Railway (Guide)

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The Great Hellbound Railway, short Railway or GHR, is an extensive project to connect London (more precisely Moloch Street) with Hell through a railway, enabling commerce and tourism.

Mechanically, it is a series of locations available to late-game players, and either directly or indirectly a requirement for increasing your main attributes up to 230 by raising attribute caps.

Each station you build increases your Persuasive Gains by 3, and building the tracks towards the first station unlocks or increases your Artisan of the Red Science.

At the stations, collectively referred to as the Upper River, the Bazaar is replaced with the slightly less legal Upper River Exchange, where commerce mostly goes through Hinterland Scrip instead of pennies and Echoes. 1 Scrip is valued at 0.5E .

Starting out[edit]

A player-created Guide is available for this content: Railway Beginning (Guide)


To begin the Railway project, you will first need to:

With these requirements met, you'll draw Advertisements of a New Venture, where you need one of:

In order to actually begin laying track, you also need base Watchful 200 in order to start researching Railway Steel in your University Laboratory.

After starting creating your company, you'll need to convene a Board of Directors (accept as few as you can), bribe a few stakeholders (like Hell and the Bazaar) and deal with administrative issues.

Once this is done, you can get approval from the Board to start laying track, grind the materials necessary, and finally get to actually laying track. Railway Beginning (Guide) covers this part in the beginning, and Bessemer Steel Ingot (Guide) covers grinding for Railway Steel.

Getting approval from the Board involves convincing all members to vote for you. Every board member has their own agenda; if your proposal opposes that agenda, they become harder to convince. You can apply leverage or remove members; Railway Board (Guide) covers this aspect.

After you have laid your stretch of track, you can build your first station at Ealing Gardens. Of course, you need board approval for building stations as well.

What's different in the Hinterlands?[edit]

Most things here work the same as they do in London, but there are a few key differences.

  • Your Opportunity Cards are drawn from a different deck. Some cards (like A Disillusioned Fungiculturalist) can be drawn in any Hinterlands location, while others (like Engage in Excavation) can only be drawn at a single station. These cards are still kept in your hand when you visit a different station. (See Location-specific cards in the Hinterlands (Guide))
  • The Bazaar is unavailable here. Instead, the Bazaar tab will give you access to the Upper River Exchange.
    • Most of the shops in the Upper River Exchange don't take Echoes. Rather, they require payment in Hinterland Scrip (1 Scrip is worth approximately 0.5E ). You can easily exchange Scrip for Echoes by buying Tinned Ham for 125 Scrip each and selling for 63.5E , but going the other way is harder. (See Hinterland Scrip-Making)
  • Each time you travel to or from a Hinterlands area, you have to spend 1 action boarding the train — you can't travel about freely like you can in London.

The rhythm of the Railway[edit]

A player-created Guide is available for this content: Railway Board (Guide)


Progression towards building a new station typically follows these steps:

Convening a board meeting is time-locked by Time, the Healer. Until you have built the last station at Marigold, you get one extra board meeting per week via Help from the Board Secretary; after that, you're limited to one per week. This means it takes at least three weeks to build two stations.

Unless you want to draw out the process, it is thus advisable to finish your two board meetings (and maybe the following actions like building tracks and stations) before Time, the Healer visits you.

Various tracklaying actions will increase Tracklayers' Displeasure; likewise, various successful board meetings will increase In Corporate Debt. Several board meetings can also be held to increase your train's Train Luxuries Luxuries, Train Defences Defences and Train Baggage Accommodations Baggage Accomodations. The above qualities are all covered in the next section.

Railway qualities[edit]

In Corporate Debt[edit]

In Corporate Debt is raised whenever the railway needs to spend money (e.g. approving the route to the next station, raising the Train Luxuries three Train Defences train Train Baggage Accommodations qualities). When debt gets too high (above level 5), you cannot hold any meetings that would raise debt further. Each CP of In Corporate Debt is worth roughly 5E .

At level 5 or higher, you start drawing A Word From Your Creditors in London, which is not dismissable.

To lower In Corporate Debt, you can (not an exhaustive list):

Train Defences[edit]

Train Defences can be raised at any time through (Add Train Defences), up to a maximum of 6. Note that each time you add a level, you will add +(3 x resulting Train Defences) CP to the railway's In Corporate Debt corporate debt, which can add up extremely quickly.

Moving between stations at the Upper River is a Dangerous check; the difficulty increases with Seeing Banditry in the Upper River and trips of larger distances, and is reduced by Train Defences.

Additionally, you need at least 3 Train Defences if you want to deploy your train in the Parabolan War.

Train Luxuries[edit]

Train Luxuries can be raised at any time through (Add Train Luxuries), up to a maximum of 6. Note that each time you add a level, you will add +(3 x resulting Train Luxuries) CP to the railway's In Corporate Debt corporate debt, which can add up extremely quickly.

