Components

• 4 locomotives cards
• 84 railcars cards

Object of the Game

Each player has a train in front of them that consists of a locomotive and 7 railcars that are arranged in descending, numerical order. During their turn, players can take a new railcar card to replace one of their existing railcars.

Players can also use a card's ability to change the order of their railcars or even remove them from other players' trains. The first player to have a train with railcars arranged in ascending, numerical order is the winner.

Setup

• Each player receives 1 locomotive card (unused locomotive cards are put back in the box).

• Shuffle the railcar cards and deal 7 to each player. Put the rest face down in a Draw pile in the middle of the table.

• Each player arranges their cards in a line in descending, numerical order from left to right and puts the locomotive card on the left side of their line.

• Randomly determine the first player.

• Starting from this player and continuing in clockwise order each player draws a number of cards from the draw pile:

  • 1st player - 1 card;
  • 2nd player - 2 cards;
  • 3rd player (if any) - 3 cards;
  • 4th player (if any) - 4 cards.

• Starting from the first player and continuing clockwise order each player chooses one of the drawn cards, discards the others in a face down discard pile and puts the one chosen card in their line of railcars replacing one of the cards there. The replaced cards are put next to the Draw pile face up.

• If at any point there are two cards with the same ability next to the Draw pile, both of them are discarded.

Now you are ready to begin the game.

Game Play

Beginning with the starting player, players take turns in clockwise order. During their turn a player must perform one of the two possible actions. Once the player has performed an action, the next player performs one of the two actions, and so on.

The actions:

1. Draw A Card

Draw the top card of the Draw pile. You have to put this card in your line of railcars by replacing one of the cards that is already there. Put the replaced card next to the draw pile - the ability on this card will now be available to any player.

Or

2. Use A Card's Ability

Choose any of the face up cards next to the draw pile, discard this card and use the ability depicted on it. There are 8 different abilities, which are described below.

Other Rules:

• If at any time there are two cards with identical abilities next to the draw pile both cards are discarded!

• The cards in the discard file are kept face down and cannot be inspected.

• If the draw pile becomes depleted, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.

• If there are no cards with abilities to use for action 2, then the player can perform only action 1 - draw a card.

• The locomotive card serves only as a reminder, where the smallest numbered railcar should be at the end of the game. It doesn't count as a railcar and thus is not taken into account when any ability refers to card positions in a line.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately when any player has arranged all cards in their line of railcars in ascending, numerical order from left to right. This player becomes the winner.

The Abilities

Swap any 2 adjacent cards in your line.

Swap 2 cards in your line, which have exactly 1 card between them.

Move one of your cards 2 spaces right.

Important: You must be able to move the card exactly 2 spaces, so the ability cannot be used on the second or first card from the right.

Move one of your cards 2 spaces left.

Important: You must be able to move the card exactly 2 spaces, so the ability cannot be used on the second or first card from the left.

Remove the leftmost card.

Remove the middle card (the 4th from both ends).

Remove the rightmost card.

Each player removes the corresponding card from their line except if it is protected (see below). The removed cards are put face up next to the draw pile and their abilities can be used by any player for action 2.

Important: If after using this ability there are two or more cards with the same ability next to the draw pile, discard them in pairs (meaning that if there is an odd number of cards with the same ability, one will remain).

Then, starting with the player who used the ability and continuing in a clockwise order, each player who removed a card draws the top card of the draw pile and puts it in their line in the exact same spot where the removed card was.

Note: If any player fulfills the winning condition as an effect of this ability, the game stops immediately and this player becomes the winner (any other players who would still have to put a new card in place of the removed one do not get to act).

Protect - put this card under either lefmost, middle (4th from both sides) or rightmost card in your line to protect it against removing (place this card in such a way that only the lock symbol remains visible).

Now this card in your line cannot be removed by the corresponding remove ability (see above). However, if the protected card changes its position by any of your own actions (it's replaced or moved by using an ability) it loses its protection and the card with the lock symbol that was under it must be put in the discard pile.

Note: As you see there are two ways in which you can use the cards - either as a number or as an ability.

In consequence - if you draw the card from the top of the draw pile you can use it only as a number to place in your line, and if you take the card which is next to the draw pile you can only use its ability.

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