Railway construction

OpenTTD Manual

Installation
Tutorial
FAQs
Game Interface

Construction

Railways

Signals

Vehicles

Settings

[edit] Railway construction toolbar

Click the railway build button on the menu bar to display the railway construction toolbar.

The railway construction toolbar

Here is a quick list of all the buttons (from left to right) and what they do:

Action	Shortcut	Description
Build Railways	1,2,3,4	Builds track(s) in the selected direction, you can click and drag for non-diagonal tracks. Not as efficient as Autorail tool, though.
Autorail	A or 5	A very efficient tool to build tracks in any direction (while might be difficult to use at first). If used with Ctrl key pressed, easily removes tracks.
Clear land	6	The dynamite tool is used to clear squares of either your own track you've built wrong, or anything that's in your way (well, not anything). Be aware that clicking on station will remove the whole station when there are no trains on it. For one-by-one removing station bits use the remove [R] tool
Build depot	7	Opens the depot build window for you to select a depot direction to build and what direction it will be facing.
Build waypoint	8	Allows you to build a waypoint on/over a rail track.
Build station	9	Opens the station build window for you to select a station size and direction to build.
Build signal	S	Allows you to place various traffic signals on the tracks
Build bridge	B	Allows you to build railway bridges
Build tunnel	T	Allows you to build underground tunnels
Remove	R	Click this after you have selected another tool to remove that item. For example you can remove signals from a rail or stations one by one.
Convert rail	C	Converts Rails from one type to the currently selected type.
landscape toolbar	L	Opens the landscaping toolbar. Use this to change the shape of the land to allow construction.

To select which type of railway to build, click and hold the railway build button in the main menu.

Choose rail type

Normal railways - The only railway available at the start of the game. Only steam and diesel trains run on this railway.
Electrified Railways - Available in 1965, when electric trains arrive. Electric trains will run only on this type of track, unless you disable Electric Railways in the patch settings. Steam and diesel trains can still run on this railway.
Monorail - Available in 1999. Only trains built in a monorail depot can run on this railway.
Maglev - Available in 2022. Only Maglev trains can run on this railway.

To build/purchase a new train follow these steps:

Place/build a train depot and then click it. You will be presented with the depot window.
Click "Build new vehicles". A new window will pop up with a list of trains to purchase.
Select an engine and click "Buy vehicle" at the bottom of the window. The train will then appear in one of the slots in the depot window and a train window will pop up.
Add wagons to your engine in the same manner. Two wagons fit in one game world tile.

See Buying trains for a more detailed tutorial.

Always build stations first before tracks. When you lay a new railway, you will probably destroy some trees and anger a town's local authority. The local authority will not let you build a station if you destroy too many buildings or nearby trees, but can't stop you laying track!
When deciding to go over or under an obstruction, tunnels are preferable to bridges. They are sometimes cheaper and don't have maximum speed limit.
When deciding to go through a town however, first remove obstacles like buildings and streets that would obstruct the track. Don't get too close to its catchment area with the rest of the line and avoid destroying trees. Use bribing and reforestation to keep local authorities content with your company until all obstacles are removed.
It is much more expensive to build track on farmland.