The first mass market crayon style game was Darwin Bromley and Bill Fawcett's Empire Builder which was released in 1980 by Mayfair Games, however Railway Rivals by David Watts had been popular - especially amongst postal gamers - for nearly 10 years before that.
Instead of the hex map system found in 18XX games, railway tracks are drawn with crayons or dry erase markers. They focus on laying track, delivering goods, and making profits. Ĭrayon rail games are more streamlined and do not contain a stock market component. Many 18XX games can be further divided into '1829 style games,' which emphasize company development, and '1830 style games,' which emphasize robber baron stock market manipulation. Most are hex map games in which cardboard tiles are laid to build sequences of railway track.
These games involve buying and selling stock in railway companies, laying track, and running locomotives to generate a profit. Classic train games generally fall into two broad categories: 18XX games and 'crayon rail' games:ġ8XX games originated in 1974 with the publication of Francis Tresham's 1829 and continued with such titles as 1830, 1856, and 1870.
