[1] An expanded version of the game titled Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon Deluxe, was released in 1993.

[5] The original idea and inspiration for the game was Avalon Hill's boardgame 1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons, published in 1986 based on an original design by Francis Tresham.

The player acts as a railway entrepreneur and may start companies in any of four geographic locales: the Western United States, Northeast United States, Great Britain, or Continental Europe; the starting date varies depending on the map chosen.

The player manages the business as described above and may also handle individual train movement and build additional industries.

The game also has other railroad companies attempting to put the player out of business with stock dealings and rate wars.

The player can upgrade and downgrade Depots, Stations and Terminals as necessaries, and can add other facilities such as stores and hotels.

There are two economic models the player can choose between: Simple Economy (where a station serving a large enough cities will buy anything) and Complex Economy (where cities will only buy certain products such as passengers and beer).

[10] In the December 1990 edition of PC Sources, Russ Lockwood called Railroad Tycoon one of the best games of the year.

[18] In 1998, PC Gamer US declared it the 25th-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "groundbreaking in every sense".