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Tiny Rails

Tiny Train, Big Adventure!

Ratings

Age

4+

Category

Adventure

Languages

English

In Tiny Rails, you are the boss of your own train company. Travel across the globe, from the USA to Europe and beyond, delivering goods and collecting passengers. Customize your train with hundreds of different car combinations, each with unique stats. Upgrade your engines, cabooses, and facilities to become the ultimate railroad tycoon in this peaceful, addictive adventure.

Dinsun Expert Review

Our Expert Score

82/100

Tiny Rails is a charming, low-stress tycoon game that perfectly captures the romance of the rails. Unlike many intense management sims, Tiny Rails focuses on the journey. You inherit your grandfather's train company and set out to expand your railroad empire across the world. The pixel art is absolutely gorgeous, with famous landmarks and changing weather patterns providing a beautiful backdrop to your travels.

The gameplay is a mix of active management and idle progression. You buy and sell cargo at different stations, upgrade your train cars to keep passengers happy, and slowly unlock new regions of the map. It’s incredibly forgiving; there’s no 'game over,' only the steady growth of your fleet. It’s the perfect game for someone who wants the satisfaction of building something without the stress of constant failure. Watching your tiny train chug across a pixelated version of the Alps is one of the most relaxing experiences on iOS.

Dinsun reviewed on: Mon Nov 11 2024

Features

1

Hundreds of collectible train cars

2

Real-world locations and landmarks

3

Idle progression even when you aren't playing

4

Dynamic weather and day/night cycles

5

Customizable engines and cabooses

Upcoming Events

Lunar New Year Cargo Rush
Lunar New Year Cargo Rush
Celebrate Lunar New Year in Tiny Rails!
Thu Feb 26 2026 - Sun Mar 01 2026

Tips & Walkthrough

Gameplays

Screenshot

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Q&A

Yes, your train continues its journey and collects gold while the app is closed.

Ratings & Reviews

Different than others and a little buggy but overall great game
Thu Mar 28 2019 rate given

It’s a great game and what I love is that it is different than other train sims out there. This game is definitely one of a kind. Also each play is different. What I mean by this is that this game is very forgiving. I have seen some games that if you run out of money or gas etc. you lose the game. I have been playing since beta (I have seen pictures of the alpha)and I can definitely say that the alpha&beta stages of the game are beautiful because that we have seen a lot in this game and, remember back to when the upgrades and the engines/cabooses were on the same screen! That was a long time back! Anyway, I also wanted to talk about the bugs as well. One of them is if you activate the secret (spoilers) full throttle than open up the edit sceeen the train will stay down instead of going up like it’s supposed to. Next if you grab 2 train cars with 2 fingers they will overlay each other and when you release them one of them will stay in place. Please fix these. Also it needs the repair and cleaning mechanics from pc as well. Adding this would definitely add to the realism already in the game. P.S. Please update the video in the App Store!

Good potential, lots of bugs
Tue Nov 28 2017 Martyshka123

The game is neat and can be entertaining if a number of bugs is resolved. Not in order of importance, 1) notifications that the train arrived, while the train has just left a station. Consequently, no notifications when the train actually arrives, so I miss all waypoints. 2) Little transparency as to how to earn money. When I started, every time I logged there were credits coming. Then at some point the bank suddenly dried out and now I can’t even afford the whatchacallit machine to get new cars. 3) What is the deal with the car weight? My train is always 10-30% over, and continuous improvement of weight doesn’t seem to have any impact whatsoever. 4) Got a bonus mission to clear snowmen from the tracks. Having played for a couple weeks now, not a single snowman to be seen. 5) Just a side note, is it supposed to inform some action that passengers say “jerk” and some such? I don’t see any functionality to interact with the passengers or improve their morale other then adding food and game cars. 6) If removing obstacles is an important part of the game, it should not be taking several minutes of watching the screen to get one. All I currently do is check in at destination station to trade goods and advance the mission. I was hoping to have some interaction while the train is running, but it’s just landscape watching and nothing is happening.

Good game with flaws
Mon Sep 02 2019 Lemom_Man_7274

This is a good game I just have a couple problems with it. My fist problem with it is that it is a HUGE battery drainer. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve played this game, and then have my phone die because of the game. (I personally think it’s because of the background. If there was a low power mode for the game, I would have that thing on 24/7. This really does turn me off from playing the game. Another problem I have with the game is that you either have to be actively playing the game or close the app completely. The game takes no time to start and loud. I just find it inconvenient to close the app for the train to move. I personally like to keep them open so I can get to them later quickly. But this is not possible with this game. Another con about having to be active or closed is that if you do leave the app open but are not actively playing, the train does not move. This happens way to often and is very frustrating to me. If I were to be nitpicking, I could also say that the lights in factories and depots don’t match (as in the lights just flout and have no source) but this is not problem in any way gameplay wise. Other than these few (semi big) flaws, the game is great and as a random stranger to you, I do recommend you play this game.

