All Aboard! The Transcontinental Railroad Board Game

Copyright 2020 by Gary L. Pullman

 

As President Chester Alan Arthur points out in On the Track of Vengeance, the fourth novel of An Adventure of the Old West series, “The transcontinental railroad has wrought great changes, mostly for the good of the country.” (The problems associated with the unprecedented project—many of which were caused by the project's leaders themselves—form the backbone of the novel's plot.)

Despite the problems associated with its construction, the building of a railroad that spanned the continent, “from sea to shining sea,” was, by any standard of measure, a momentous accomplishment, and it was celebrated and commemorated in various ways, one of which was the creation of The Transcontinental Railroad board game.

According to the Board Game Geek website, the game's theme is “the building of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860's [sic].” Two players, one of whom represents the Union Pacific Railroad, the other of whom plays for the Central Pacific Railroad, “draw from a common deck of 80 cards,” six of the “seven suits” of which symbolize one of the needs associated with the construction of the railroad, such as “jobs, money, [and] supplies.” The seventh suit represents difficulties the construction project encounters. In play resembling that of poker, the players vie for markers, and the “first to get 100” of these tokens completes his or her “line to Promontory Summit first,” winning the game.

The game gives players a sense of the scope and difficulty of the railroad's construction and offers an opportunity to discuss, research, and learn more about the biggest engineering, technological, and construction feat of nineteenth-century America.