Since when I was a child, I was enchanted by trains and railroads. Probably because my school was near to the train station and often, when I exited, I went to see the passage of the last steam locomotives still in service. Or, perhaps, because my uncle had a railway plastic model in “HO” scale (materials from the... mythical Rivarossi): after some years I inherited it and enlarged it until the current fixed collocation in a room of 3 x 4 meters (about 10 x 13 foot), with more than 100 locomotives and 300 wagons. So, while I was growing up, soon I began to be interested in games of trains and railroads. I “invented” the first one on a sheet of paper (on which I drew a hypothetic Country, with mountains, rivers and cities). The game used one coloured pencil per player: some dozens of dots were drawn on the “map” and each “railroader” had to connect two cities on the opposite sides of the map using the other dots as intermediate stations. A die was thrown and you connected as many dots as the number shown on the dice: the tunnels (through the mountains) cost 5 points while the bridges (through the rivers) cost only 3.

Several years later, during a study trip in Great Britain to improve my English, I found in a stationery shop a game very similar to the one I believed to have invented (as usual, nothing new under the sun). It was a series of hexagonal little maps settled in various “regions”, with stations, mountains, cities, rivers, crossings, secondary railways, etc. Even here you had to find a die with which you had to “build” a railway (joining the dots in the middle of the hexagons) and then you had to make your trains travel. I don’t remember the name of this game any more, and I cannot find any trace of it in the old “trunks” of my memories: if anybody had a copy or a version of this game, I invite her/him to contact me.
Then, in 1975, during military service in Rome (obviously in the... Railroad Engineers) I found a box of RAILROADER (by Waddingtons, 1963; published in Italy by Giochiclub in 1968 with the subtitle “The Pioneers of West”). A simple little path game for four... railroad companies with an interesting and choreographic quality: the train path is composed by straight or curved pieces of railroad to put in proper holes of the board. At each turn the player has to decide between rolling a die to lay down new pieces of railroad (a piece – 4 spaces – with a roll of 1-2, two pieces – 8 spaces – with 3-4, three pieces with 5-6), or rolling two dice and advance along the built path. The distance between the ties of the pieces of railroad is the “space”: four trains in coloured plastic (a locomotive and two passenger coaches) have to be moved from Junction City, the starting point, to the final destination, Buffalo Creek.
Each player has 5 cases of dynamite (to lay down on the bridges on opponents’ railroads) to make the other trains slow (only one die to move) or to send them back to the previous bridge. Moreover, if the locomotive stops on some special spaces, it has to go back to the nearest military garrison or to draw a “Chance” card. The first player who reaches Buffalo Creek wins.

In 1977 Avalon Hill published the strategic game RAIL BARON (by Thomas Erickson) for 3-6 railroad “barons”. The box contains a big map of the United States divided in seven Regions, with all the main cities connected by the 28 American Railroad Companies, the corresponding property certificates, various pawns and many dollars.
First, the players have to define the starting Region and city using a die and a special chart, then they throw the dice again to establish their destination using the same chart.
At this point, during their turn the player rolls two dice and move her “train” (coloured pawn) along the railroads on the map, changing company at the connecting stations when necessary, paying the royalties for the used stretches of railroad (1000 dollars if the line is owned by the Bank or by the player herself, 5000 if it is owned by an opponent) until the arrival at the destination, where the prize is collected (the more the path has been long or important, the more it is paid).
The possibility to acquire Express or Superchief trains can vie some advantages in terms of voyage speed. The victory goes to the first player who goes back to her starting city with at least 200.000 dollars in their pockets. A board game that was not exhilarating (the importance of chance was too heavy) but that alimented for some months my hunger for railroad games anyway.

The true turning point for us game enthusiasts, was in 1981, in Great Britain, when Francis Tresham published the first child of what would have been a great series of games on railroads: “1829”. 1829 is the year in which the first tests, best known as Rainhill Trials, done in Great Britain (the cradle of railways) established the steam locomotive as the big transport revolution and confirmed, as a fact, the beginning of the Age of Railroads.
The game provides two different systems: the first one (“railway game”) allows 2-5 players to build their railroads in 18th century Great Britain, trying to prevent the opponents to reach their goals. The second one (“business game” for 3-9 players) adds to the laying down of pieces of railroad the financial part, with share certificates of the various companies, the paying of the dividends on the gains, the need to plan the purchases, the bankruptcy, etc.

I knew the existence of this game only some years after its publication and only thanks to a group of enthusiasts of the “18xx” series. As I was not able to find a copy of it nowhere, during a work journey in Great Britain I tried to drop at Francis Tresham’s (the author) house to see if he could send me a copy of it. I discovered that there were two separate versions of the game: “SOUTH” 1829 that comprises the Centre-South of Great Britain, from London to Manchester, and “NORTH” 1829 that comprises the regions of Centre-North instead, from Birmingham to Scotland.
I discovered also that Francis Tresham had a brother who was very similar to the “mad scientist” of the comic films: his hair was like Einstein but more ruffled, he had sudden mood changes, incomprehensible mumbling while he was searching some copies of 1829 in a house obstructed by games, etc. Luckily I managed to come back to Italy with some copies, for my happiness and the happiness of few... lucky ones.

