1830: Railways and Robber Barons Train Cards

In 1830: Railways and Robber Barons, trains serve several purposes. First, they are purchased by publicly-held companies (such as the Baltimore & Ohio), and used to earn revenue for the company. An individual train is represented by a card like these here. The train's number, shown in the top-left corner, indicates the number of cities the train can visit in a turn. Second, trains establish a chronological progression within the game. Trains are purchased in numerical order, and there are multiple of each type. This means that "3" trains cannot be purchased until all of the "2" trains have been purchased, and so on. When the first of a new category of train is purchased, it triggers a series of rules changes. More complex kinds of track tiles become available, older trains may be obsoleted and discarded, and so on.

This represents the increasing sophistication of railroad technologies, but this passage of representational time is controlled entirely by the players: an entire game could theoretically be played using only the "2" trains, although this is unlikely because the game disincentivizes such behavior. It is to the players' advantage to continually strive to purchase more powerful trains, because 1.) these trains make more money, and 2.) because the purchase of a new class of train typically causes older trains to "rust" and be discarded from the game. Trains numbered 5, 6, and D (for Diesel, which can visit an infinite number of cities) are "permanent," meaning they never rust or are discarded. 

For these reasons it is in the companies' best interests to continuously purchase newer and more powerful trains, in search of better profits. In the game these trains very much represent historical processes: Stover describes, in great detail, how in the early years the B&O continually purchased newer and more powerful trains that could turn greater profits (54-58). The side-effect of train purchases--access to more complex tracks--also represents the increasing sophistication of track networks and technologies, also a historical process.

Event-process spectrum aside, the cards themselves feature historical information, by way of specific models of locomotives. This information includes their name, year of manufacture, an illustration, and a classification in Whyte notation. The "3" train, the 1844 "Mud Digger," is specifically mentioned by Stover as a kind of locomotive purchased by the B&O (56). While it is probable than a railroad company in 1830 could buy a type of locomotive never actually owned by the represented company, these illustrations add to the historical theme of the game in much the same way the railroad charters do.