Train Luxuries unlock or give bonuses for some actions in some Upper River locations:

Train Baggage Accommodations[edit]

Train Baggage Accommodations can be raised at any time through Add Train Baggage Accommodations, up to a maximum of 6. Note that each time you add a level, you will add +(3 x resulting Train Baggage Accommodations) CP to the railway's In Corporate Debt corporate debt, which can add up extremely quickly.

Train Baggage Accommodations unlock or give bonuses related to smuggling items between London and the Hinterlands.

Of particular note are the following actions:

Tracklayers' Displeasure[edit]

Tracklayers' Displeasure generally increases when you build tracks and do not choose the "keep your workforce well-fed" (i.e. Supporting the Emancipationist Tracklayers) option. Actions to decrease it are few and far between:

  • Present the union members with a good-will gift at any of your stations (except the last): -3 CP for 1 x Sausage About Which No One Complains and 1 x Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits.
    • Buy the Sausage About Which No One Complains is only available if you have Mutersalt (only available through FATE or a specific trackbuilding option on the way to Jericho Locks)
  • Lay an astonishing feast for the Tracklayers. (See A Kitchen for Artists (Guide))

Tracklayers' Displeasure makes some Persuasive checks harder: notably when talking to or changing the leaders of the Tracklayer's Union. It does not lead to work stoppage or other severe mechanical effects.

Laying Track[edit]

Table showing Railway steel needed to different locations
Next station Railway Steel needed Cumulative Railway Steel Steel needed Obstacle
Ealing Gardens 9 or 12 9-12 Non-existent block
Jericho Locks 9 or 12 18-24 Excavation
The Magistracy of the Evenlode 12 or 20 30-44 Worker's Strike
Balmoral 20 48-64 Hellworms or Train through parabola
Station VIII 10 58-74 Bridge Troubles
Burrow-Infra-Mump 9 67-83 Second strike
Moulin 9 76-92 Hillchanger
The Hurlers 9 85-101 Board in disarray
Marigold Station 9 94-110 Tracklayers City

For more information on acquiring the steel required, see Bessemer Steel Ingot (Guide)

When laying tracks, you'll either support the Prehistoricists, the Emancipationists or the Liberationists. These choices will affect the kind of tracklayer's city you can build, as well as difficulties on several actions and immediate rewards.

Table showing general costs of supporting groups of tracklayers
Faction Additional cost Effect(s) Action changes
Supporting the Liberationist Tracklayers 5 x Perfumed Gunpowder, sometimes 1 x Hillmover Advancing the Liberation of Night: increases It gets harder to reduce darkness in some locations and/or reducing LoN. It gets easier to sell Perfumed Gunpowder to liberationists.
Supporting the Prehistoricist Tracklayers 25 x Survey of the Neath's Bones Provides various bones
Supporting the Emancipationist Tracklayers 5 x Basket of Rubbery Pies Lowers Tracklayers' Displeasure It gets easier to sell Corrective Historical Narrative to emancipationists.

Getting a station built usually costs 20 x Hinterland Scrip and an easy board meeting.

Tracks to Ealing Gardens[edit]

You have to lay 3 stretches of tracks from Moloch Street to Ealing Gardens.

After the first one, you encounter an obstacle: a non-existent block. This unlocks Artisan of the Red Science, but also sets you back. You can either work through it, if you have an Impossible Theorem (which is not consumed), or have to build around it, requiring another track laid.

Laying tracks in this region also costs 5 x Perfumed Gunpowder and 1 x Comprehensive Bribe in addition to the usual costs.

Once in Ealing Gardens, you should check out the exclusive Helicon House and the butcher's shop. Helicon is discovered with either opportunity cards or by spending Investigating.... More info can be found at Helicon House (Guide)

You can raise Ealing Gardens Commercial Development at the Offices of the Tracklayer's Union: Ealing Gardens Branch, which unlocks the butcher, which gives repeatable access to some bones that are useful for building skeletons at the Bone Market. If you give the butcher a Device for the Duplication of Bones, you can get those bones without killing the animals, though it costs some raw materials, usually Bone Fragments and Nodule of Warm Amber. More info about building developments see Railway Station Developments (Guide)

Tracks to Jericho Locks[edit]

This location requires another 3 stretches of tracks. Each stretch costs 3 x Railway Steel and 10 x Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits. In addition, you need any of the following:

The obstacle this time is the remains of a prehistoric creature. You may either pave over the remains, or you may excavate it. Either way, you need board approval.

