Best public transport for mountainous early 20th-century country?

Where's best to invest in transport for a mountainous country?

  • Build highways, hope people begin using cars

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Say there's a mountainous country somewhere, slightly industrialised, that has minimal transport infrastructure - maybe one or two railway lines connecting population centres, but not sufficiently developed.
With limited budget, what's the best line of transport to invest in?
 
Say there's a mountainous country somewhere, slightly industrialised, that has minimal transport infrastructure - maybe one or two railway lines connecting population centres, but not sufficiently developed.
With limited budget, what's the best line of transport to invest in?

Narrow gauge railway network
 
Goats! :p

(but actually mules)

which tech is dependent on the budget.
low budget i would say, mountain roads to use with Busses for public transport, these roads are also usable by other forms of transport in a low tech society like horse/mule/ox drawn carts and also trucks and cars
(so i am talking dirt roads, not hightech tarmac or such)
medium budget, then i agree with atamiro, then you use a narrow gauge railway(this is pretty much a better choice than standard, because of the narrow turns sometimes need)

(now where is my transport tycoon )

edit: i did vote railways though, since the bus system in my #1 would be very basic, and could not be called a intercity bus system
 
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Narrow gauge railway

In the early 20th century, there is no real public transportation option besides the railroad. Gauge selection's important. Standard gauge is much more expensive, but ties in with the existing lines, and thus, much more efficient. Narrow is cheaper to build, and can take much tighter turns.

IF they use narrow gauge, the secret is to MINIMIZE the number of break of gauge locations, and ideally, place them at places where cargo has to be unloaded anyway. (Narrow gauge brings lumber or minerals from the mountains to the sawmill/smelter/distribution center, standard hauls it away.)
 
Rail is the only real option for the early 20th century. Bus transportation runs into the same problem as highways - building that road infrastructure in mountain territory is hard and not profitable. Using buses and roads in mountain regions outside the first world is still an adventure in itself even today.
 
IF they use narrow gauge, the secret is to MINIMIZE the number of break of gauge locations, and ideally, place them at places where cargo has to be unloaded anyway. (Narrow gauge brings lumber or minerals from the mountains to the sawmill/smelter/distribution center, standard hauls it away.)

Definitely makes sense. But what if the gradient is so steep(600‰ on average, possibly worse) that OTL railways have used cable railways in some sections? (Bear in mind, the attempt was to cut the line directly for whatever reason. This actually is the line connecting the famous Chosin Resovoir to Hungnam Port)

Should there be an attempt to lay narrow-gauge railways? Or should there be no such attempt at all?

This specific plan that I'm trying to explain is to connect Changchun (map of Manchuria below)
300px-Chinese_Eastern_Railway-en.svg.png

with Hungnam (map of North Korea below)
korea_north_sm00.jpg

The gradient is only worse within North Korea; once it reaches north into China it's much easier to lay rails.
 
What are your objective? (ie just civilian or dictated by military as well ? most early railways had duel use reasons for mobilization etc)

Why not just build a railway up the east coast of Korea and then link it at the bottom and top ? (in the north with a railway up the Tumen river valley towards the existing railway Harbin - Vladivostok? and in the south with the west cost Korean railway, Wonsan - Pyongyang)

This should be cheaper and give you nice links but it does leave you with railways along the costs is that ok? (good as all your city's are on coasts, bad as they can be cut my bombardment and invasion)

It will also be dictated by your relations with China/USSR ? (ie can you trade through/with them easily?)
 
What are your objective? (ie just civilian or dictated by military as well ? most early railways had duel use reasons for mobilization etc)

The dual use is that the narrow-gauge railway leads into the Kaema Plateau, which is mentioned in the *other* thread as a fortress to plan guerrilla attacks from; furthermore railways via either Pyongyang or Hyesan usually takes more than a day than this hypothetical mountain route(by pure distance), and the port city's to be a major harbour used by both Russians and Koreans(Vladivostok becomes used much more as just a military garrison).
 
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