1870: The Trans-Mississippi

6. Laying Track

Each public company may at its option lay two yellow tiles or upgrade one track tile. The company must be able to reach the hex that is being upgraded or laid and be able to run on some of the new track on the tile.

6.1 New Tiles

New track is the initial tile laid in a hex. This will usually be a yellow tile but in some cases it may be a green or brown tile. In this game all new track will be yellow tiles.
Tiles are placed in alignment with the map grid. No tile may be placed on an area of the map that does not have the grid on it. Tiles may not be placed on partial hexes along the map edges.
Yellow track tiles may be placed in any vacant hex.
Companies may not lay yellow tiles in hexes the company cannot reach.
Companies may not lay yellow tiles on map hexes that are Red (off board destinations).
To reach the new hex being laid, the company must be able to trace a legal train run of any length from one of its tokens to some of the new track on the new tile.
The company must be able to run on some of the new track on the tile although it is not necessary for the company to use the new track when it operates. For purposes of checking the validity of a new track lay, assume that you are using a train of unlimited length.
The new tile being laid must extend your track and be a valid tile lay according to the rules.
Provided that it does not do an upgrade, a company is allowed to lay two yellow tiles per operating round.
When a company first starts operating there will (usually) not be any track in its home city hex. The placement of this first tile by that company is a valid tile lay.

6.2 Upgrading Tiles

An upgrade is the replacing of a tile already on the map, with a new tile of the next higher colour. This tile will have more complex track work on it or a higher value for a city.
Yellow track tiles are upgraded to green track tiles.
Green track tiles are upgraded to brown track tiles.
Brown track tiles are upgraded to grey tiles.
Most yellow and green track tiles have upgrades. Only some brown city tiles have grey upgrades.
Track printed on the map is upgraded in the normal manner. Yellow tiles are upgraded to a green tile and so forth. 1870 has no track printed on the map.
Tiles may only be upgraded in the appropriate phase. See section 4.2 for game phases.
To reach the hex being upgraded, the company must be able to trace a legal train run of any length from one of its tokens to the tile. For purposes of checking the validity of an upgrade, assume that you are using a train of unlimited length.
In order to legally upgrade, the company laying track must be able to run a train along one of the new track segment(s) or increase the value of the upgraded city tile it runs to. The company need not use the new track when it operates for income.
Although upgrading a tile involves physically replacing the tile, you are actually only adding more track segments to the track existing on the tile being upgraded. To determine what the new track segments are, delete the segments existing on the tile being upgraded from the upgrading tile. Any segments that are left are the new track segments.

6.3 Tile Placement Restrictions

No tile may be placed so that any track ends against printed terrain where tiles may not be placed. Examples of such terrain include sides of red edge areas without connection triangles, the green map edge, the solid blue line in the Gulf of Mexico east of New Orleans, and the Gulf of Mexico (light blue).

6.4 Cities

Hexes with one or two small dot cities may only have yellow tiles with the corresponding number of small cities laid on them. Similarly, vacant hexes with large cities shown by a large open dot may only have yellow tiles with a corresponding large dot placed on them.

6.4.1 Special City Tiles

Brown #170 tiles may only be placed on the following cities: Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Fort Worth and New Orleans. These cities (Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Fort Worth and New Orleans) may not have brown #63 tiles placed on them.

6.5 Terrain Costs

Certain hexes on the map contain a '$' followed by an amount.
This cost represents difficult terrain in that hex and requires an extra expenditure to lay the first tile there.
This money is paid from the company treasury and must be available there when the tile is laid. Further upgrades of tiles in these hexes do not require further expenditure.

6.6 Upgrade Chart

6.6.1Yellow upgrades to Green

#3 - #141, #142, #143.
#4 - #141, #142.
#5 - #14 or #15.
#6 - #14 or #15.
#7 - #18, #26, #27, #28, #29.
#8 - #16, #17, #19, #23, #24, #25, #28, #29.
#9 - #18, #19, #20, #23, #24, #26, #27.
#57 - #14, #15.
#58 - #141, #142, #143.

6.6.2 Green upgrades to Brown

#14 - #63 any cities but Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Fort Worth, New Orleans.
#14 - #170 only on Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Fort Worth, New Orleans.
#15 - #63 any cities but Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Fort Worth, New Orleans.
#15 -#170 only on Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Fort Worth, New Orleans.
#16 - #43, #70.
#17 - #47.
#18 - #43.
#19 - #45, #46.
#20 - #44, #47.
#23 - #41, #43, #45, #47.
#24 - #42, #43, #46, #47.
#25 - #40, #45, #46.
#26 - #42, #44, #45.
#27 - #41, #44, #46.
#28 - #39, #43, #46, #70.
#29 - #39, #43, #45, #70.
#141 - #145, #146, #147.
#142 - #145, #146, #147.
#143 - #146, #147.
#144 - #147.

6.6.3 Brown upgrades to Grey

#170 - #171 Kansas City only.
#170 - #172 St. Louis only.

Table of Contents - Stock Round - Tokens - Glossary

Last Modified: November 12, 2003. Copyright 1999-2003. W.R.Dixon.
Contact Bill Dixon designer.