1830: Railways & Robber Barons FAQ
202 questions players ask · Updated Nov 10, 2026 · Full rulebook
Components and Setup
- Are tiles OO13 and OO14 used in the standard 1830 game?
- How many track tiles does 1830 contain?
- Are the yellow basic track tiles (#7, #8, #9) unlimited in 1830?
- How many yellow #57 city tiles are in the base game?
- How many station tokens does each railroad have?
- How much money does each player start with in 1830?
- How much money does the bank hold at the start, and how much paper money comes out at setup?
- How many trains of each type are in the 1830 base game?
- Are diesel trains limited in 1830?
- Can a company buy a diesel without first buying the second 6-train?
- What are private companies for in 1830?
- Are the numbered place cards redistributed during an 1830 game?
- Can players make deals in 1830, such as paying another player to drop a stock?
Sequence of Play
- In what order do you take actions in an operating round?
- In what order do companies operate during an operating round?
- Can share sales during an operating round change the turn order?
- Does the First Operating Round let companies run trains and collect revenue?
- Who gets the priority deal card at the end of a stock round?
- Who gets the priority deal card during the private auction, and who starts the first stock round?
Private Companies
- In the initial private auction, can players bid on the lowest-priced private?
- Can a player bid on a private that has not come up yet, or bid on more than one in a turn?
- How does the private auction work when several players bid on one private?
- After a private is bought in the auction, how do bids on the next private resolve?
- What happens if every player passes during the private auction?
- Must all private companies be sold before any railroad can start?
- When do private companies pay their owners?
- Can a railroad use a private company's special ability before buying it?
- Can a railroad buy a private company from a player, and for how much?
- Can a railroad sell a private company back to a player?
- Can the B&O private be bought by a railroad?
- Does the B&O private's winning bid set the B&O par price?
- Can players sell a private company to each other, and when?
- If I sell a private during my stock round turn, can I still pass?
- Can the Mohawk & Hudson be exchanged for an NYC share, and when?
- When is a private company's hex open to track from every railroad?
The Stock Market
- Do shares in the initial offering pay dividends, or only shares in the bank pool?
- Which railroad operates first when two railroads share the same share price?
- Does a share value token still move when it is already at the edge of the stock market?
- Does a share price rise when all of a company's shares are held by players?
- Why does a share price rise when a company pays a dividend?
- Does an unfloated company's share price fall after an operating round when it pays no dividend?
- Does a floated company's share price move left if it pays no dividend on its first turn?
- When is a company's share value token placed on the stock market?
Stock Rounds and Presidency
- Can you sell shares in the first stock round?
- Does the first stock round end when all players pass, or when the last private is bought?
- What price do you pay for shares from the initial offering and from the bank pool?
- Can you sell, buy and then sell again in one stock round turn?
- Can you sell a share you just bought in the same stock round turn?
- Can you buy shares of a company you already sold shares of in the same stock round?
- Does selling shares to get under a certificate limit count as your one purchase?
- Can you buy shares that take you over the certificate limit, and do yellow or brown shares count?
- Do I have to sell shares when a company's price leaves the yellow, orange or brown zone?
- Can a president sell the presidency share, or the president's certificate, into the bank pool?
- How does the presidency pass when the president sells shares?
- Am I safe from losing the presidency if I hold only one or two shares of a company?
- Can the bank pool stop a president from dumping the presidency on another player?
- If another player ties the president's share count, does the presidency change?
- If two players tie for the most shares after the president sells, who becomes president?
- Does the president receive a dividend on the president's certificate?
- How far does a share price drop when you sell several shares?
- Can you sell shares of a company that has not floated or has not yet operated?
- How much starting capital does a railroad receive when it floats?
- Does a company's treasury get money when its shares are sold from the initial offering?
- How many shares must leave the initial offering for a company to float, and who may hold them?
- How many shares do you need to become president?
- How many certificates of one company can sit in the bank pool?
- Can a president take money out of a company for personal use?
- Can other players see how much cash a company holds?
- Can another railroad place a token in an unfloated company's starting city?
- When does a change in the number of operating rounds take effect?
Track Laying and Tiles
- Can a placed track tile be rotated to make room for an upgrade?
