pokermind wrote:Fellow posters we must remember how much steel railroads require for their tracks before blithely suggesting miles of railroad and that on Safehold steel production is a bottleneck.
Assuming of course you insist on making the entire thing out of steel instead of taking a shortcut and using something like wood. Doing it right with steel would be out of the picture for the forseeable future, it is still very much a bottleneck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johore_Wooden_RailwayMany early tracks were in fact constructed of wood. This proved a far inferior track material compared to steel, they had a tendency to wear out (and quickly), and could not withstand the weights of the large locomotives that came along.
Its not like the church (or Charis) hasn't cut corners before and gone to a wooden construction to get the job done in a hurry, like wooden locks, or Galleons made out of unseasoned wood. Or that the Church doesn't have an excess population of peasants/serfs from this lovely place called Harchong that could be required to maintain said wooden tracks.