Excavating costs some extra food items, but provides some interesting lore, and more importantly, can provide you with a headstart on something forbidden. Paving over is less expensive, so doesn't increase In Corporate Debt as much, doesn't need as much convincing the board against own financial interests, but you lose access to that aforementioned headstart.

Post-discovery, playing the Liberationist tracklaying option will grant you the FATE-locked Mutersalt. Note that this does not lock you out of the Prehistoricist tracklaying option, which gives a Leviathan Frame.

Once you've reached Jericho, you might want to take a visit to the canals there, with Canal Cruising in Jericho Locks (Guide).

You might also build a library, where you can Do Research.

Tracks to the Magistracy[edit]

This location requires another 4 stretches of tracks. In addition, you have a choice between two routes: to go by the plains or by the hills. Going by the plains requires less Steel (3 per segment as opposed to 5), but it's so unpleasant that you have to pay the tracklayers an extra Hinterland Scrip 20 x Scrip per segment, and even still you're guaranteed to gain Tracklayers' Displeasure. On the other hand, to go by the the hills requires that you have a Cartographer's Hoard (but it does not consume the Hoard), requires more Steel, and requires heavy blasting equipment: Hillmover 2-3x  Hillmovers and 10x  Perfumed Gunpowder per segment. The benefit is your workers will accumulate less Displeasure, and you can get a lot of valuable stuff: Trace of the First City and either Antique Mystery Antique Mysteries and a Primaeval Hint, Antique Mystery Antique Mysteries and a Searing Enigma, or 12 x Palaeontological Discovery. (The option to get Palaeontological Discoveries also costs an additional Nodule of Pulsating Amber for each segment laid.) The route you take to the Magistracy also determines which of two options to use Survey of the Neath's Bones is available to you on the card Digs in the Magistracy of the Evenlode, but the difference is very small, and you can later add a spur line to gain access to the other side if you like.

The obstacle this time is a worker's strike. You may either pay the workers, give the workers a part of your company, or you may just say no and take a hit to Tracklayers' Displeasure.

Once in the Magistracy you will begin to hear rumours of a certain Clay Highwayman. More on that in Balmoral. In addition, A Day in the Life of a Novice Policeman will open after using some actions in branches in the Magistracy. Once this reaches 10, you can go diving in the basement if you're feeling adventurous.

Tracks to Balmoral[edit]

This location requires another 4 stretches of tracks. It takes 20 total Steel to go by the hills, in addition to other supplies. The obstacle this time is a mountain side, which either has to be dug with Hellworms or you may choose to have your train transported through parabola instead. Having your train go through Parabola is beneficial when fighting Parabolan Wars, so this should be worth considering. This can be built in hindsight, however.

Once you've reached Balmoral there are several things happening. A first priority should be crowning a castellan with a board meeting, as this allows you to get a weekly item worth 125 Scrip. Other things worth considering is to build a Cabinet Noir as this is a requirement for Khaganian Intrigue in Khan's Heart. In addition to this, you may discover the Clay Highwayman's lair (which lets you steal Railway Steel directly instead of making it yourself, but at a pretty steep action cost) and learn more about Cornelius.

Things to check out related to Balmoral:

Once you have built your Cabinet Noir, you can also track down Cornelius. You can tell he's important by him having a proper name, and tracking him down gives you more options in some of the upcoming obstacles.

Furthermore, you can begin to uncover the The Scheme of a Phoenix by deciphering a message that you can intercept from the Balmoral dumbwaiter. If you intercept all six available messages, it becomes a topic of conversation with a particular master when they visit at the next station and it unlocks a story that continues upon the founding of the Tracklayers' City.

Tracks to Station VIII[edit]

From now on, stations require fewer tracks. You only need 3 stretches of track for a total of 10 x Railway Steel (the first stretch costs 4x) in order to reach Station VIII (or St8tion for short). The obstacle this time is that Furnace Ancona is abducted, and you need to find a new (temporary) leader of the tracklayers.

The easier option is a tracklayer that is most likely a representative of Mr Fires, but you may wish to track down Cornelius (see Following up Rumours of Cornelius (Guide)) and put him in instead.

Once you've reached Station VIII you should (probably) try to find Furnace Ancona. Mechanically, it allows you to unlock and/or increase Steward of the Discordance. (The process for doing so is covered in the Tracks to Burrow section).

In order to use Station VIII more efficiently, you must first restore it, and subsequently discover different areas inside the factory by breaking into it. Once you have discovered the dirigible mast, this allows you to raise your Watchful cap to 215 and then to 218 (see Raising Attribute Caps (Guide)).

Other things to do in Station VIII include cooking (see A Kitchen for Artists (Guide)) and alchemy (see Alchemy at Station VIII (Guide)).

