Railroad Tycoon II is just like any of the
Sim Cities, only with railroads. You pick a region of the world to work in, and you have a scenario that you must complete, like connecting two cities by a certain date. There is a little more to it than that, but while you build your station, you compete against other railways. The trick to making money, while expanding your business, is to build railroad stations near land that has a product of some kind, and then send it to another station that is in need of that very product, which gives you money. For example, you build a station near a paper mill and another by a logging company. You then send the logs to the paper mill (wood = paper), and then you get money. Get it? Trust me, it'll take a while to get the hang of things.
When you start out, you will have a limited amount of things you can build, but over time, things are invented to make your job easier, faster, and capable of making you more money. Managing money is another thing you will have to worry about. You may go through a booming economy, or you may go through some bad depressions. To take advantage or to compensate for those times ahead, you are capable of managing stocks and bonds for your business, all which hopefully lead to more money in the end. This game will take a long time to finish, but it is extremely addicting.
