At the very begin of a game there are only two towns to be connected and a few trains awaiting for departure. The railway lines have to be built with care to let the railway net grow without any obstacles in future. The economic model is pared-off as much as possible. You are charged for lines construction, repair of damaged sections. Pay fines for the delays of train departures. And gained with every arrived train.
The train traffic gets tighter permanently with the amount of cities grow up. Because of technical evolution trains become faster and longer. During the game a gamer will face natural relief, money shortage, technical upgrades and try himself as a railway dispatcher.
The game covers period of time from a moment when the first train lines were build in Europe (1830), to our times.