[quote=@Athol]
Would it be fair to assume that 'Station' would be synonymous with 'City', and with smaller towns East or West of the Stations, feeding them water/materials for either the Station's population or for trade North or South along the line? 
[/quote]

Not all stations are created equal, but in general since they are so important to the surrounding land, cities and towns do tend to naturally spring up around them since freight is so important.  Then of course other towns and cities wherever there is water or sometimes an important natural resource like iron or trees.  If for some reason a town did not develop around the station itself, perhaps too far away from a stable water source for other reason, usually there is at least a saloon, hotel, and of course places for the train staff.

[quote=@Lotrix Molick]
<Snipped quote by Athol>
Also, a big consideration is whether refined metal or good wood is easier to come by. With low quality wood and average metal access, crossbow edges out bow. With high quality wood or high quality metal with access to proper adhesives, then composite reflex wins due to quality allowing for high, compact draw weight and thus offering nearly the same power for a faster shot. Crossbows are more durable overall and have half the weight on their ammo. The problem is rate of fire as well as how the character would get the draw full.

What type of armor is common in this era? If armor is at best infrequently used, then the crossbow would require far less "power" behind it as period mechanics could allow an inbuilt pull mechanism to reduce fatigue and increase speed.
[/quote]

As water is hard to come by, big trees and good wood can also be rather difficult to obtain.  Often times stone and brick tend to be the construction material of choice as it is much easier to come by.

The closest you will probably get to armor would be things like hardened hides and leather.  Of course a lot of people use knives and the like so something to protect against that would be good, but since guns are a thing, mobility and ease of wear is much more important.  Course there are exceptions to every rule but as good metal can be hard to come by not very many have any types of 'armor'.