More on Private Railways

In January, I reported my plans to combine aspects of both 1825 and 1830 in how I handled private railways. That's more or less how things stand, except it turned out that the 1830 approach gave too much cash back to the players too early in the game, disrupting the flow of capital. That works fine for 1830, which has relatively low incomes, but didn't work for 18GB. So now, 18GB players assign private railways to companies instead of buying them in.

I've also changed the selection of private railways. The GNR and GSWR, instead of being optional public companies, have become private railways - the GNR with a slightly unusual track-laying power. Historically smaller privates such at the Arbroath & Forfar and the Newcastle & Carlisle have been removed. I've also defined which privates should be used for different numbers of players. I feel happier about this new arrangement.

One thing I'm considering is using the privates to add some asymmetry to the public companies. In many 18xx games, some privates come with shares in particular public companies and I'm toying with that idea for 18GB. My current musings are that perhaps the LNWR could start as a ten-share company (but with half capital) and that the Liverpool & Manchester could come with the LNWR directorship. Some other privates could come with 10% shares of the NER & NBR, which would only come into play if and when those companies become ten-share companies. It's an interesting idea and one I hope to try out.