Working Notes: primary tethered rail loop and V’ren Trust settlement arcs for 2440–2445.
Proposed route for the first year:
The initial tethered rail route begins at the Marmaduke Logistics compound south of Columbia, Missouri, and runs southeast to Rolla, where Marmaduke Logistics is building a new warehousing hub for the Memphis trade. Rolla will also host a full shuttle facility capable of handling up to 100 V’ren Type 52 heavy cargo shuttles at once (out of a fleet of more than one thousand Type 52s), 20 Type 56 passenger conversions (the same class used for Matt’s space yacht), 120 Type 26 general-purpose shuttles, 60 Type 12 commuter shuttles, and 12 Type 8 passenger shuttles.
From Rolla, the tracks turn southwest toward Stockton, Missouri. This alignment provides direct service to Stockton, a Marmaduke Family Trust settlement, while avoiding lake crossings. The next leg runs to Pittsburg, Kansas, a CCA member city owned outright by Matthew Marmaduke. The Columbia–Rolla–Stockton–Pittsburg section will operate at up to 200 kilometers per hour, typically as consists of 200 sleds and four locomotives, optimized for heavy freight and settlement support.
Beyond Pittsburg, the trains transition to high-velocity operation. Long-haul consists will be as many as 60 sleds pulled by a single locomotive, with top speeds of up to 800 kph. Very light consists, with a single locomotive and a few sleds, can in theory approach the rail system’s design maximum of roughly 1,550 kph. Supersonic speeds have been tested in remote locations; running supersonic through populated regions is considered bad manners.
The Pittsburg hub is located north of the former community of Frontenac, absorbed into Pittsburg during the formation of the CCA. West of there, a major vector change requires the train to slow as it clears the old US-169 corridor between Liberty and Coffeyville, Kansas. A future hub is under consideration at this point, with a proposed north–south spur extending south toward Tulsa. The next vector change comes as the route crosses the old Interstate 35, where another north–south spur is proposed to connect Oklahoma City and Wichita. A third vector change occurs north of Liberal, Kansas. The final hub on the southern east–west leg is near Elkhart, Kansas, which will anchor the V’ren Trust Municipal Metro Area of Elkhart. From that hub, proposed spur lines extend toward Denver, and toward Ciudad Juarez by way of Amarillo and Lubbock, Texas.
At Elkhart, the primary line turns north, running at speed to deliver sleds and cargo into the V’ren Municipal Metro Area of Ogallala. This corner of Nebraska, like much of the proposed route, passed into Matt’s personal portfolio in the guarantor land deal, when corporations dumped both their land claims and the financial obligations tied to them onto him. At Matt’s urging, the V’ren Trust has done its best to preserve the old names of these places. The land itself is excellent farmland, or will be once three centuries of neglect are repaired. It is also a long-standing political conflict zone where the Great Northern Reserve and the Denver Free Zone have butted heads for generations. Both were once paid by the guarantor corporations to patrol and maintain this territory, and both simply pocketed the money. As inheritor of the land and contracts, Matt intends to force new cooperative agreements. He has the power to either forgive the old fraud or demand three centuries of repayment with interest.
From Ogallala, the tethered rail turns east with no further vector changes until it reaches the next major hub, west of Ames Depot. A facility similar to the Rolla compound will be built there. Ames Depot, the only guarantor settlement to have been built and to survive within CCA territory, will understandably see this as a threat to the importance of its existing facilities. New agreements will be required, but Matt is convinced that a structure where everyone gains is possible. Proposed spur lines into Chicago’s territory, funded by the V’ren Trust or Marmaduke Logistics, are already being discussed as part of that goodwill package.
At Ames Depot, the line turns south and runs at 200 kph back to Columbia. The Rolla–Columbia–Ames Depot segment will have two tethered rails, allowing the only true bi-directional traffic in the system until at least 2445.
The first 200 V’ren Trust settlements will be built along the Pittsburg–Elkhart–Ogallala arc. The next 40 settlements to be completed will lie between Ames Depot and Columbia. The final 100, scheduled for completion by the first snow, will be those between Ogallala and Ames Depot.
Locomotive drivers will generally run the entire circuit in an e route during n 8 hour shift
