1846: Privates & Railroads — A Field Guide

What each one does, why you'd want it, and an honest opinion about each

Ratings are ★ (situational) to ★★★★★ (take it and smile). Opinions are mine — informed by the rulebook, common 1846 wisdom, and the math — but table meta varies, and half the fun of 1846 is proving guides like this wrong. Rules references link into the rules page.

The Private Companies

Two framing thoughts before the list. First: in 1846 you don't bid for privates — you draft them at fixed prices, so the question is never "what's it worth?" but "is this better than keeping cash for the stock round?" Second: every private (except the Mail Contract) pays income each OR and can be sold to a corporation you control for up to list price — so most privates effectively refund themselves. The real differentiator is the ability.

Lake Shore Line ★★★★★

$40$15/OR incomeFree extra Cleveland or Toledo upgrade

What it does: Once green tiles are available, its owning corporation gets one extra, free upgrade of Cleveland or Toledo — no connection to your tokens required.

Why it's useful: $15 per OR on a $40 purchase is a 37.5% yield before the ability even fires. And the ability is tempo: Cleveland and Toledo are the two most congested junctions in the east half of the map. The green Toledo tile adds a second city spot — in the rulebook's own example, the NYC uses exactly this trick to slip past the Grand Trunk's Toledo token and reach Detroit.

The best pound-for-pound private in the game. Cheap, great income, and the ability un-blocks the exact chokepoints everyone fights over. If you're planning to run NYC or GT, draft this without hesitation.

Michigan Central ★★★

$40$15/OR income2 free yellow tiles in its reserved hexes

What it does: Two extra, free yellow tile lays in its reserved hexes along the southern Michigan corridor. Until it's bought by a corporation or removed, nobody may lay tiles there — the ability doubles as a roadblock.

Why it's useful: Free lays are precious in a game that only allows two per turn, and the blocking power is real leverage: a GT or NYC that needs to cross Michigan may pay you handsomely (well, up to list price) just to unlock the corridor.

Good income, situational ability. Its value spikes if you control a corporation that wants the Michigan route — and its nuisance value spikes if someone else does. Drafting it purely to hold the corridor hostage is a legitimate, mildly villainous plan. I respect it.

Ohio & Indiana ★★★

$40$15/OR income2 free yellow tiles in its reserved hexes

What it does: The Michigan Central's southern twin — two extra, free yellow lays in reserved hexes across Ohio/Indiana, with the same blocking effect until bought or removed.

Why it's useful: Same math as the MC: excellent income ratio, free tempo, corridor control. The hexes sit on the natural east-west path, so Pennsylvania, B&O, and C&O builders all care about it.

Interchangeable with Michigan Central in power; pick whichever matches the corporation you intend to run. If you're not sure which railroad you'll end up with, these two are the safest "ability" privates because someone always wants the corridor.

Steamboat Company ★★★★

$40$10/OR incomePort marker: +$20 (or +$40) to routes

What it does: Places a port marker on a listed location, adding $20 (or $40 in Holland/Wheeling) to routes that count it. Unique perk: before any corporation buys it, you assign the marker each OR to any corporation or Independent Railroad you like (details).

Why it's useful: It's the only private that works for you from turn one without being sold — pump up your own Independent Railroad's runs, or your corporation's. And re-assigning it every OR makes you popular (or dangerous) in negotiations.

Sneaky-good and the most political card in the set. The income is modest but the marker is worth $10–$20 per OR to you when assigned to a railroad you own half of. A lovely draft alongside the Michigan Southern or Big 4.

Meat Packing Company ★★★★

$60$15/OR income+$30 marker in St. Louis or Chicago

What it does: Its owning corporation places a $30 marker in St. Louis or Chicago; routes counting that location earn +$30 through Phase III.

Why it's useful: +$30 on the exact locations every western route already wants to visit. On a corporation running two trains through St. Louis, that's +$60 per OR — which is dividend money, which is stock-price movement.

The Illinois Central's best friend, and great for Grand Trunk too. The rulebook example has the IC buy it and immediately turn a $110 run into $140 and a double-jump. If you're going west, this is the one.

Tunnel Blasting Company ★★★

$60$20/OR income−$20 to tunnel/pass hexside costs

What it does: Reduces tunnel/pass hexside costs by $20 for its owning corporation — e.g., the Wheeling–Pittsburgh crossing.

