Railroad Tycoon III - Orient Express - any dopers have any luck?

Cafe Society
1

Railroad Tycoon III, it seems, is incredibly easy… until ya hit the Orient Express. There are geographical and political barriers. Money’s tight - and in the area where you start, it’s hard to make much cash, and even when you strike a good route it peters out after about a year. Large towns are scattered and few, and resources tend to be quite homogeneous in Austria-Hungary.

After many tries, this challenge seems to me insurmountable without a hint or two. Not a walkthru, mind you, but I searched the web for any tips or tricks that might be published.

Google and Altavista tell me there’s no online help. Maybe nobody’s had any luck with this. Matter o’ fact, there’s almost no documentation on RRIII on the web of any sort (does anybody else even play this game?). So now, I only have hope in Dope.

Anyone? Anyone get to Istanbul?

2

Sounds like the same scenerio in RRT II (build and run the orient express from Paris to Turkey, buying access rights and all).
If you start with full access rights to France (again, like in RRT II), I just build down the Rhone? valley from Paris to Marseille to make some cash, then buy rights to Italy, and then start working your way up (I remember in RRT II Austro-Hungry was the most expensive access rights).
Then the usual start 1 express train in Paris, 1 in Instanbul etc.
I remember I came close to the time limit, but still made it will room to spare.