Freight Train Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • How Many Cards to Use
  • Creating the Draw Pile
  • Locomotives Per Player
• What To Do On Your Turn
  • 1. Change Start Player
  • 2. Add To Main Yard (optional)
  • 3. Choose Your Main Action
    • a) Take Cars From The Main Yard
    • b) Move Cars From Your Private Yard To Your Trains
    • c) Switch (Rearrange) Your Private Yard
    • d) Add A New Locomotive
    • e) Add A Caboose
• Rules For Adding A Car
• End Of Day
• New Day Setup
• Scoring
  • Scoring One Type Of Train
  • Scoring Private Yards
• End Of Game
• Official Variants

Components

• 176 Car cards total — 16 each of 11 car types: Auto Rack, Box, Coil Steel, Container, Gondola, Hopper, Ore, Piggyback, Refrigerator, Stock, Tank
• 1 End Of Day card
• 7 Caboose cards
• 35 Locomotive cards
• 15 Bumpers
• 1 wooden train marker (start player marker)
• Score pad / paper for keeping score

Setup

1. Give each player 5 points. Keep score on paper.
2. Choose a starting player. He takes the wooden train marker.
3. Each player sets up his trains: place your locomotives in front of you, leaving space next to each for a line of cars to be placed later.
4. Set up the Main Yard: place 5 bumpers in the middle of the table. Next to each bumper, place 5 cars face-up in a line.
5. Each player sets up his own Private Yard: put 2 bumpers in front of yourself. Next to each bumper, place 6 cars face-up in a line.
6. Create the Draw Pile from the remaining cars (see Creating the Draw Pile, below).
7. Use a Caboose pile: place all 7 Cabooses in a pile, separate from the Draw Pile.

How Many Cards to Use

Before setup, remove cards according to the number of players:

Players	Remove this many of each car type (11 types)	Remove this many bumpers	Each player takes this many locomotives	Keep this many additional locomotives	Remove the rest
2	7	6	7	4	—
3	4	4	6	6	—
4	none	2	5	8	—
5	none	none	5	10	—

Creating the Draw Pile

1. Shuffle the cars to be used.
2. Divide them into equal stacks:
   • During setup: 2 stacks.
   • After Day 1: 3 stacks.
   • After Day 2: 4 stacks.
3. Shuffle the End Of Day card into one of these stacks.
4. Place that stack face-down, then place the other stack(s) face-down on top of it.

Locomotives Per Player

Make sure each player has the correct number of locomotives for the point reached in the game:

Players	Day 1 Setup	Day 1 During	Day 2 Setup	Day 2 During	Day 3 Setup	Day 3 During
2	7	7 or 8	8	8 or 9	9	9
3	6	6 or 7	7	7 or 8	8	8
4	5	5 or 6	6	6 or 7	7	7
5	5	5 or 6	6	6 or 7	7	7

What To Do On Your Turn

1. Change Start Player

Skip this on the 1st turn of the game. If you have the wooden train marker, pass it to your left-hand neighbor. Your turn is then over.

2. Add To Main Yard (optional)

This is only allowed if at least 2 bumpers in the Main Yard are empty. Choose 1 empty bumper and place 5 cars face-up in a line next to it. If you draw the End Of Day card while doing this, see End Of Day, below.

3. Choose Your Main Action

You must do exactly 1 of the following main actions.

a) Take Cars From The Main Yard

Only allowed if the Main Yard has at least 3 cars. Take exactly 3 cars, one at a time, from the end of a line (the end farthest from the bumper). From this group of 3, add each card to either:

• one of your trains, or
• one of the bumpers in your Private Yard.

b) Move Cars From Your Private Yard To Your Trains

Only allowed if your Private Yard has cars. Move 1 to 4 cars, one at a time, from the end of a Private Yard line, then add them to your trains in any order.

c) Switch (Rearrange) Your Private Yard

Only allowed if your Private Yard has cars. Costs 1 point. Remove all cars from your Private Yard, then put them back in any order (you may move cars from one bumper's line to the other). Each row can hold up to 8 cars. You may pay the cost for this action and then choose to do nothing. Not allowed on Day 3.

d) Add A New Locomotive

You may do this only once on Day 1 and once on Day 2 (not on Day 3). Place 1 new Locomotive with your others.

e) Add A Caboose

Not allowed if the Caboose pile is empty. Take a Caboose and add it to the end of 1 of your trains (the end farthest from the locomotive).

Rules For Adding A Car

To one of your Regular Trains:

• Add the car to the end of the train.
• All cars in the train must be of the same type.
• No more than 1 train of a given type.
• May not add a car to a train that already has a Caboose.

