Your first line and first train

A new railroad starts with money, a charter and nothing built. This page walks you through the first line, from the first station to the first train, and explains what the board is telling you while you wait.

What the charter gives you

Your charter covers the time, not the bill. Your first two stations, the track between them and your first locomotive are built the day you order them. You still pay for each one. After those, everything you order takes game time, and the price button tells you how many days.

A short tour starts by itself the first time you open a railroad with nothing built, as long as you have not skipped or finished it before. It points at each control in turn, and you can skip it. The gear menu always has Replay the tour. Once you have built something, pressing it tells you the tour needs a railroad with nothing built yet.

Start the railroad

Press Play free on the home page, or Start my railroad on the game shelf. Neither one asks for a name. Your railroad is called after your account until you order your first line, and then it takes its name from that line. The railroad names page explains how, and how to rename it.

1. Pick a line

Select any town on the map. While you have nothing built, its panel shows the Surveyor's report: up to three lines out of that town, each with what it should earn per day after upkeep and what it costs to build. They are advice. Any pair of towns is yours to take.

2. Build a station at each end

Open one end of your line and press Build station. The price is on the button, and the daily upkeep is under it. Under the charter the station opens today.

Now open the other end. If you used the surveyor's report, its name is in the Corridors from here list of the first town, and pressing the name opens it. Build a station there too.

3. Lay the track between them

Open either station. Corridors from here lists the neighbouring towns with the length of each corridor and its price. Press the price beside the other end of your line. The founding track opens the same day.

A corridor can only be built outward from your railhead, which is a station or track you already run. If you do not reach the town, the panel says Corridors are built from your railhead: a station, or track you already operate. If you do reach it but do not have the cash, the price button is greyed and gives no reason, so check the price against your railroad's money.

Everything after the founding track is graded and laid over game days. The button shows the time next to the price, for example ~20d. To reach a town several corridors away, open it and press Survey a line here. That prices every corridor between your railhead and the town, and lets you order the whole line at once.

4. Order your first locomotive

Press + New train in the bar along the bottom of the board. It is also on your railroad's own panel. Two stations and a corridor come before a train.

The order sheet opens with a locomotive already picked. Change shows the others and what each costs. If your railroad has exactly one corridor, both ends of it are your stations, and you have no train yet, both ends are already in the route. With more than one corridor the route starts empty, and you add stops with Add a stop. The choosing stops page covers that part.

Press the button at the foot of the sheet. Under the charter it reads Start train, and the train is delivered today. After the charter is spent it reads Order train, and the sheet names the delivery wait in days.

The button stays greyed until the order can work, and a line under it says why. The code checks these in this order, and shows the first that applies:

1. there is no locomotive: Choose an engine.
2. there are fewer than two stops: Add at least two stops.
3. any stop is in a town with no station (every stop is checked before any leg);
4. then each leg in turn, from the first: no track joins that stop to the next, or, for an electric locomotive, there is no wire along that leg;
5. the railroad cannot afford the locomotive: Not enough cash for this engine.

Every train is named when you order it, with a road number such as No. 1. An all-express train is called an Express and an all-bulk one an Extra. You can rename it from its panel.

What the status line tells you

Once something is under way, one line at the top of your railroad's panel and on the board's status strip says what it is and when it will be done. These are the words it uses while a corridor is being graded:

Grading Boston – Worcester. Opens 14 March 1831, Thursday about 2 pm.

There are three parts: what is being built, the game date it opens, and the same moment on your own clock. If several works are under way, it shows the one that opens first and adds and 2 more.

Work always comes first. A train's run is shown only when nothing is being built. Then the line names the train, which is its road number unless you have renamed it:

No. 1 is running Boston – Worcester. Arrives 3 March 1831, today about 6 pm.

If the clock is paused, the line says so, because a paused game never reaches that moment.

On a phone the strip is shorter and puts the time first, for example Opens Thu about 2 pm, followed by what it is.

The line ends with a suggestion that does not wait on track. With no locomotive yet it tells you to order one, so the line has a train the day it opens. With a train, it suggests posting your tariff, which is the rate everyone pays to use your line. After that it points you at the Railroads tab to see who else is building nearby.

If nothing is being built and no train is on its way, there is no line.

While you wait

In the early years a game day lasts 4 real minutes, so a corridor that takes 20 game days opens in 80 minutes of your time. The pace page explains how long a game day is.