Research and patents

Technologies make your railroad better: new locomotives, faster and stronger trains, cheaper running, better pay on some freight, and new kinds of track building. You pay for each one with your railroad's money and wait while it is researched. The first railroad to finish a technology gets a patent, which keeps everyone else out of it for a while.

The technologies belong to the railroad, not to you as a player. There are seventy-five of them. Every technology in the game lists them all with their prices, times and effects.

Do this first

1. Open your own railroad's page. Under At a glance, find the In the works heading. It shows what your shops are researching and your Research slots. This part of the page shows only on a railroad you run.
2. Press Open the tech tree. The button also tells you how many technologies you can order right now.
3. Pick a technology and order it. The price is paid at once. The page shows the morning it will finish.

If you want a particular locomotive, look at what it needs first. The Mogul and the Ten Wheeler both need Six Driving Wheels, and the Consolidation needs Eight Driving Wheels, which in turn needs Six Driving Wheels first.

How research works

• One project at a time. Each railroad has one research slot. Researching Railroad-Owned Engine Shops gives you a second slot.
• It takes game days. Each technology has its own time, from about two years up. On the Fifth Charter, research takes a quarter of the days.
• Technologies open as the eras turn. Each one has an era it first becomes available in. Some also need an earlier technology first. A few close to new orders in a later era, such as Railway Post Office Car and Auto Rack. Railroads that already have them keep them.
• What they do. Some let you buy new locomotives. Some raise speed or pulling power, cut running costs, or pay more for a kind of freight. Some unlock a new kind of track building, such as Telegraph Dispatching.
• Engines you already own keep running. A technology only decides whether you can buy a new one.

What it costs

You pay the listed price, or a tenth of your railroad's last year of revenue, whichever is more. A small railroad pays the listed price. A large one pays more, so the price grows with you.

The price is struck when you order, and it is paid then. It does not change while the project runs.

You can stop a project from the same page. Half of what you paid comes back, the same as cancelling track you have ordered. The technology is not researched.

Patents

The first railroad to finish a technology holds its patent for 8 years of game time. While the patent runs, nobody else can start that technology.

A patent does not stop a race already under way. If another railroad finishes first while you are still researching, you still get the technology, but as a licence, and half of what you paid comes back.

You can see who holds what on the Patents tab in the drawer at the bottom of the screen. It is public: every railroad on the board can see who holds each patent and when it runs out.

Licences

When a patent ends, any railroad that has what it needs first can license the technology. That means the era is open and it holds the earlier technologies. A licence costs half the price and takes half the time.

When it becomes free

At the next turn of the era after a patent ends, the technology becomes general practice. Every railroad then has it for nothing, including railroads founded later.

Why it matters

For 8 years after the first railroad finishes a technology, no other railroad can start it. If you wait, you get it for half the price and half the time. If you wait longer, it arrives free.