- Can a tile upgrade remove track, including an isolated track segment?
- Can a station move to a different side of its hex when the tile under it is upgraded?
- Can an upgrade connect the two pre-printed exits on a 59 tile?
- Must a company be able to reach the new track to upgrade a tile?
- Is 1830 track laying permissive, so a new tile need not connect to neighbouring track?
- Must a tile's cities line up with the cities printed on the hex?
- Can track be laid so that it creates dead ends?
- Can a tile be placed or upgraded so its track runs off the map, into the sea or into a blank hex edge?
- Can a grey hex be upgraded, or can track run into its blank edge?
- Can a green tile be laid on an empty yellow hex, or only over a yellow tile?
- Can a tile be laid on a yellow big-city (OO) hex before green tiles are in play?
- Can a yellow tile be upgraded straight to brown, skipping green?
- Can a company use the printed track in a yellow hex before green tiles are in play?
- Is upgrading a yellow tile to green free, and what does laying a new tile on a yellow hex cost?
- When a tile is upgraded, where does the tile it replaces go?
- Which tiles can go on the Delaware & Hudson hex, and which on OO-marked hexes?
- Can a labelled tile (OO, B or NY) go on an unlabelled hex, or upgrade a tile with a different label?
- Can dit tiles or double-small-city yellow tiles be upgraded in the base or classic game?
- Does the railroad logo printed on an empty hex mean a token is already placed there?
- Must a company's first track go on its home hex?
- When can the Erie or NYC lay a tile on its home hex, and does it need a track connection?
- What happens to the Erie or NYC if its home tile cannot be laid?
- Must the Erie or NYC lay track on its starting hex?
- Where can the #63 tile be placed?
- Can an upgrade tile join two separate city connections into one station?
- Can a company upgrade a yellow tile near another company's home to add a connection to its own home?
- Can a railroad lay track on a hex that holds a private company?
Stations, Routes and Revenue
- When is a corporation's home station placed, and does it cost money?
- Can another company place track or a token in an unopened company's home hex?
- Must a home station be on a route, and does the Erie's starting token need one?
- Can the Erie place its home station on another hex, such as the Delaware & Hudson?
- Who picks which city in the Erie's yellow hex holds its home station, and when?
- Can another company put a token on the Erie home hex before the Erie has opened?
- Can a company place two station tokens on one tile or hex with two separate cities?
- Does the home station count toward the limit on new stations per turn, and what does a station cost?
- Can a route run through a city where other companies already have tokens?
- Must a route touch one of the company's stations, and can a route be built from one city?
- Can a route use the same track or hex edge twice, or can two of a company's routes share a hexside?
- Can a route score the same city twice, or two separate cities in one hex?
- On the 1830+ board, does Altoona's station block other companies, and does a route that bypasses it still score Altoona?
- Must a company take the highest-revenue route, and can another player point one out?
- Can a president run a route through a token of another company he also controls?
- Where does the dividend on bank-pool shares go, and what happens to unsold shares?
- When a company withholds its dividend, is all of the run's revenue added to its treasury?
- When do private companies pay their revenue?
- What happens if no company floats in the first stock round?
- Can a company run more than once within one set of operating rounds?
- Does a floated company with no route still lose a share-value space each turn?
- Does a company stop operating if players sell its shares back to the pool after it floats?
- How does the auction for a private company work?
- What happens if no one buys a private at face value?
- When a private is bought above face value, where does the extra money go, and are its free shares paid for?
- Can a private's special placement be used before a corporation has bought the private?
- How does the Delaware & Hudson private's placement fit into a company's turn?
- Can the D&H owner place its free station without also placing a 57 tile?
- When does a corporation's share value token go on the market, before or after it floats?
- Can a company's track or tile placement block another company's route or city?
Trains and Train Purchases
- Must a company with no legal route buy a train at the end of its operating turn?
- Must a company buy a train when it has a legal route but no train?
- Must a newly floated company buy a train in its first operating round?
- Can a company buy a train from another company, including one the same president controls?
- How can money move from one of my companies to another?
- Can a company sell, discard or trade in a train?
- Can a company buy more than one train in one turn, and must it keep buying?
- How many trains can a company own, and can it buy a replacement when it is at its limit?
