Dauntless did not begin as a railroad company - in fact, its beginnings stretch back much further. In 1706, the Dauntless Shipping Company was a small fleet of flat-bottomed cargo ships owned by Jebediah Sellich. They traversed the rivers of Huxley carrying various goods to modest but steady success. It was in 1788 that Carlton Sellich made the intelligent move of investing heavily in the newly invented steamboat. This truly set Dauntless apart and they were able to outpace their competition. Soon the Dauntless Shipping Company was the most profitable shipping company in all of Huxley.
Yet, that didn’t fully satisfy the family at the helm of Dauntless. New improvements and inventions were arising often, and the Sellich family took advantage of all. Their insatiable desire for innovation and inexhaustible business prowess brought more and more success. While Dauntless never had a full monopoly on shipping in Elan, they enjoyed the position of being the largest shipping and passenger transport company in operation.
It was during the late 1700s that a new invention began attracting attention: the locomotive. The Sellich family seized the opportunity to begin implementing this technology before any others. However, they were not the only ones to see the merit of this invention. Other companies were created surrounding this technology and soon small railroads were being built. People enjoyed the great convenience of the locomotive over coaches and carriages - both for their own transportation and that of goods.
How to gain an advantage was elusive until 1833, when the provincial government of Huxley put up for bid a charter agreement to connect to Wyllis by railroad. Several railroad companies that already had stakes in Huxley and Abernathy applied for the job, but in the end it was Fredrick Sellich and his fiance Victoria Carver who won this first interprovincial contract. With that, in 1834, Dauntless Railroad Company was founded.
The Dauntless companies quickly became the largest freight shippers of goods in Huxley and used that prestige to push for a further charter, this time from the Elan Parlement. Once it was granted, it made them the most powerful and well funded railroad company in Elan. They continued to expand both across Elan and in their technological advancement, collecting patents for such inventions as steam powered drills (credited to a B. Gooding).
By 1875 Dauntless had laid more tracks across Elan and had more locomotives in service than any other railroad company. Officially this is attributed to shrewd business practices, but there are rumors that it is more likely that the Sellich family are ruthless and cutthroat in all business dealings, forcing those who oppose them into sudden and unexpected financial ruin. Some business rivals have seemed to disappear without a trace.
Dauntless Railroad partnered with Silver Pines Trading company to fund the Hargrove expedition, looking to Thorpe as the next business opportunity. Once word was received in 1877 of the expedition's success, Dauntless broke ground on the first railroad line that would connect Elan to the Thorpe Territory. The line took 14 years to complete due to the harshness of the elements, the difficulty of the terrain, and a major disaster that stalled the project for over a year. It took nearly a hundred thousand workers to complete, not including the many who died in that fateful accident, but it was all worth it to Dauntless. In October of 1891, the first stretch of railroad ever to stretch west of the Girdle Mountains finally reached Hargrove.
The Dauntless Shipping Company has always been a family run organization and the Dauntless Railroad Company is no different. The Sillech and Carver families run every aspect of the business. Only lower ranks of the company (foremen, labor, and security) are ever hired outside of the bloodlines. Often these are the members of the company who bear the blame should anything go wrong.
Working for the railroad is not easy in these ranks. There are always tracks to lay, railways to fix, trains to assist, shipments to track, and deadlines to keep. Currently, the Dauntless Railroad Company is intent on extending its railroad into much more of Thorpe, should Hargrove prove fruitful. Their goal, as it has always been, is to extend their reach - now to any other settlement that arises in the wilderness of Thorpe. And with that means that there is a constant need for workers. It is a never-ending job, filled with strict shifts, heavy responsibilities, and severe mental and physical demands. It isn’t just construction where bodies are needed, but also servicing the trains, protecting the company’s assets, and keeping up with the needs of the railways. Everything that runs must run perfectly or else it hurts the company. But there is always compensation for the work, and pay like that is hard to find. Dangers aside, good money is often hard to find.
C. Sillech. - President
P. Sillech - Vice President
B. Sillech (deceased)- Original Next in line for VP
R. Carver - Current next in line for VP
M. Sillech - Director of the Abernathy Line
J. Carver - Director of the Wyllis line
K. Sillech - Director of the Huxley line
P. Carver - Director of the Killock line
I. Carver - Director of the Gauld line
F. Sillech - Director of the Killock Line
A. Carver - Director of the Thorpe line
The Foreman acts as the manager of workers for a certain section of the railroad. They are responsible for disseminating work, assigning projects, and keeping track of all that is necessary to complete the railroad. All workers answer to the Foreman, and the Foreman answers to the Director, who oversees (and dictates) all operations and goings on of both Dauntless and Hargrove. Often news from higher authorities will come down through them. Should someone cross the Foreman or the Director, the offending party will quickly find themselves out of a job.