The system consists of rendering an area as a series of dots which players connect to build track. They then run a train over the track in order to pick up and deliver on contracts that are dealt from a card deck. Subtleties including drawing the most efficient route considering both current and future needs, the issue of being locked out of crucial cities, the most efficient route to travel and whether it is better to dump all current demands and start fresh with new ones.

Here are some of the games of the type, including link to review (when available), year of publication, region of play, number of players supported, optimal number of players and current Amazon price:
Empire Builder 1980 USA 2-6 (4)	British Rails 1984 Britain 2-6 (2)	Eurorails 1990 Europe 2-6 (4)	Agent of Change 1991 West Virginia 2-4 (?)	Nippon Rails 1992 Japan 2-4 (2)
North American Rails 1992 North America 2-6 (?)	Uncle Happy's Train Game 1993 USA 2-6 (3)	Australian Rails 1994 Australia 2-6 (3)	Iron Dragon 1996 imaginary 2-6 (5-6)	India Rails 1999 India 2-6 (4)
Russian Rails 2004 Russia 2-6 (?)	China Rails 2007 China 2-6 (3)	Lunar Rails 2007 Earth's Moon 2-6 (?)	Martian Rails 2009 Mars 2-6 (3)	Italian Rails 2011 Italy 2 (2)

See Also
Train Miniatures
Public-locking variant for Crayon Rails games