Train Tycoon: Railway World

A hand-drawn railroad on a real map of the world: 395 cities, six continents, and one station to start with. Here is how the first year usually goes.

Day 1. You build a station in your first city and lay track to the next one. Rails cost money, so you choose every stretch yourself.

Day 4. The lumber camp brings in timber, the mine brings in iron. Workshops turn them into beams and ingots, the factory into ties and rails. Now your own industry builds the railroad.

Day 9. New faces at the labor exchange, each with a name, an age, a trade and a price. Everyone needs a home and a bus to the job. Skip the city bus line and nobody gets to work, and the workshop stands idle.

Day 20. The city asks for a power station, police, a hospital and a cinema. Meet every need, the rating hits one hundred percent, and it can sink a diamond mine.

Day 35. Waybills arrive: ties to Leon, oil for export to Seoul. Take a contract and deliver on time, or pay the penalty.

Day 60. Every country has its own trade: coffee in Brazil, tea in India, wine in France, gold in South Africa. Goods wait in the warehouse until prices rise on the exchange, and exports to the country of the fair of the week pay half again as much.

Every morning. The Railroad Gazette reports what happened overnight, today's exchange prices and where the fair is. A game day lasts 30 minutes, and the railroad keeps running even while the game is closed. If a bus breaks down or a line is finished, a telegram arrives.

Day 312. Your album holds postcards from every city your railroad has reached, and medals for 35 honors. Your trains wear the company livery, and your name is in the Hall of Fame among tycoons from around the world.

What’s new

A CIRCULAR FROM THE RAILROAD BOARD, No. 4.1

Tycoons! The Board hereby announces: every train now has its own duty, and the post is carrying stamps. Halloween Week is on the line, with the Harvest Festival and winter to follow.

• Train roles. The Cargo train won't take passengers, the Commuter won't take ore. Passenger trains earn most between busy cities, the Cargo train by trades and workshops, the Commuter on short legs, the Long distance train on long ones, and the Military train is sturdy and trusted with gold. Match the train to the line — or build a passenger company, a freight empire or a mixed network

• The store. Each model card shows its load per trip, what it carries and what it is good at. Before you buy, compare it with the best train in your fleet

• Urgent orders. Passengers and mail between your cities: half the deadline, half again the pay. For High-speed, Superfast and Maglev only

• Buses. Forty seats — whoever doesn't fit misses the shift. At the depot: Fuel tank, Engine and a Cabin of up to a hundred seats

• Parcels and stamps. Contracts, trips, a fresh Gazette and stations in famous cities bring parcels with stamps of the world. Six series in the philatelist's album, a club that swaps duplicates, and a new livery for every full series

• Halloween Week, until November 9. Jack-o'-lanterns, bats, a ghost train and a black cat on the platform — ten night-time stamps; half the series earns the Pumpkin livery, the full series a pumpkin lantern by the station. A little late, but with a gift: a telegram and three parcels

• Harvest Festival, November 19 — December 3. A golden fall map, pumpkins and haystacks by the towns, falling leaves. Ten harvest stamps; half the series earns the Harvest livery, the full series a fair barn by the station that doubles the town's trade warehouse. On Thanksgiving — a telegram and three gift parcels

• Winter season, December 15 — January 7. Snow on the map, roofs and trains, garlands on the stations, snowfall and a winter app icon. Ten winter stamps; half the series earns the Christmas livery, the full series a tree on the station square. On New Year's Eve — fireworks and three parcels

• Decorations and results. Every station and house wears the season its own way, and the bats flap their wings. When a season closes, the post sends its results: stamps collected, rewards won and when the next season begins. Rewards stay for good

• The dining car. A kitchen at the depot: a garden, produce from parcels and your own trades, 16 dishes of the world's cities — from pancakes to paella. Every dish served brings coupons and +5% to trips for a day, and the first one adds a page to the cookbook. A 30-step season menu leads to the Orient Express restaurant — and there won't be another

• Grand stations. Five grades for every station: stars by the city's name and a bonus for the trains on its lines

• Widgets. Your treasury and what's coming up on the Home Screen, the Gazette's front page, and a line on the Lock Screen

• A big network. Pick a city with search by city and country, a Notice tab with every trouble on the network, search for staff and trains, collapse cities in the fleet, and "All at once" to house everyone and put them to work

• Balance. Treasury packs grow with your railroad's income. Handing in duplicates now keeps the ones you need for swaps. Manufactured goods on contracts pay a little less, and after eight hours away the railroad runs at half strength. "While you were away" now counts expenses too

Steam is up. Your move, tycoon.