Why it's useful: Honestly? The ability is a footnote. The headline is $20 per OR — the best raw income of any private. Buy for $60, collect $20 every OR, then sell it to your corporation for $60. It's a money pump.

Rate the income, not the blasting. The ability only matters to B&O/C&O/PRR builders in the mountainous east, but the yield makes it a fine draft for anyone. The most "boring but correct" pick available.

Chicago & Western Indiana ★★★★★

$60$10/OR incomeFree extra token in Chicago

What it does: Its owning corporation places a free extra token in Chicago's reserved C&WI spot (which is blocked for everyone until this private is bought or removed). Can't be used if the corporation already has a Chicago token.

Why it's useful: Chicago is the highest-value western anchor and the western end of the East-West bonus. Tokens there are contested and expensive; this one is free, guaranteed, and doesn't even need a connection. A corporation with a Chicago token has a permanent seat at the best table on the map.

Alongside Lake Shore Line, the premium ability in the draft. The income is weak, but you're not buying income — you're buying Chicago. Eastern corporations (NYC, PRR, Erie) that might otherwise get locked out should treasure it.

Mail Contract ★★

$80No income!+$10 per city visited, one route — permanent

What it does: One of its owning corporation's routes earns +$10 per location visited (not just counted — an N/M train's skipped cities pay too). Uniquely, it survives Phase III if a corporation owns it.

Why it's useful: Late game, a 7/8 train visiting 8 locations earns +$80 every OR, forever. It's the only private with endgame scaling.

A trap wearing a treasure map. It costs the most, pays zero income to a player, and its value only materializes after a corporation buys it and grows long trains. In the rulebook example everybody passes on it until it's discounted to $60. Follow their lead: never pay $80; happily take it cheap; get it into a corporation fast. Owned by the right corporation from Phase II onward, it quietly becomes one of the strongest assets in the game — which is exactly why it deserves two stars in your hand and four on a corporate mat.

The Independent Railroads

These two are privates that play like tiny corporations (rules): each has a 2-train and a token, lays track, runs a route every OR, and splits revenue 50/50 between you and its treasury. When a corporation buys one, it gets the treasury, the 2-train, and converts the token — three assets in one purchase.

Michigan Southern ★★★★

$60 + $80 debt = $140Home: DetroitIndependent RR — splits revenue with you

What it does: Operates out of Detroit ($40+ city, tunnel to Windsor next door) with a $60 starting treasury. Operates first each OR, before everything else on the board.

Why it's useful: Detroit is prime real estate; the MS reliably runs $60–$70 routes from OR1, paying you $30+ per OR. When sold to a corporation (max $60), the buyer gets a Detroit token — often worth more than everything else combined.

Excellent, with one caveat: $140 is 35% of your starting $400, which crimps your first stock round. The classic line — run in the rulebook's own example — is MS + Grand Trunk, whose Port Huron home sits right next door. If you draft the MS, you've half-committed to the GT; know that going in.

Big 4 ★★★★

$40 + $60 debt = $100Home: IndianapolisIndependent RR — splits revenue with you

What it does: Same mini-corporation machinery, based in Indianapolis with a $40 treasury.

Why it's useful: Cheaper entry than the MS, and Indianapolis is a fine central hub — its routes grow toward Terre Haute/St. Louis and Cincinnati. The Indianapolis token it hands its eventual buyer anchors the middle of the map.

The value pick of the two independents. Its runs are a notch smaller than the MS's, but $40 cheaper up front means one more share in Stock Round 1. Pairs beautifully with the Illinois Central (as Carlos plays it in the rulebook example). One subtlety worth copying from that example: sometimes the right move is never selling it — 50% of a 2-train's revenue as an independent beats your 20–60% dividend share of the same train inside your corporation.

The Seven Railroads

Remember the frame: with 3–4 players, one or two of these are randomly removed at setup, and their home cities become blocked — which reshuffles every evaluation below. Also, in 1846 you pick the starting price ($40–$150), so a "weak" railroad launched cheap with the right privates can outscore a "strong" one launched expensively. Geography is destiny, but the destiny is negotiable.