Great game, and I haven’t experienced any bugs but two.....
Sun Dec 31 2017 FistedToaster_

So, when I first got the game I fell in LOVE with the game. I started making great progress and I loved it so much that I played it for 6 hours STRAIGHT. So I had a really good train and I checked the progress book or whatever it is, and it said “Make a stop at (where the place was to complete the 1st chapter)”. And so what I did was... set a waypoint to the place (whatever it was) to complete the chapter, and I turned off my iPad because I was tired. And what happened was when I got back... my train didn’t go to where I placed my checkpoint! But when I placed it and kept my iPad on, it went to the checkpoint perfectly fine. And I don’t fully know if it’s a bug or anything but it seems like one to me. But other than that, I haven’t seen any other bugs. But there’s one review that says he/she had an obstacle in front of her train and couldn’t tap it away, that has happened to me only once. So like I said great game and could use just a little tinkering. -Anonymous fan

Great game, but it could be the best.
Tue Jan 02 2018 Silv3rCapybara

Tiny rails has not failed to astound me. I’m not usually a huge fan of these types of management games but the art style reeled me in and the gameplay has kept me hooked. This game has some of the best game references I’ve ever seen and the gameplay itself is a diamond in the rough. Despite my countless hours in the game there are some issues and annoyances but that’s to be expected. First, checklists once you get out of the U.S. These checklists simply become icons and have no way to see what it is that you have to do unless you look it up. Second, taking optional photos is rendered useless when important monuments are crowded by simple houses and buildings. Third, the storing of goods into warehouses is almost completely useless. Unless I can sell to stations directly from the warehouse they serve no purpose. Fourth, there needs to be a way to set a course or at least a waypoint from the cargo menu to places that have a demand for that good. Finally, there needs to be a way to set an infinite loop in an area as I’m trying to obtain miles in Asia while being offline but the train goes to Australia and loops there instead. Once those are fixed there will only be a perfect game left over.

Could be perfect
Sat Apr 22 2023 Kona Tea

Absolutely love this game. Came back to it recently and after starting from scratch it’s still fun but there are a number of small issues that make it more chore than game. Money gained is slow both online and offline (personally I wish buying stations increased money and even gem gain, it would make my own experience a million times better), the map should zoom out more and zoom in to where your actually looking, the car customization menu should be sortable, all achievements should be possible, and I wish the Russia spy story wasn’t just the same text repeated over and over again. The studio is small so I don’t expect any changes or for the story to be fully finished but I just want to leave this for anyone first coming into this game. Hadn’t played this game in years so I was expecting a lot of change but from what else I’ve read online the only changes have been downhill. Still hopeful for the studios future games. Edit: The studio’s library was acquired recently for the sole purpose of receiving annual income for another company trophy games. The actual studio has reformed as Doom Turtle to create console based games starting with Ember Knights which seems to be doing very well. Go support that, not this sinking trash barge.

Fun game, having a bit of trouble
Mon Oct 17 2022 MountainMoon

I’m liking this game a lot, I’ve started recently but I think there’s a lot to do and it seems fun. It’s easy to grasp what the systems do, and I really like the artstyle. My biggest problem currently is that it doesn’t consistently work in the background? I’ve tried both keeping the app on but using other apps or turning it off entirely, but most of the time it just turns back on like nothing happened, and none of the in-game timers moved up. I waited three hours and my daily log-in bonus still said 30 minutes like it had three hours before. Also, the game gives me alerts that aren’t true, lik it says that I have a free spin or that I’m almost at my location but I open it up and it says that I’m 8 hours away from a free spin or I’m 4 cities away from my location. I’m currently testing if it only happens when I depart and quit in the middle of a trip or if I use a destination point, but I think the timers really ought to run no matter what. Maybe there should be a designation ‘quit’ button to make sure the app always shifts into background mode?

This update....
Fri Oct 13 2017 Theradman222222222222

So I updated the app less than five minutes ago, already I have had many bugs and a lot of weird stuff happening. First of all when It loaded there was an obstacle in front of my train, only problem is that the game doesn’t think it’s there and won’t let me get rid of it. Also new gum ball machine looks better, one other guy said that free spins don’t work anymore, I haven’t checked yet but please free spins are so useful so they need to work. Also for some reason it decided to give me 108,000 for no reason when I logged in and reset all the prices of research or upgrades. So now I am doing level 15 cargo upgrade for 1,200 and the train edit screen now won’t scroll and neither will the regular screen. Also I got put at the caboose when the money was given to me and now I’m stuck at the caboose. The map looks good and I haven’t look at much else because the train is stuck! Also it won’t let me do ads for two of those people you can hire, the speed and money ones. Anyway these are just a few of the problems I have noticed, I give this a three right now but if these things get fixed I would give it four.

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