Railheads: England & Wales

Railheads: England & Wales is a cube rails game about the Railways Act of 1921. It was introduced as a major reform to address the inefficiencies and fragmentation within Britain’s railway system. The Act aimed to streamline the industry by grouping the existing small and often competing railway companies into four large regional companies, commonly known as the "Big Four", and in doing so improve the efficiency of both passenger and goods transport by consolidating resources and simplifying management across regions.

In addition to grouping the railways, the Act also introduced the concept of "Running Rights", allowing each of the Big Four to run their trains over routes outside their designated regions when needed. Meanwhile, although the Underground railway system was not incorporated into the Big Four, it continued to expand independently, playing a crucial role in urban transit, particularly in London, complementing the regional rail services.

Through the use of a highly interactive and cascading action selection mechanism the players compete by laying tracks, making use of the newly established regional borders, developing industries, and making investments with one ultimate goal in mind, to be the wealthiest magnate when the game ends.

Railheads: England & Wales is the fourth installment in a series of cube rails games that all share a prime action selection mechanism as well as a central theme of both railroad network and industry refinement getting developed in tandem.

—description from the designer