Railroads - quick strategy for exporting goods

A quick and easy guide.

PASSENGERS/MAIL/FOOD/
ELECTRICITY

Start with the transportation of PASSENGERS and / or MAIL.

If you cannot find a city or a village nearby which looks like it would become one to connect with each other, move directly to the production of food or electricity.

PASSENGERS and MAIL

• Connect two cities, chip off the extra railroad tracks as that would reduce the distance travelled.
• The earnings you get from passengers and mail would depend on the distance travelled and the time taken to reach; and not on the number of empty carriages your train has.
• The money which you get from transporting passengers and mail would reduce drastically after a certain time, so quickly look for other better ways to make money.

Then, move on to the production of FOOD and / or ELECTRICITY, depending on the situation.

If you cannot find any way to produce and / or supply food or electricity, search for wood, grapes, nitrates, wool, coal etc. to produce MANUFACTURED GOODS, PAPER, WINE, BEER etc (scroll down a bit to learn about that)

• Choose food if you've connected a city which produces food and connected or maybe wish to connect another village or city nearby perhaps in the near future.
• Choose coal or oil if your city has a power plant. It will make the process of the city growing into a metropolis much faster and easier.

FOOD

• Connect your food producing city or village to a food source (swine, grain, livestock, milk, fish etc), with a variable no of coaches; based on the distance travelled, how efficient the train is and the size of the food source.
• Start delivering the food to another city.
• If possible, connect a nearby food producing city to this city. Now keep on transferring food between the two cities, that should earn you quite a bit of money.
• If you've got around $500,000 to spare for another food industry; look for a food source, connect it to this city and purchase the relevant company.
• You can create a triangle or any other profitable shape of food producing cities if you want to invest a lot in food. Results will be great, but keep in mind, that your population in the game will also want some other things after a while.

For the optimum early game effect, transport at least one set of each from passengers, mail and food.

ELECTRICITY

• Connect the city which has a power plant with a source of oil or ore, and run a train on the tracks.
• Voila!!! Instant money. ;)
• Keep in mind that the prices for ore and oil also decrease gradually so move out of the industry if and when there is need.

Next, you can either choose to produce MANUFACTURED GOODS/WINE/BEER/ TEXTILES/PAPER/MEDICINE/GOLD 

or 

ARMS/AUTOMOBILES.

Choose from the first lot if you think you want to expand a little more and from the second lot if you think you already have money and can wait for the goods to be delivered. Doing both might help you at times too.

The reason I am saying all this is because of the fact that producing manufactured goods and other members of the set are three step processes, where you collect the raw material, deliver it to your goods producing city and deliver the finished goods to a city which requires them; where as; producing arms or automobiles is a four way process and requires you to first collect ore, produce steel out of it, deliver it to another city which converts it either to arms or automobiles, depending on the map which you have selected; and then finally deliver the products to a city which demands them. Rewards are great, but it takes more time to produce.
Also, gold is only a three way process, produces a lot of money; but is only available in a few selected maps.

MANUFACTURED GOODS/WINE/
BEER/TEXTILES/PAPER/MEDICINE.
Raw materials for the finished goods are -
Manufactured Goods - Wood
Wine - Grapes
Beer - Maize
Textiles - Wool
Paper - Wood
Medicine - Nitrates

MANUFACTURED GOODS

• Connect the city which has a furniture plant but this time to a wood source, with variable no of coaches; based on the distance travelled, how efficient the train is, and size of the raw material source.
• Goods can also be produced by connecting oil to your city's refinery.
• Deliver the finished goods to a city which demands goods. Cities demand goods after a while, unless growth is significant low, so keep a watch and change train paths accordingly.
• Since you already have the wood; search for a nearby city which demands paper.You might want to invest in a paper industry, if you've got the money (Industries cost ($500,000).
• You can also connect this city with another nearby city which produces goods, and transfer goods among them. Keep in mind that both cities must demand goods for you to get the maximum money. Also, one city might produce goods from oil and another from wood.

The OTHERS, like WINE & BEER, 

• The strategy remains similar, just keep in mind that you will get wool and nitrates from the same source, so it's a plus point to get your hands on one of these resources.
• Also, paper and medicine give you quite a bit of money, so you might want to even go that extra mile to deliver the products.

ARMS / AUTOMOBILES

• Connect the city which has a steel mill to a source of ore, with variable no of coaches; based on the distance travelled, how efficient the train is and the size of the source of ore.
• Deliver the finished product (steel) to a city which either has an automobile or a war factory. Cities demand automobiles or nuclear weapons after they have become metropolises.
• If you have some extra ore; you can search for a nearby city which has a power plant. You might also want to purchase the industry, if you've got the money (Industries cost ($500,000).
• You can also connect this city with another nearby city which produces automobiles or nuclear warheads, and transfer the finished products from that city to this city which produced steel. You can now transport automobiles to and fro (HELL lot of money)

There you have it. Quick strategy for playing a great game of Railroads. Please implement all this in your game for the best effect. Now you too can experience what the Railroad Tycoons did in real life decades ago.