As a matter of fact the game didn’t have a sensational success at the beginning. But it was discovered almost by chance by a certain... Don Grenwood of Avalon Hill, who asked Tresham to realize a version of it settled in the United States, at the dawning of American railways. Four years (and many quarrels between Don and Francis, with exchanges of various threats) were necessary to arrive at what I think it is the best strategic/financial simulation game on railroads ever realized: “1830”, published in 1986.

As his Britannic “parents”, “1830” has a map with big superimposed hexagons, used to lay down the pieces of railroad. Some of the “landscape” is already printed on the map, e.g. all of the main cities, the rivers and the mountains, but the most of hexagons is in... anonymous greenish, ready to receive the railroads that the players will decide to build. On the map are also printed the charts necessary to calculate the share and the other financial operation values. The box is completed by certificates of the Railroad Companies (bigger and smaller ones), the train data cards (from the first steam trains to the powerful diesel locomotives), a big heap of banknotes, several tokens and the “hexagons with the pieces of railroad” (in three colours: yellow for the dawning, green for the years of the big development, brown for the years of consolidation and joining). The players are big financiers determined to create and to manage railroad companies.
In the first part of the game the financiers buy or sell share certificates to try to climb the various Companies. In fact the one who reaches the 60% of the shares becomes the President, receives money in proportion to the “par”, the amount initially fixed by her for the single shares and with those money she has to manage her Railroad, connecting the cities on the map and buying the necessary trains.
According to the number of cities that their trains can connect at each turn, the Companies gain money and try to improve the value of their shares (distributing the dividends to all the shareholders) or try to enrich their President (with disastrous results for the quotation in the Stock Exchange). The player who has more financial power (money, value of shares, etc.) when an opponent declares bankruptcy because he cannot operate with one of his railroads, wins. Really a great game, but not for everybody as uncommon “financial” attitude and a certain attitude to take the situation at a glance are necessary to build the railroads.

“1830” was nevertheless a big success and gave life to a long series of games (called the “18xx” series) for thousands of enthusiasts all over the world: from “1853” (published in 1989, again by Hartland Trefoil of Francis Tresham and dedicated to the Indian railways) to “1856” (Mayfair Games, 1992; Canadian railroads), from “1870” (Mayfair, 1992, trans-Mississippi area railroads) to “1849-1850” (published in Italy by Vellani/Mancini, dedicated to Sicilian railroads). And so on: it does exist at least half a dozen of professional and/or semi-homemade productions, that cover practically all the countries of Europe, while many internet sites are dedicated to this “system” and function as a meeting point for all the fans.

Above I mentioned some titles of Mayfair Games, that must have a particular predilection for train games: as a matter of fact, in 1990 it published the game EXPRESS: THE RAILROAD CARD GAME, composed by a deck of 132 cards representing wagon and passenger cars, locomotives and revolving platforms, maintenance cars and... various disasters.
The aim of the game is to be the first to reach 100 points by compounding trains of locomotives and wagons. It can be played in 2-3-5 players, each playing on her own, or in 4 or 6, playing in couples. Each player receives 8 cards and, at her turn, must draw two other ones from the deck (or one from the deck and the other from the discard pile), laying down one or more “trains” (that is, a series of cards composed by one locomotive and at least one wagon) or adding wagons to the already placed trains. Then the player discards one card or attacks the opponents with “disaster” cards that can be countered by proper “way cards” (representing maintenance cars). At the end of each hand the wagons of each train are counted and, on this basis, the points of each player or couple are awarded.
The game seems to be inspired to the “classic” French MILLE BORNES, with the train world settlement and with the addition of some “pepper” (the special cards); it is fairly entertaining, particularly if played in couples.

Mayfair Games repeated the experiment after some years and in 1996 it published a new train card game, created by a certain... Alan R. Moon (we will talk about him later): FREIGHT TRAIN. In this game, 2-5 railroaders compete in sorting out freight trains in a “depot” made from 5 rows of 5 cards/freight trains. Each player takes a certain number of locomotives and tries to make complete trains behind her locomotive, sorting the wagons between the main depot (with all face up cards) and a personal depot with only two tracks. Clearly, all these movements are “bind” by precise rules and the trains must be all homogenous (that is, with the same type of wagons). It is a combination game easy to understand, but not so easy to be played well.
It develops in three distinct hands and, at the end of each of them, points are awarded based on the length of trains made by each stationmaster: who has the most points after the third hand is the winner.

