# Iron & Valley

A miniature 1840s railway management game: lay track across a valley, run steam trains, move goods and passengers and watch towns and industries grow over 25 years

By greenlig

Topic: Games

[Open the interactive Jig](https://ask.jig.com/j/oukEwg66MM2U)

## Guide

### 1. Iron & Valley

It is 1840\. You run a small railway company with £9,000 in the bank\. Lay track through this quiet valley and grow an economy over 25 years\.

Use the clock at the top: pause, 1x, 2x or 4x\. A year passes in 40 seconds at 1x\.

### 2. Found your stations

Tap a town, farm, forest, mine or mill to see what it makes and wants\. Build a station there to let trains collect and deliver\.

Land costs more in busy towns, and the price rises as towns grow\.

### 3. Lay a line

Pick a station, choose Lay track, then tap another station\. Long lines, steep hills and river bridges cost more\. Tunnels cost the most of all\.

Real 1840s lines cost about £40,000 a mile, much of it for land and tunnels\.

### 4. Buy engines and wagons

Each line needs a train\. The old Planet engine is cheap and steady\. The Long\-boiler arrives in 1846: faster and stronger on hills, but costly and fussy at first\.

Choose what each train carries: passengers and mail, freight, or both\.

### 5. Keep the goods moving

Farms grow grain, the forest gives logs and the colliery digs coal\. Mills and the ironworks turn them into flour, timber and goods\. Anything not collected piles up beside the track\.

You are paid only when cargo reaches a place that wants it\.

### 6. Mind the money

Fuel, repairs, crews, track upkeep and loan interest are paid all the time\. Borrow to grow faster, but too much debt with no cash means bankruptcy\.

Interest is 6% a year\. Four unpaid months end the company\.

### 7. Watch the valley grow

Towns with busy stations grow new streets and their land rises in value\. Served industries expand\. Places left without trains slowly stand still\.

Bigger towns make more passengers, so busy lines may need more trains\.

### 8. Weather the surprises

Seasons turn and news arrives: coal finds, bumper harvests, floods that break bridges, booms and recessions\. Plan for good years and bad ones\.

Railway Mania really did crash in 1847, ruining many investors\.

### 9. The final ledger

In 1865 the game ends and your company is judged on value, profit, debt, passengers, freight and how much the valley grew\. Start again any time to try new routes\.