I've Been Working on (Maps of) the Railroad (Initial Thoughts on Train travel in Twilight: 2000)

Aside from the river travel options in "Pirates of the Vistula", the possibility of overland rail travel by converted steam engine as presented in "Going Home" has always interested me and makes for a unique closing chapter to the default starting campaign for T2k v1.0. I have various thoughts on this option, but first I'd like to begin with looking at the initial Kalisz area and piece together some of the thoughts that strike me when I look at the disconnected maps presented in the various supplements.

Note: the maps contain some *SPOILERS* for the module...

Map 1: The Railroads of Eastern Central Poland
(green box is Escape from Kalisz map area)

This first map above is based on the map insert from Going Home that details "Major Railroads - Poland" that stretches from just west of Warsaw in the east to Frankfurt in the west but I've bisected it at Poznan to just reflect the eastern half, the area where the default T2k v1.0 campaign begins with the starting adventure Escape from Kalisz (the module map outline given in green).

Yes, I've marked this up with the default starting troop locations as of 20th July, 2000 (the default starting campaign date from the "Escape from Kalisz" scenario) so this does contain several *spoilers*, including the location of the PKP Museum and an altenrate start point for US 5th Division survivors near Krosniewice...

Oddly, the railroad map frustratingly does not include the major rivers:

• The Vistula (tracking from the north of the map to Bydgoszcz, Torun, Wloclawec then due east)
• The Warta (a "⏋"shape from Poznan to Kolo then turning south through Sieradz)
• The Oder (tracking northwest from Wroclaw along the road/rail line then north to Poznan)

Several other relevant waterways are also missing - in particular, the Konin-Goplo Canal that branches off the Warta just east of Konin and extends northwards (Hexes 6713, 6712, 6612) past Inowroclaw and then curves northwest towards Bydgoszcz on the Byrda branching off the Vistula.

It's also missing a few towns and more importantly the names of the smaller towns, which I've added in so that it's easier to cross-reference with the multi-coloured maps - I've excerpted the section showing the "corridor" from Warsaw to Poznan to Berlin using the hex grid overlay versions created originally by JD McClure:

Map 2: Warsaw to Berlin Hexmap (from Going Home)(green box is Escape from Kalisz map area)

Almost as frustratingly, these terrain maps have the rivers and town names but instead do not have the major railroads marked. Sure, the maps are busy but this seems a poor design feature or oversight.

I mean c'mon, they are in the same module!

So ahem, moving on... my takeaway thought on this is that the area of the starting adventure around Kalisz not only includes several potentially navigable rivers but also multiple major railway lines that are likely to be mostly intact with sidings in major towns, although sections and particularly bridges may be in need of repair to allow passage of rolling stock.

So although railway rules only feature in the fifth and last of the Polish modules (and riverine rules in the third), both these travel options are in fact presented to a beginning group...

Railways of Poland

The above map is sourced from the National Railway Base website which includes not only images but also a zoomable map that gives details of the various lines extant in modern times.

Railway Hexmap

Using a short tutorial from this site and the relevant hex-grid-overlay.png file I quickly created this hexed map, but had to rotate the hex grid 90 degrees and expand to layer to a similar size. The result isn't the same size grid and the hexes are a bit grey and blurred but it's a reasonable start as each hex appears to be about 10km across rather than the 20km used in the other Poland Hexmaps:

Maybe I'll get better at using GIMP or Seashore to produce similar effects in future but this would be one basis for transposing the river features onto a combined transport map for a campaign.