Alan Moon must love the games on trains as, 8 years later, we find him as the author of one of the most important successes of 2004: I am speaking of TICKET TO RIDE (published by Days of Wonder), one of the board games that had more success last year world-wide, born from a French-American collaboration (the designer comes from the United States, the graphic, the final setting up and the printing are French).
We find the mini-card of wagons and locomotives (as in Freight Train) and the idea to “choose” between a certain number of face-up cards to create the necessary combinations. We are back again in the United States and on the map we find the bigger cities of the American territory, connected by potential “railroads” of variable length (one or more spaces) and various colours (corresponding to those of the wagon cards needed to build them), plus some neutral railroads that could be built with one combination of cards of a colour chosen by the player. All the player receive at the beginning 45 wagons of their colour, three “ticket” cards (that show a start and a destination station) and four “wagon” cards (there are 8 types of wagons, each characterized by a background colour, and 14 locomotives, that work as wild cards).
At each turn only one of the following actions can be played:
(a) take two wagon cards (from a group of four face-up cards on the table or face down from the deck) or a locomotive card (if there is any, among the face-up cards)
(b) play a series of wagon cards, all of the same colour, to build a railroad (that is, to lay down on the board a number of player’s wagons corresponding to a track of the same colour or neutral)
(c) draw three extra “ticket” cards to try to increase the number of journeys (and of points).
As the connections between the various cities (railroads) are in a limited number, the players tend to occupy soon the lines of the main junctions, to exploit them later, in the middle game, to realize their paths. It is absolutely necessary, in fact, that a “path” (from the start station to the destination one) is realized of a series of uninterrupted railroads connected by the wagons of the player. As any railroad can be covered by wagons of only one colour, it is clear that two stations can be connected by using alternative paths if the direct connections are already occupied, but with a huge loss of time and depletion of cards.
As soon as a player remains with less than 3 wagons, all the players do a last turn and the game ends: the points for all the railroads (ranging from 1 point for railroads with 1 space to 15 points for railroads of 6 spaces) and for the realized paths (the number of points varies depending on the length of the path itself) are summed up, subtracting the points for the paths NOT realized. Who has the highest sum wins.
A game that has been able to seduce gamers of all ages and both genders, thanks to an intelligent use of luck (card draw), of tactics (choice of the railroads to build according to the cards in hand) and strategy (how to close more paths as possible trying to utilize at best the railroads).

The success of TICKET TO RIDE has been so clamorous that one year after (2005) Alan Moon and Days of Wonder relapse again with the... second volume of the work: TICKET TO RIDE EUROPE. We come back to old Europe and we battle to connect the main cities of the continent: from Rome to London, from Istanbul to Madrid, from Moscow to Paris, etc.
The game has the same framework of the “American” brother, but some additional little rules make it a little different to play. First of all, the longer paths tickets (more difficult, but giving a higher number of points) are equally distributed among players (in the previous game all the tickets were given by chance). All the other (shorter) paths are chosen randomly as usual. Then, it is necessary to consider all the numerous tunnels and ferries that connect the various regions of Europe: in this case, having the exact number of wagon cards of the colour of the railroad it is not enough. Finally, each player has three “stations” that, for an “affordable” price in points, can be built on a city allowing to use one of the adjoining railroads (even if it is covered by opponents’ wagons) as if is theirs, but only to calculate the “ticket” points. The game does not change much, but it is necessary a greater care in the choice of the railroads, especially if it is necessary to create a tunnel: try it without a proper supply of extra wagon cards (or wild cards) could generate a big delay to the player. On the other hand the... aid comes from the stations, which can be important for the players that have very distant paths among them.

I wanted to talk of another beautiful railroad game: AGE OF STEAM (Winsome Games / Warfrog), but unfortunately I have not received yet a copy of the second edition. I will talk about it another time but – judging from the reactions of who owns this game – it is another big success.

Finally, I want to mention quickly the only two PC railroad games that I considered interesting enough to buy them:

(1) - LOCO COMMOTION, that presents some railroad “problems” to solve. On each stage you have to make a passenger car arrive to the destination, using the logic and the instruments at your disposition to overcome the obstacles on the path: switches to turn, broken pieces of railroad, tumbledown bridges, tunnels to dig, etc.

(2) – A certain depth, instead, for TRAINZ – RAILROAD SIMULATOR 2004 (Auran), that is a real game of... little trains. It is, perhaps, a video game, but who cares? With TRAINZ we can create a real miniature railroad and then... cover it “seated” on the chair of the engine-driver (to see the railroad that runs before us) or to sort out wagon cars in a big depot, to create paths and to observe their timetables, etc. It is an American game, but it does exist a base of gamers all around the world that has developed models and paths suited to the characteristics of the lines of their country, including Italy. If you like railroads... I warmly suggest it to you.

And that’s all: we have done an excursion in a world that the games, in my opinion, have not fairly served yet. But I hope to have excited your curiosity. I thank in advance who can inform me about other titles not in this list: and now, green disk signal, whistle and... have a good journey!