| Main centres: | 1-3 business days |
| Regional areas: | 3-4 business days |
| Remote areas: | 3-5 business days |
There are five railroads; each of a different colour. Four of the railroads have fifteen shares of stock, a treasury card, ten railroad tracks, and several blocks. The fifth railroad, Credit Mobilier, only has the stock and treasury card. The game board represents the United States. One block is put on each of the cities randomly. Each player begins the game with three dollars and a share of Credit Mobilier stock. A start player is randomly chosen and the game begins.
In turn, each player will roll the five dice. The player will then choose to lay track (which adds to the Credit Mobilier treasury), move freight (which may add to the treasury of the railroad that owns the freight and traversed upon track), buy stock of one railroad (if available) for one dollar each, or pay dividends to the owners of the shares of one company.
A player's options are limited to which colours are rolled on the dice. Rolling orange is the only colour that lets one pay dividends. Purple represents Credit Mobilier and it is also 'wild' but it can only be used as a duplicate of any colour rolled except orange.
Players take turns in clockwise order until there are blocks of two colours which have yet to be transported to the Pacific Coast wherein the game ends immediately. The player with the most cash on hand is the winner.
