Train game

A train game or railway game is a board game that represents the construction and operation of railways. Train games tend to be highly involved hobby games that take several hours to play. Like wargames, train games represent a relatively small niche in the games market.

Not every game with a train in it is a "train game". For example, the domino game Mexican Train and Monopoly are not usually considered train games because they do not represent railway operations. Empire Builder and 1830 are examples of train games.

Classic train games generally fall into two broad categories: 18XX games and "crayon rail" games:

18XX games originated in 1974 with the publication of Francis Tresham's 1829 and continued with such titles as 1830, 1856, and 1870. These games involve buying and selling stock in railway companies, laying track, and running locomotives to generate a profit. Most are hex map games in which cardboard tiles are laid to build sequences of railway track. Many 18XX games can be further divided into "1829 style games," which emphasize company development, and "1830 style games," which emphasize robber baron stock market manipulation.

Crayon rail games are more streamlined and do not contain a stock market component. They focus on laying track, delivering goods, and making profits. Instead of the hex map system found in 18XX games, railway tracks are drawn with crayons or dry erase markers. The first mass market crayon style game was Darwin Bromley and Bill Fawcett's Empire Builder which was released in 1980 by Mayfair Games, however Railway Rivals by David Watts had been popular - especially amongst postal gamers - for nearly 10 years before that. Other games in the Empire Builder series include British Rails, Eurorails, India Rails, and North American Rails, to name a few. Some of these are even set in a fantasy or science fiction world, such as Iron Dragon and Lunar Rails.

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