Campaigns 1-6

Campaign 1: The Iron Shed

This is the easiest campaign to win, as you might expect. It's a small map at 150 by 150, so it doesn't hold much interest once past the primary mission objectives. When selecting bonuses, I would recommend the "-10% track costs." The first priority is to connect Baltimore to Washington. Your company doesn't quite have enough cash for this, I would recommend floating a bond which will give you $500k extra which is more than enough - do this at the begginning while your credit rating still allows. I suggest a single track line. Once you have done this, set up a few train services between the two cities. I recommend four trains, two with two passenger cars, and two with one mail and one passenger car, longer trains are not advisable because of the low technology available.. This should get you a bronze. Once money starts to roll in from this service, start thinking about the extension to Harpers Ferry, west of Baltimore. First connect to Frederick and set up a passenger/mail service between Baltimore and Frederick again with short trains. Then connect to Harpers Ferry. However, Harpers ferry usually has less than 4 houses. This means it isn't a good idea to run any services to Harpers Ferry as it won't demand passengers and mail. Then sit back and let the money roll in. That will get you a silver. For the gold you must connect to Philidelphia, I recommend dragging the line to Philedelphia to find out how much it costs, and then only going ahead with the construction once you have enough money for the whole route. Otherwise, if you build gradually as you get the money, you will face increased track maintainance costs. Once this has been done, set up a few services from Philidelphia to Baltimore, and Philidelpia to Washington, and if there is money left over, I suggest upgrading sections of track (especially around Baltimore) to double track. This should guarentee you a gold.

Campaign 2: Handle on the Breadbasket

When you start, your company already has a connection between New York City and Albany. Take advantage of this: Set up two train services between the towns, one with two passenger cars, the other with one passenger/one mail. This should bring in some money. Then build an extension to Philedelphia, and set up two trains between Philedelphia and Albany. Once this brings money, extend directly to Washington, and set up a couple of trains going between Washington and New York. This should roll in the money. Wait until you have about one million dollars. Then you can go to the east of the map and build a rail link between Chicago and Pittsburg. Make sure that you equip both stations with Water/Sanding towers and also build a small station half way along with Water/Sanding facilities. Run a couple of train services between Chicago and Pittsburg. Wait a while, and soon you will have enough money to build a rail connection from Pittsburg to New York. Try to keep gradients to a minimum even if this involves taking a little detour. Once connected you will be awarded a large sum of money. Then set up many services between New York and Chicago, and use three car trains. Then upgrade as much as you can to double-track line. I suggest that you re-route all the other trains going into New York and Chicago to other stations, so that all passengers and mail at New York/Chicago can be transported on the long-distance trains. Once this is done your book value is bound to be above $4million and you are on target for a gold, which will be won once you have transported 8 car loads between New York and Chicago.

Campaign 3: Bridging a Nation

I recommend the New Orleans-to-Los Angeles route out of the three options, because it has more friendly terrain in the west. When starting the company, go for the maximum initial investment possible from yourself and other investors. Start at New Orleans (as this has flatter terrain) and build a double-track link to Houston, and put a couple of three car passenger/mail trains to run between them. If there are any ports make sure you get one in the stations radius, as these produce three passenger cars per year. Once this starts making money, subsequently extend to Austin for an Austin-New Orleans service, then to Midland Odessa, then to El Paso - trying to keep gradients below 3.5% - it is possible. You might also want to build a small station at Los Angeles to ensure competing companies don't set up their own station there. From then extend to Tucson, or forget about it if Tucson already has a service. Continue the line down via Yuma although this town is usually too small (less than 4 houses) to warrant a station. Build the line on the beach next to the Salton Sea, this will mean the line is completely flat. Then connect to Los Angeles, trying to get any ports within station radius. Now start running lots and lots of trains between Los Angeles and New Orleans. I run about 20 trains between the cities. Three cars long each usually two passengers and a mail, or three passengers, or two passengers and one food if you have a port in radius. Make sure you have double track all the way. It will be a few years before the money comes in, and don't build all trains in one go. Also give your stations all the passenger upgrades. Re-route all services that used to go to New Orleons, that way you can ensure all passengers at New Orleons will be transported all the way to Los Angeles, far more profitable than shorter distance services. When you have enough money, upgrade your bridges to double-track stone ones. Although this is costly at $300k per bridge, it is required otherwise bottlenecks occur. This should help the company be profitable to have an equity above $10M to get a Silver. To get the Gold, have a personal net worth of $8M by the end of 1878 - for information on building personal worth - see my Building up Personal Weatlh section.

