Developer: BeLight Software
Official web page: Rails
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Nick Shubin
April 20, 2013
Developer: BeLight Software
Official web page: Rails
The starting window (main menu) is clear and doesn't require any explanations.
In the menu of levels, successfully passed levels display the number of coins and stars achieved. You can replay any of them. The icon of a level shows the best result if you have played it multiple times. The next level you are going to play has a blue icon. Levels with gray icons are locked. To unlock such level, you must play all the preceding levels.
The game board has the menu area and the map.
1 – The Pause button. Once you tap it, it pauses the game and shows four more buttons: Play, Restart (the current level), Return to the main menu (starting screen) and Sound On/Off.
2 – Your current score and the number of trains.
3 – This panel indicates the current year and which level you are playing. A bar below shows for how long you need to hold out.
4 – Bonuses. There are always tree of them at your disposal.
5 – The speed of the game. If the game looks like a snail racing to you, double the speed.
Hoping that you have seen the description of train types in the Trainopedia (in the starting window), we'll move to the practical part.
Any train can be of regular or special type. Regular ones represent trains of different periods of time. The most important difference between regular trains is the speed. The second important feature is the color. Each station is the destination point of all trains (regular and some special) of the same color.
Special trains add more fun to your gaming experience.
Most of special trains must be guided to the proper stations. The rest are gray what means that they can enter any station. The particularity of the Kamikaze is that any station accepts it.
| Special Train | Destination Station | Reward |
| Handcar | by color | fixed |
| Snake Train | by color | fixed |
| Crazy Train | any | fixed |
| Kamikaze | none | depends on way you crash it |
| Partner Train | by color, must visit two stations | fixed |
| Bomb Train | by color | fixed |
| Deflation Train | by color | decreases, can be negative |
| Inflation Train | by color | increases |
| Chameleon | by color | fixed |
| Bumper Train | by color | fixed |
| Service Train | any | no |
Let's talk about each special train separately.
The Handcar is very slow. It takes a railway track for long time. On a level with Handcars you need to have two or three alternative ways between stations. This will make it possible to isolate Handcars from fast trains. Handcars are the smallest. Thus, you can stop them on any even very short track to let rapid trains pass first.
The Snake Train could be among the regular ones. It is exceptional because it is too long. At busy traffic, these trains cross multiple intersections at the same time. You need be careful to avoid side collisions. If a Snake is competing with another train to enter the same station, let the Snake be first to free the map from this monster.
The Crazy Train cannot be stopped or reversed. If it cannot move ahead, it crashes. Once a Crazy is going to depart, plan a free way to the nearest station to get rid of it as soon as possible. You can effectively use the Boost bonus for this purpose. Multiple Crazy Trains on the map can make you troubles. Try to isolate them, or set them one after another on the same track.
Kamikaze is quite specific train. There is no any station to pull in. The only way to deal with such trains is to crash them. A simplest way is to find some not busy track (or maybe a dead-end siding), and lock there the first Kamikaze. Crash another one against it. Then crash the rest Kamikazes against the wreckage. This way you are making your life easy, but gain only one coin for each train. To get 10, you need to bump Kamikazes one against another. In this case, you are responsible for cleaning the path before new trains.
The Partner Train breaks the rule "one train—one destination station". First cars of such trains must be delivered to one station, the rest to another. If a two-colored train is arriving on a station, leave free the exit for its cars of the second color. Place a switch near the station to have one track as the entry and another as the exit.
With the Bomb Train, the time is not on your side. Such trains carry a time bomb. To avoid explosion, guide the train to the station before the time runs out. Make use of the Boost bonus to be in time.
The Deflation Train is a peaceful brother of the Bomb Train. It also cannot tolerate delays. The Deflation Train won't explode. Instead, it reduces its value. Once you let it drop to negative, you lose your money either by crashing this train or by guiding it to the station.
The Inflation Train increases its value constantly. This must encourage you to make its journey as long as possible, or even block it somewhere at the periphery of the map for a long time. Be careful here. Don't try to create a parking for Inflation Trains in order to harvest coins. While holding many trains in some area, it may become very difficult to guide them to the respective stations in the end of the game. More or less working strategy is to put trains of the same color in a line on the way to the station. Let them gain a few coins for you before arrival. The less trains are on the map, the longer you can let them stay. Also, you can place one or two Inflation Trains near the destination station, and let them rise in price for long time.
The Chameleon changes its color periodically. Don't be surprised if it has been recolored just a second before arrival. Instead of panicking, you can hold a train near some station until their colors coincide. This trick works well if there aren't many stations on the map yet, and there is a spare track.
The Bumper Train can become your preferred one because it doesn't crash when collides with other trains. But don't think that it is immortal. It cannot survive after bumping into the wreckage. Bumpers can be your saviors, if by some reason you've got many trains on the board. Place a Bumper between trains of other types to prevent them from deadly collisions.
Service Trains give you no money. They help you clean your railways from the wreckage. To call a Service Train, activate the respective bonus and tap on a station. Since a Service Train is another train on the board you need to manage, try to make its journey as short as possible. If trains have crashed near some station, call a Service Train from this station, and after completing its work, return it back to the same station. Any bonus needs some time to recharge. If there are several pieces of wreckage to remove, try to use the same Service Train. This is useful on levels with Kamikazes.
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