Try this one...
Because of the geography of
Ontario railroads to Western Canada waited until the 20th century. In this Q6 world geology was a little different and there was an easy path to lay the tracks on and cross the province. In the mid 1840s, a Cyrus J. West (a minor railroad builder in most worlds) laid a railroad track north from
the port of Duluth to a small trading post on Canadian soil. Given the link, the British government, desiring a railroad to Western Canada, built the Trans-Ontario rail line building form both west and east to the center.
Then a rail line from the trading post (now named Cyrusville) to the West Coast was laid down in a few years.
In the USA the announcement that a Trans Canada rail line existed caused a storm of fury, in the South. The fight over the transcontinental railroad in the states was about where to put the railhead.
The South demanded New Orleans, they wanted and needed a west settled by slave-owning southerners. The North would have preferred Chicago but would have settled for St. Louis, mainly because Slaveholders didn't go West that often. But they didn't want the West to be either exclusively settled by the South nor to be filled with slave states.
This Canadian rail line was filling the West with abolitionist New Englanders as well as Irish and British immigrants. The South is furious and wants war with Britain. The North yawns and says no. Britain, which was in its most imperialistic phase, and wanted to split the South off from the USA is perplexed. The High Nobility and the rich (who ran the UK's government at this time) wanted to retain the moral credit for being anti-slavery but would have gladly ignored slavery in an independent South, are unhappy that the South wants the North to join them in a war against Britain. Centrum, which is trying to derail the development of both Germany and the USA so that Britain retains their Empire, is also unhappy. They'd like an early ACW so that Lincoln wouldn't lead the North to victory and renewed democracy.
Homeline's goal in this world is to prevent a meltdown before Lincoln gets into office and also to prevent Centrum from just shooting either Lincoln or Grant.
Extra fun; a Swagman from an unknown parallel has settled down on this parallel in the neighborhood of Yonkers New York. He has already introduced the screw propeller and improved steam engines. He seems to be taking the local technology in a steampunk direction. The Icops will need to figure out whether or not this guy is a threat or a blessing.