Campaign 4: Silver Booms and the Market Busts

Its western USA and you have to build up your personal wealth. The faster and higher your build your wealth the faster and higher your personal wealth goes the better prize you win. I recommend you read my section about Building up Personal Wealth. When you start you will have a station at Kansas City. I recommend connecting it east towards Topeka. There are usually some cattle yards and grain silos, and Kansas city usually has a meat packing plant. So you can transport grain to the cattle yard, cattle to meat packing plant and food to Topeka. If you do it right you can do it with only one train. Further north there is Omaha, where there is often a Bakery. You can transport grain up here and take the food to Kansas city and possibly a Passenger/Mail service between Kansas and

Campaign 5: Whistle Stops and Promises

This is an unusual campaign. You don’t worry about money, you can't lay track, build trains or anything really. Also the date passes a lot more slowly. Well basically the purpose of this mission is to route your train to as many stations as possible in 14 days. Interestingly enough, you can change the throttle settings. You can get an extra 20% speed by pushing this into the red zone, but increased breakdowns may counterbalance any time saving. Amazingly the train can crash! If this happens then simply start again. I have devised a route, which allows you to visit 16 destinations in less than 14 days, allowing you to win the Gold. This is the route using the 2-6-0 Mogul:

If you want to see this displayed graphically click here for a map. Undoubtedly this isn't the only route which results in a gold. There is no other campaign quite like this one. If you want to use the map for a normal game, load it in the scenario editor and remove the restrictions, then resave it as something else.

Campaign 6: Crossing the Great Divide.

The aim of the game here is to build a railway that spans right across Canada, all the way from Halifax on the east coast to Vancover on the west coast. I recommend you choose the low track building costs when setting up, and set dividends to zero and Issue lots of stock - personal wealth takes a back seat in this game. Initially, instead of starting at either end, I suggest you start by linking Quebec and Montreal and running three passenger/mail trains, each three cars long and pulled by the Iron Duke. I suggest equipping Quebec with a water tower, sanding tower and roundhouse straight away. Once this starts bringing in the cash extend the track to Ottawa. Because there probably won't be any excess passengers at Quebec or Montreal, I suggest re-routing one of your existing trains, say doing Quebec-Ottawa. When you get enough money extend to North Bay and re-route another train between North Bay to Montreal, as a result it will be important to build Water/Sanding facilities at Ottawa. Extend to Sudbury, and then start building new trains. Sudbury to Montreal/Quebec is usually a good idea. Then extend to Sault Ste. Marie and set up a train to Ottawa. If there is a port nearby try to make sure it is in the station radius as they produce 3 passenger cars per year. Build on the north beach of Lake Superior as it will be fairly flat, and extend to Thunder Bay. Subsequently extend to Winnipeg and Regina, remembering to build water/sanding facilities and the occasional roundhouse, remember route all trains for long distances. Once your there just wait for the money to come in. I suggest waiting until you have enough money to extend to Halifax in the east, and Vancouver in the west before doing so, otherwise you will have to pay track maintenance for track not yet in use. When extending to Vancouver, I suggest going via the USA in the south, head towards Seattle, the terrain is far less hilly here. If you get any opportunity for access rights in the USA I suggest taking them, as the rights are not usually buyable. To connect to Halifax, I suggest building North East of Quebec because the terrain is less hostile than trying a direct route. Remember to get ports in your radius. Once connected build lots of trains. About 20 is about right. I suggest building a large number of Passenger only trains, with three cars each, if you have ports in your radius. Equip Vancouver and Halifax with all the Passenger bonuses, Saloons, Hotels, Restaurants. This will help you rake in the cash, and put you on track for the Gold award, which requires your company value to exceed $50M. Once the cash starts to flow in - and believe me it will, you can build build build. I recommend you don't try to build lots of junctions on the line, every junction causes congestion problems. I recommend being heavy on industry investments and industries. These types of investment will add to your company value and pull in the cash. Although trains add to company value, they have to be replaced eventually without getting back any of your initial investment.

Click here to go to Campaigns 7-12