Tracks to Burrow[edit]

You only need 9 tracks for each station from now on, and none of the options for building tracks affect your Tracklayers' Displeasure anymore. The next area on the Railway is Burrow, a place in the middle of nowhere. That is, until you build a church there. This involves many expensive steps and can be read about in A Church in the Wild (Guide).

Of course, before you actually reach this station, there's another strike. To clear this stoppage, you must progress the Factory VIII plot in Station VIII. First, raise The Business of Manufacture to 5 by building developments and talking to the overseer. Then, Go for a tour of the Factory and make sure to Sneak a glance at the guard rota so you gain Peeked at the Guard Rota. Next, Break in to the factory and Sneak into the courtyard at Airs 0-50 (you may need to break in multiple times if you get unlucky with airs). You will now be able to draw a card in Station VIII, Something is Landing, causing a Master to visit the station. You will need to play through three visits, with a cooldown of 24 hours between each. (Each Master can return as many times as you wish, if you want to speak with them further or trade valuable items.) Mr. Fires visits third; sneak aboard its dirigible and progress the plot until you gain Furnace's Fate Revealed. (Your choices will affect the plot in future, but for now the main effect is who becomes leader of the Union). You'll also gain Steward of the Discordance if you missed your chance earlier.

Finally, you can deal with the stoppage! Depending on who is in charge, your options are as follows, from easiest to hardest:

Tracks to Moulin[edit]

The next area on the Railway is Moulin, a small village which makes its profits by doing expeditions into the wastelands. That is, until you arrive and the Bazaar messes up everything. By helping the local community, you will get access to Moulin Expeditions (Guide) and eventually also monographs.

This time, you have a choice about which station to build; this choice influences how easy or hard it is to convince certain board members to approve. There are no long-term mechanical consequences to this choice.

Of course, before you actually reach this station, you have to deal with Hillchanger again. This time the obstacle comes up when building the station, not while laying tracks. To resolve it there are several options:

Note that this stoppage will not occur until after the meeting where you approve station plans, so you don't need to add the corresponding board members until then.

Tracks to The Hurlers[edit]

The next area on the Railway is The Hurlers, a cold wasteland in the wilderness. Here you will be able to build a spa, do investigations in the ice, play some hurling and learn more about nothing.

That is, if you can deal with your board suddenly getting in disarray and some laboratory investigations related to this. This happens when you are proposing a plan for track towards The Hurlers. Head to the Bazaar Side-streets to begin creating a solution. You will need to complete several steps:

One all that is done, you can finally actually build the tracks towards your next station! Laying tracks costs the usual 3 x Railway Steel, plus 100 x Foxfire Candle Stub per stretch of tracks, and looking for bones costs an extra Comprehensive Bribe.

After all the hubbub in the first board meeting, you do not need another board meeting to build the station at the Hurlers.

Note: Mechanically, the choices you make here during this section only affect what attributes and skills are checked on a few opportunity cards in the Tracklayer's City after the railway is built, the rewards and payouts do not differ, so generally you can just focus on what appeals to you roleplaying and lorewise.

Tracks to Marigold[edit]

The next area on the Railway is Marigold Station, by the walls of Hell itself. Congratulations, you made it! Well, you'll first have to give the tracklayers a city of course.

You can decide where that city is built, and later it can be moved, but at a pretty high cost. If you plan to ever acquire a Hellworm, it is mechanically advantageous to build it at Balmoral, because that is where the fewest opportunity cards are that could compete with Your Very Own Hellworm, and if you build the City of the Tracklayers at the same location, you have zero-action travel between the station and the city. See The City of the Tracklayers (Guide). Note that if you choose to build a spur line to connect the city by railway, it will cost an additional 3 Steel.

Upon reaching Marigold, you will receive a suit, and once you've built statues in all areas, you will also get a special Home comfort. Visiting hell for a few weeks will also give you a flower. This and several other activities are detailed here.

Railway guide index[edit]

To add to this table click here.

Guide Description
Railway Overall Railway guide.
Railway Beginning How to prepare for, and begin construction of, the Railway.
Railway Board Conducting board meetings.
Bessemer Steel Ingot Acquiring materials for tracklaying.
Hinterland Scrip-Making How to generate Scrip, the currency of the Hinterlands.
Location-specific cards in the Hinterlands Analysis of cards that can only be drawn in specific stations.
Following up Rumours of Cornelius Unravelling the mystery surrounding a Tomb-Colonist connected to the Tracklayers.
The Tale of the Clay Highwayman Investigating, and eventually encountering, a band of thieves in the Upper River.
Statues at the GHR Stations Building statues along the Railway.
Railway Station Developments Options for developments along the Railway.
The City of the Tracklayers What you can do in the City of the Tracklayers, after you've finished building the Railway to Marigold Station
Hellworm Why you might want a hellworm and how to make the most of it.
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