidnapped. Today, I founded the company of "Mayfair Gold Trade" and convinced several other men to join it. Tomorrow we'll begin to measure the way back. Further plans will be the opening of a railroad line Nova Bay - Bear's Ground.

The background:

I started a game in the sub-arctic climate in 1908. Only the towns mentioned above in the story are given - by now. There will be further ones as the game develops and even more indutries. One major difficulty will be the long distances between towns and cites (as you could have read above).
Three maps of the journey: Stay tuned for more exciting images. I'm sorry that the beginning has become some kind of lame... The pictures are attached for future comparisions (as the whole story is).

Wow, this is a different story altogether. I'm looking forward to seeing it all begin

Well done. I like the idea of a background story before construction begins. I look forward to more.

Quite the storyteller. I look forward to seeing this develop.

Is this a scenario or something you've made yourself?
If it's homemade would you mind posting it?

Thanks! I felt uncomfortable after leaving you alone with this quite long story and the lame screenshots. But Mayfair Gold Trade began to expand its network... Comments and criticisms are welcome!

kotssmurf: It's a randomly generated map, I only added a few towns and some industries and spun my story around. By now, it's a very void map yet and I can't see how it could give you any fun to play...

The story:

First steps. At Fort Caldwell.

My feet hurt. My walk has become a silly one after moving alongside the new railroad - one step on a sleeper (or on a tie, I heard my companions say) and one step between them, one step on a sleeper and one step between - for miles and miles. You wonder why, my dearest diary? Well, building tracks and inspecting the work of months can't be done behind a desk in a chilly bureau. But finally the first railroad between Nova Bay and Fort Caldwell has opened. Now we're able to transport building materials and workers to the great lake between Fort Caldwell and Fort Dunham. All right, I know this is only a third of the route to the gold mines. But we're on the move. Gold prospectors are already using our railroad to get closer to the mines. Convoys loaded with gold are arriving essentially faster in Nova Bay.

I believe we brought a spot of civilisation into the wild.

The background:

The year is 1909. The line between Nova Bay and Fort Caldwell is mostly a single-lane, a few sidings ensure a fluent flow of traffic. The train's schedules contain also stops in Lake Ruth and Fielding's Pit and a maintenance in Nova Bay's train facilities (that stop operates as slack time, too).

It was worth the effort with the story, I have to say. Nice development and some pretty opening screens (especially 1908 Hold-Available).

Excellent screenshots, and a wonderful story to go with them!

Would you mind posting what NewGRF's you are using?

It's nothing compared to other screenshot threads...

Xander, here you are. I haven't used all grfs yet.

And where you found that road builder vehicle?

It's inlcuded in the North American Roads Set - you have to make a "barrier" on a one-way road (i.e. changing a "normal" road into a one-way road, and a second click will cause that vehicle. Or, if you change the parameters of this grf-set, there will be police).

The story:

Muddy boots. At Fort Dunham.

Bad news again. As we were sailing across the lake between Fort Caldwell and Fort Dunham one year ago, I couldn't imagine we would have heavy problems to bypass it. The soil is soft, the workers sank in mud, a lot of swamps made it impossible to lay the normal tracks down! Our only possibility was to use narrow gauge tracks. Their weight isn't very high and with drainages built beneath them, they won't sink in. On the contrary, we'll never be able to use heavy trains here. Men and material has to be transferred at Fort Caldwell and at Fort Dunham by high costs of time...

To avoid the same problems again between St. George and Fort Harper, we've built a generous circumvention. And in the end, the first train finally reached Bear's Ground. The next step will be to build a second lane - the capacity is almost depleted.

The background:

Maybe it wasn't really necessary to use narrow gauge tracks at all. But it's a nice feature of the Canadian Set and I didn't know why not to make use of it.

Again, comments and criticisms are welcome!
Edit: Some small cosmetic changes.

This looks amazing.

I admire your NG explanation.

Great Intro. Great story. Can't wait to read/see more of Quintus Mayfair's adventures.
It is a good thing his camera was not lost for ever.

Wasn't sure where you was going when I started reading the post but now I love it. Great story and great screenies

Very well done with both the story and the images.