To your Mixed Train:

• Add the car to the end of the train.
• No more than 1 car of each type.
• No more than 1 Mixed Train.
• May not add a car to a Mixed Train that already has a Caboose.

To your Private Yard:

• Add the car to the end of either row.
• Cars may be of any type within a row.
• Each row can hold up to 8 cars.

End Of Day

The day ends when the End Of Day card is drawn (from the Draw Pile, or while adding to the Main Yard).

1. Finish filling the row. Finish filling to 5 cars the Main Yard row you were filling when the End Of Day card was drawn.
2. Continue taking turns. Play continues until the wooden train marker changes hands. If the Draw Pile runs out, do not start a new one; a row may remain partly filled.
3. Score. Score each train type separately — 11 regular types plus the Mixed Train. Any train with a Caboose scores double. Private Yards are scored after Day 1 and after Day 3 (see Scoring, below).
4. Check for game end. If this was the end of Day 3, the game is over and the highest score wins.

New Day Setup

1. Discard all cars from all trains and from the Main Yard, then shuffle all of these together.
2. Return all Cabooses to the Caboose pile.
3. Set up the Main Yard again: 5 bumpers, each with a row of 5 face-up cars.
4. Create the Draw Pile from the remaining cards (see Creating the Draw Pile, above — divide into 3 stacks after Day 1, 4 stacks after Day 2).
5. Check Locomotives: make sure each player has the correct number of Locomotives for the new day (see Locomotives Per Player, above). If a player is short, they take 1 now and place it in front of themselves.

Scoring

Train length is the count of cars in that train.

Scoring One Type Of Train

Score each of the 11 regular car types separately, plus the Mixed Train, using the table below. A train with a Caboose scores double the value shown.

Situation	Longest train of this type	2nd-longest train of this type
No player has this type	not awarded	not awarded
Only 1 player has this type	3	not awarded
1 player has the longest, 1 player has the 2nd-longest	3	1
2 players tie for longest	2 each	not awarded
3 players tie for longest	1 each	not awarded
4 or 5 players tie for longest	not awarded	not awarded
1 player has the longest, 2 or more players tie for 2nd-longest	3	not awarded

Scoring Private Yards

Private Yards are scored for each player:

• After Day 1: gain points equal to the count of cars in your Private Yard, divided by 2, rounded down.
• After Day 2: no score.
• After Day 3: lose points equal to the count of cars in your Private Yard.

End Of Game

The game ends after Day 3 is scored. The player with the highest score wins.

Official Variants

The following variants were written by designer Alan Moon and originally appeared in the third issue of The Color of the Wind*, the house newsletter for White Wind Games, in the fall of 1994.*

1. Unlimited Private Freight Yard. There is no limit to the number of cars a player can have in his Freight Yard. Ignore the bumpers at the end of the tracks on the right side of the sidings and pretend the tracks extend much farther to the right.

2. Face-Down Main Freight Yard. All cars placed in the Main Freight Yard are placed face down and remain face down until a player takes them from the yard. A player will not know what a car is until he removes it from the Main Freight Yard. If the player cannot add the car to one of his trains, he must place it in his own Freight Yard. If the player cannot add the car to one of his trains and his Freight Yard is full, the car is discarded. This variant may be combined with variant 1 (Unlimited Private Freight Yard).

3. Additional Mixed Freight Trains. There are several other possible types of Mixed Freight Trains:

Type	Description	Example
Pairs	Contains two of each car type; the two same cars must be together.	coal, coal, box, box, flat, flat
Triples	Contains three of each car type; the three same cars must be consecutive.	coal, coal, coal, box, box, box
Alternating Singles	Contains two different car types; the two same cars cannot be together.	coal, box, coal, box, coal, box
Alternating Pairs	Contains two different car types; the cars must all be in pairs.	coal, coal, box, box, coal, coal, box, box
Alternating Triples	Contains two different car types; the cars must be in triples.	coal, coal, coal, box, box, box, coal, coal, coal
Random Alternating	The player makes his own pattern, using no more than four different car types and a repeating pattern of singles and/or pairs.	coal, box, box, flat, stock, stock, coal, box, box, flat, stock, stock
Incremental	Contains a single, a pair, a triple, a quad, etc., in consecutive order.	coal, box, box, flat, flat, flat, stock, stock, stock, stock

Players may choose which and how many of these new Mixed Freight Train types to use, but no player may ever have more than one of each type of Mixed Freight Train. Option: play with only Mixed Freight Trains, but allow more than one of some types.