- Do you reduce the number of trains in a 2-player game?
- When a phase change lowers the train limit, which train must a company discard?
- Does a phase change take effect as soon as the train that triggers it is bought?
- When do the extra operating rounds start after a new train type appears?
- What happens to the 2-trains when the first 4-train is bought?
- In what order are trains bought from the bank?
- When a forced purchase is paid from the company's own treasury, can it buy a pricier train than the cheapest one?
- In a forced train purchase, must the company buy the cheapest train available?
- How much can a company pay another company for a train in a forced purchase?
- Can a company be forced to buy a train from another company?
- When a president sells shares to fund a forced train purchase, how many must be sold, and which?
- Can a forced share sale change the presidency of the company that needs the train?
- If a forced share sale changes the president of the company you are buying a train from, does the change come first?
- Can a president spend personal cash on a train outside a forced purchase, or combine money from several companies?
- Can a company buy a train from a sister company even when a cheaper train is in the bank or pool?
- Can a company trade in a 4-, 5- or 6-train toward a Diesel, and what does it cost?
- Are Diesels limited, and what happens when the six in the box run out?
- How does a Diesel train run a route?
- How do you count the length of a train's route?
- Which value applies to a red off-board area on a route?
- Must a train run its highest-revenue route, or can one run below its own maximum to raise the company's total?
- Can a train reverse direction, change track at a crossover or reuse track?
- Can two trains of one company run over the same track in one operating round?
- Can trains of two different companies use the same track in one operating round?
- Can a single train visit the same city or red off-board area twice?
- Can one route score both cities in the New York hex or an OO hex?
- Can two trains of one company score the same city, and can several trains visit one red area?
- Do small cities count as stops, and can a route start at a large-city station and end at a small town?
- Can a train run through a company's home city before that company has opened it?
- What is a suitcase company?
Bankruptcy and End of Game
- Can the president add personal cash to buy a more expensive bank train when the company treasury already covers a cheaper one?
- When the president adds personal cash, can a train bought from another company cost more than its face value?
- Can a president use personal cash to buy a train from another company he controls when the buying company has no treasury money?
- What price can one company pay another company for a train?
- Can an emergency train be bought from the bank pool or from another company, not just the bank?
- What counts toward a bankrupt player's final score?
- If a player goes bankrupt before the 5-trains are bought, how are their private companies scored?
- In what order may shares be sold to raise money for an emergency train purchase, and must the president sell only what is needed?
- What happens if a company still cannot afford a train after its president sells every share he can?
- Must a player get back under the certificate limit during an emergency stock sale in an operating round?
- Can a player be forced to sell private companies to get under the certificate limit?
- When can a president put personal money into a company?
- Can a president sell a private company to pay for an emergency train purchase?
- Can the operating railroad sell its own shares or private companies during its operating turn?
- Must a player go bankrupt when juggling a single train they cannot afford to run?
- Can I shuffle one train back and forth between two of my companies to avoid bankruptcy?
- Can the game stall if no one buys the remaining private companies?
- How does the game end in 1830?
- Does the game end immediately when the bank runs out of money?
- Can a company buy more than one train in a single operating round?
- Does an emergency share sale to buy a train change the operating order?
The 1830+ Board and Variants
- Why do the 1830+ board's certificate limits differ from the rulebook's?
- Are the Norfolk & Western share certificates a misprint in 1830+?
- In scenario S-2.0 (No one expects the Canadian Pacific), where is the coalfield tile 30a placed?
- In scenario S-4.0 (Connection to West-Virginia), what is the correct Columbus tile listing?
- Can tile #oo13 (#36) be placed on a green #59 OO tile?
- Can yellow small-town tiles be upgraded or rotated in base 1830?
- How does the PRR home hex work on the 1830+ board?
- Is the PRR 10-station token used in the base game, and does it replace a normal station token?
- Why does the 1830+ board's phase chart mention grey tiles that aren't in the box?
- Which phase do grey tiles become available in?
- Who receives the free Kanawha license from the James River and Kanawha private?
- Does the 3+3 train rust when a diesel is bought in the West By-God Virginia scenario?
- Where can the grey upgrade tile oo20 (tile 1167) be placed in the Toronto scenario?