Isometric view of a FourCities map in 1960: four companies' rail networks criss-cross green hills between a lake and a mountain range.

Railway tycoon · 1850–2050 · in your browser

Four cities race to 2050.
Yours runs on rail.

Lay track across 64 km of hills, rivers and rival land. Haul coal, grain and oil into your own industry, feed your home city, and outgrow the other three before the clock stops.

Play now How a match works

No install, no account. A guided tutorial is one click from the start screen.

Seed 1234, January 1960: four bot companies, 98 trains. Everything on screen is drawn in code.

4companies, one home city each

256²tiles of 250 m, 8-way track

12locomotives, steam to 320 km/h

2½ hfull match · 40 min short · 15 min sprint

The whole FourCities map from above, with territory borders, two lakes, snowy mountains and four cities linked by dense track. — Territory borders on. Each city sits near a compass point; the borders are fixed when the map is made.

01 · The map

Your land, their land, and the track between.

Every company owns a territory around its home city. Where you build, and whose ground your freight comes from, shapes the whole match.

Two resources per territory: Coal and iron never share one, so every steel mill needs a cross-border haul.
Building abroad costs three times as much: Bridges cost ×4 and tunnels ×8. There's no terraforming, so the hills are part of the puzzle.
15% royalty on what leaves: Haul a rival's coal out of their territory and they get a cut.
Private networks: You can't join a rival's track, but you can cross it at right angles. Signals place themselves.

02 · Industry

Five supply chains, one hungry city.

Raw sites are fixed by geography. Factories are yours to build, but only in your home territory, and they hire workers from your city. Every tonne delivered pays by distance and speed.

Coal+Iron ore

Steel mill Steel

Wood

Sawmill Planks

Grain

Food plant Food

Oil

Refinery Fuel

Steel+Planks

Goods factory Goods

What your city needs to keep growing

Each step adds a need on top of the last. Let one run short for two months and growth stops; stay short and the city shrinks back.

5,000Start
6,000Food
7,500Planks & steel
12,000Fuel
20,000Goods

Passenger lines to other cities add a transit bonus on top, so faster trains grow you too.

03 · Locomotives

Two hundred years of timetable.

Twelve locomotives arrive on schedule, from an 80 km/h light steam engine to a 320 km/h express. Each new era raises track and curve limits and brings bigger wagons. Old engines never break down, but their upkeep climbs every year.

Top speed by year of introduction, km/h

Year	Locomotive	Type	Top speed
Era of 1850 · track limit 160 km/h
1850	Ashworth Courier	Steam	80
1855	Kessler Ox	Steam, freight	55
1870	Albion Swift	Steam, express	110
1890	Caledon Mogul	Steam	90
Era of 1900 · wagons carry 1.5×
1905	Royal Meridian	Steam, express	125
1925	Hartmann Titan	Steam, heavy	80
1938	Vanguard DE‑1	Diesel	120
Era of 1950 · track limit 220 km/h, wagons 2×
1960	Rhine-Ruhr D‑1200	Diesel, heavy	120
1965	Arden E‑40	Electric	160
1990	Solent E‑100	Electric	200
Era of 2000 · track limit 320 km/h, wagons 2.5×
2005	Aurora HS‑300	High-speed	300
2035	Zephyr HS‑320	High-speed	320

04 · Winning

The ledger closes in 2050.

The highest score wins: net worth plus your city's population. Each resident is worth the average net worth per resident across all four companies, so a rich company with a small town and a big city on thin margins can both win.

3 mo

Contracts

Cities post a new offer every three months. Accept it and it's yours alone: deliver a year's supply on time for the bonus, or pay a 25% fine.

€40

Credit per resident

Buy with cash in hand. Loans come in €50k steps at 6%, capped by the size of your city, so growth is also borrowing power.

rating²

Shared sources

When rival stations serve the same mine, it splits its output by service rating, squared. Call often or lose your share.

40–90 y

A changing map

Mines and oil wells run dry, new sites are found every 30 months, and busy industries can be upgraded.

05 · Solo & online

Three rivals, human or not.

Close-up of a home city: stacked isometric buildings beside stations, signals and trains.

Single player

The match runs on your computer. Bots play by the same rules and commands as you do.

Rivals at Idle, Easy, Normal or Hard, set one by one
Pause, 1×, 2× or 4× speed; autosave every game-year
Choose the seed, your city and starting cash (€150k–€400k)
An 11-step tutorial that ends with your first working supply chain

A stretch of map with several companies' lines, stations and a steel mill.

Online with friends

Host a room and share its four-letter code. One server runs the match for everyone.

Up to four players; every empty seat is a bot
Friends who join take over a bot seat
Drop out and rejoin the same seat while the match carries on
Runs at 1×; only the host can pause

1 January 1850

The timetable is empty.

€250,000, one city of 5,000 people and a stretch of open country. The first train is up to you.

Play FourCities

Four cities race to 2050.Yours runs on rail.