Azure Rail history (overview)

## Section 1: the Valley Electric and North coast railways

### 1950-1955: The beginning

14 years after the Republic of Azure was founded, it was apparent that Azure's growing Chemical and Manufacturing Industry needed a more efficient means of transporting goods in, out, and around the country, along with passenger service to support Azure's growing postwar population. thus a group of factory, and logging company owners founded the Elektrische Talbahn (Valley Electric Railway), The North Coast Railway, and the Schmidt Park, Innenstandt, und Industriegebeit Eisenbahn (SP, IS, & IG). the original equipment for the ETB was 25 GG-1s with 25KV60Hz internals. the NCR's locomotives were 20 ex. L&N and ACL USRA Light Pacifics. The SP, IS, & IG's equipment will not be covered here as it's not an IAR or Azure Rail predecessor

### 1955-1956: Pre-Consolidation

The NCR and ETB operated on basically the same schedule, and relied upon each other to function, they were basically one railroad under 2 different companies, and Patricia Martinez (ETB Co-founder) was married to NCR Co-founder Nora Baldwin, further cementing the 2 railway's unity. In late 1955, Christian Holt, and Member of Parliament Elizabeth "Lizette" Smith proposed a merger of the NCR and ETB, and planning swiftly began on creating a Merged railway. Planning completed in June of 1957 and a request was submitted to parliament, and was approved near-unanimously, 98% yes, 0.5% no, 1.5% abstaining.

## Section 1.5: Republic Railfreight (1952-1975)

### Medicine, and the Military (Beginnings of RRF)

In late 1952, the Republic Health authority (GBR), and The Republic military (MR) submitted a joint proposal to the Republic of Azure Department of Transportation (RADOT), to create a Government-operated railfreight authority to allow for trains to be operated on the government's timetable, taking stress off the NCR and ETB, along with allowing government construction projects to be completed faster. the request was approved by RADOT in early 1953, and 30 ALCO RS3s (designated BR-A by RRF), were ordered.

## Section 2: The Intra-Azure railway

### 1957-1980: The Post Consolidation Era

The Intra-Azure railway (IAR) Was founded by Christian Holt, Patricia Martinez, along with Frank Peterson (the founders of the Valley electric Railway), Dorian Fleming, and Nora Baldwin (founder of the North Coast Railway) in 1957, 21 years after the Founding of The republic of Azure in 1936, with its Mainlines running from what is now Bessemer yard & HBF Azure, to Vista Del Sol, Batávia (Valley Electric) along with the North Coast line, branching off the Valley Electric at Holt Beach and running to North coast city, The IAR acquired 50 EMD GP40s for freight use, 5 EMD E8As for passenger use, and 25 Pullman heavyweight passenger cars converted for commuter use to supplement the Valley Electric's 25 new-built GG-1s and the NCR's 20 USRA Light Pacifics.

### 1980-1987: Expansion

The IAR now awash with venture capital funds, after proving themselves to be successful, soon set out to expand their fleet and infrastructure, buying 40 brand new GE B36-7s, 40 EMD EF40PHes (an electric variant of the EMD F40PH), and 1000 Pullman BTC-1s to completely phase out the ETB and NCR's old equipment, which was placed into storage and currently resides at the HBF Azure railroad heritage center. the HBF Azure Ticket hall was expanded and the Dispatch building was also constructed at this time. The Valley Electric's mainline was widened to 4 tracks, 4 extra tracks were added to the HBF Azure yard, along with 2 extra island platforms, along with expanding the Forest city station and yard to have 2 more island platforms, bringing the total of platforms at the station to 2, and expanding the yard to also be 12 tracks, as opposed to the original 4.

### 1990-1991: Downfall of the company

In October 1990, it was discovered that a high-ranking IAR official (who has been confirmed to be James Sullivan, former CFO, no relation to the former governor of Massachusetts) had been embezzling funds without the knowledge of anyone except for an anonymous whistle-blower, working in the IAR's accounting division, and that the company was receiving fraudulent investments, most likely caused by the same employee who was embezzling funds, and a subsequent audit of the IAR found that the company credit card and bank account were also being abused, and that about 35 million Azuremarks (about, 2.2 million USD adjusted for inflation) nearly 3/4 of the IAR's total value had been transferred to to an offshore bank account, without the knowledge of any of the IAR's executives.

## Section 2.5: Republic Railfreight (1976-1991)

### (WIP) that time the ROA decided to dig a shit ton of holes and tunnels

In 1976, It became apparent to Azure's government that a metro system was needed, along with a new secure document handling facility, as such RRF ordered 30 GM10Bs, and 50 SD40-2Ws from EMD. the SD40s were used for pre-electrification operations in the MetroBahn tunnels, and the Archives Access tunnel. the GM10Bs first saw service on the Republic Archives section of the line.

so in 1976 they built the metrobahn system and the republic archives ans they needed electrics so they could haul more shit so they bouhgt gm10bs ig. then the IAR went bankrupt in 1991 so RADOT bought it and went to the Republic Rail Authority (which at the time was more of an FRA type thing) and said "here this shit is your problem" and the RRA went "huh?" and now we have azure rail (go to section 3 for that)

## Section 3: Azure Rail today

### 1991: Government takeover

After the IAR Filed for bankruptcy, as its headquarters was destroyed, and it's stock price crashed, Parliament signed the Rail Authority act of 1991, in which the government would buy up what was left of the IAR, and hire back most of its employees (including it's original founders), thus creating Azure Rail, the SP, IS & IG was not bought out and still operates today.

### 1991-2003: First expansion era

Immediately after its acquisition of the now former IAR, Azure Rail set out to improve service and reliability, by adding 2 extra tracks to the mainline, and improving HBF Azure (see Hauptbahnhof Azure section 1.2) and, Forest City Union station, along with a near complete fleet upgrade and placing all of the IAR's non-electric equipment into storage where it would be moved to the Hauptbahnhof Azure railroad heritage center

### 2003-2004: James Sullivan controversy

In 2003, James Sullivan (former IAR Executive) was elected as CEO of Azure Rail, despite widespread claims of election fraud that were confirmed true in early 2012, and soon set out on various controversial service cuts, most notably the El Internacional, a K train service that ran from Forest City Union station to Vista Del Sol, Batávia, which was reinstated in 2004. other service cuts included various Forest City K, and C trains, including some vital rush-hour K trains, most Off-Peak C trains, various Regional services with local stops, shortline freight, and all trains to Boldville (Reinstated 2004).

He was also charged with multiple counts of attempted embezzlement, money laundering, ties to organized crime, and attempted sexual assault of Estela Sanchez, a member of Parliament, which lead to the joint authority board, to hold a vote of no confidence that removed James Sullivan from office with a near unanimous vote (19:1)

### 2004-Present: Second expansion era

After James Sullivan was removed from office, another vote for CEO was held with the winner being Marisol Martinez (daughter of IAR Co-founder Patricia Martinez), who subsequently set out on the new expansion plan, a radical plan that included everything from reinstating the El Internacional K train, expanding to include other international connections including the Azure-America Tunnel, which connects the ROA with Brookport Georgia Via Brunswick, Georgia, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, the development of the HF140 (HST), and the creation of the MutualFreight Joint Authority, a shared assets and trackage program operated by Azure Rail, D&MM, East Lines, and YTC.