Rail Baron is played on a map of the United States on which the routes of 28 historic railroads, such as the Baltimore & Ohio and the Southern Pacific have been marked.
Dots on the railroad routes represent small towns along the way, and serve as distance markers for player movement.
The goal of each player is to accumulate money by moving his or her train token to map destinations which are generated at random via a lookup table.
Upon arrival at a destination, the player collects a cash payoff, and may use the money to upgrade his or her train engine to a faster model, or purchase a railroad.
The table below lists these 28 railroads, their cost within the Rail Baron game, their real-life years of operation and eventual corporate outcome, and their current status as of 2009.