Loans are key to the game in the early phase, because you'll want to expand quickly. Loans have two elements to them: the interest rate, and how long they go. Every year, you'll pay some interest on the loan, and at the end of their duration,
you pay back the principal. Make sure you have enough money to pay back the loan when it comes due! If you have to take out another loan to pay it off, it's usually better to do so than to go into bankruptcy. If a loan comes due, your finance
department will try to take out an emergency loan to cover the amount, although it won't be at a good interest rate.
If you do go into bankruptcy, don't be so quick to come out of it. After all, you've already taken the prestige hit, so
why not take advantage of it? Bankruptcy reduces all your maintenance costs, and removes all of the debts. You can stay
in bankruptcy until you either leave it voluntarily by hitting the button, or you've had twelve straight profitable months, or you've gone three years. You can't lay track or buy shortlines until you leave bankruptcy, so there are reasons why you may want to get out of it.
You don't win the game by having the most cash, but by having the most prestige, so don't focus just on building up your worth. Use that cash to build more aggressively, and smarter, than your opponents! You may have to flirt with bankruptcy, but that's what it takes to win!
Get More Money
To get moree money,build your headquarters in a busy city,then build your railroad to the nearest city.After that,gather up some influence cards,then add a resource to one of the cities your hooked to. Note: When you pick your headquarters city,try to pick a city you can add a resource to.
Managing your tracks
The best way to manage your tracks is to check your Track List screen every once in a while. Track List shows you all the different tracks that you own, both finished and under construction. Open up the screen and click on the Utilization header at the top. This will sort the tracks by how bad their traffic problems are. Open the Track Details screen for the first track
by clicking on the arrow to the right of it. Fix this track by adding/removing/upgrading the engines assigned to it, then move to the next track either by clicking on the right arrow next to the track name, or moving the mouse wheel while the pointer is over the name. One easy shortcut: Wherever you see the Utilization lights (the zigzag lights), you can add or remove engines just by clicking on the specific light that you want your Utilization to be.
You can upgrade an engine by clicking the large arrow on its card. This will open the upgrade box. If you want to
upgrade all your engines of that class, click on the upgrade button on the engine card in the train pool (the area on the
right that shows all the cards). If you only want to upgrade the engines on a single track, click on the upgrade button
on the engine card in the Track Slot area.
Many tracks will not have any passenger traffic. If you have a single engine assigned to carrying passengers, and
the light is red on the right, then there may not be enough traffic to justify the engine. By not running an engine, you
may save money in maintenance costs.
If you're running out of money, you may want to focus on just a few tracks. It's much better to have some high volume tracks running efficiently, and only paying maintenance for those tracks, than to run everything badly. If you take all the
trains off of a track, you pay much less maintenance on that track.
Various Codes
Press CTRL + SHIFT + C and activate cheats. Now, press CTRL+C to open the console and enter these cheats (do NOT pause before this):
ADDVENTURE - Gives $10 million in cash to the player
BOOMBOOM X - Adds sabotage to the currently selected track for X weeks (default is four)
CHATTERBOX - AI's chat every time they have the option (instead of one-tenth of the time)
DEECEE X - Add X government cards to your hand (default is maximum number of cards)
GREEN$PAN - Economy moves to reasonable growth with low interest rates
HAMPTONS X - Add X money cards (default is maximum number of cards)
HOOVER - Economy instantly drops into depression
IACOCCA - Immediate exit from bankruptcy
JOHNHENRY - Removes all Safety inspections and Sabotages from currently selected track
OSHA X - Adds a safety inspection to the currently selected track for X weeks (default is 4)
SKUNKFARM X - Add X dirty trick cards (default is maximum number of cards)
SOTHEBY - Forces the next failed shortline acquisition effort to go to auction
STEAMED X - Adds X scandal-risk points to target player (default is 20)