New York Central ★★★★★

Home: Cleveland4 tokensNo special ability — doesn't need one

Advantages

  • Cleveland is a high-value "Z" city, centrally placed on the northern trunk line.
  • Straight shot east to Buffalo/Erie off-boards and west toward Toledo → Detroit → Chicago: the best East-West skeleton on the map.
  • Natural buyer of the Lake Shore Line, which is practically named after it.

Disadvantages

  • Everyone knows it's good — expect share competition and neighbors racing you to Toledo and Chicago tokens.
  • The northern corridor is the most fought-over track on the board; you will pay for bridges and get blocked.
The default "strong" company, and deservedly so. Its problem is popularity: an NYC president often ends up sharing 40–50% of the dividends with gleeful freeloaders. Still — if it's available and you can protect the presidency, take it.

Pennsylvania ★★★★★

Home: Homewood5 tokensReserved Ft. Wayne token ($40/$60) — no connection needed

Advantages

  • Five tokens — one more than anyone else. In a game where tokens are route anchors and blockers, this is a genuine superpower.
  • The Ft. Wayne reservation can be dropped without a connection for $60: an instant forward base on the road to Chicago while your track catches up.
  • Homewood sits next to Pittsburgh's fat eastern revenue.

Disadvantages

  • Mountainous terrain east of home — expect $40–$60 hexside bills (the Tunnel Blasting Co. is your friend).
  • Long way to the western off-boards; the E-W bonus takes time to assemble.
My pick for most flexible corporation in the game. Five tokens means the PRR can play offense (route anchors) and defense (city blocking) at the same time. The unconnected Ft. Wayne drop is one of the best tempo plays in 1846 — claim the middle of the map in OR1 and let the track follow.

Illinois Central ★★★★

Home: Cairo4 tokensLaunch bonus + free land-grant lays + reserved $40 Centralia token

Advantages

  • The launch bonus: the bank matches your starting price into its treasury (§5.35). Launched at $150, the IC starts with $450 while everyone else has $300 or less.
  • Five free "$0 IC" tile lays up the Illinois spine — track that costs everyone else $20+ costs the IC nothing.
  • Cheap reserved Centralia token; St. Louis and Chicago both in easy reach; loves the Meat Packing Co.
  • Western corner start means little early competition for its track.

Disadvantages

  • Cairo is the most remote home on the map — early routes are modest and the eastern big money is far, far away.
  • The East-West bonus is a long-term project; the IC can stall in the midgame if it doesn't reach meaningful revenue by Phase III.
The economist's railroad: structurally the richest company per dollar of stock, geographically the loneliest. The tension is delicious — launch it high to maximize the bonus and you own an expensive, slow-blooming stock; launch it low and you waste its one unique gift. I lean high-ish ($100–$130) with the Big 4 in your pocket. Patient players do very well with the IC.

Grand Trunk ★★★

Home: Port Huron3 tokensNo special ability

Advantages

  • Detroit and Toledo next door: fast, cheap early revenue that few companies can match in OR1–2.
  • Natural partner for the Michigan Southern (whose Detroit token it inherits on purchase — partially fixing the token problem).
  • Port Huron's bridge to Sarnia gives an East connection right at home.

Disadvantages

  • Only 3 tokens — the fewest in the game. Every placement is agonizing, and running out means getting locked out of Chicago or the south.
  • Corner start: all growth funnels through the same contested Detroit–Toledo bottleneck the NYC also wants.
  • Port Huron can never take the brown upgrade (map-edge restriction), capping home revenue.
A sprinter, not a marathoner. The GT makes money faster than almost anyone early, then spends the midgame fighting claustrophobia. The MS+GT package is the established way to play it — but notice in the rulebook's own example how Amy's GT ends Stock Round 2 in last place. Take the GT when you want early dividends to fund your second company, and time that pivot well.

Chesapeake & Ohio ★★★

Home: Huntington4 tokensNo special ability

Advantages

  • The southern route (Huntington → Cincinnati → Louisville → St. Louis) is the least contested corridor on the map — you build in peace while the north brawls.
  • Cincinnati (a "Z" city) is close, and a natural East-West path exists that few others fight for.

Disadvantages

  • No ability, no reserved token, no launch bonus — the C&O is exactly what's printed on the map, nothing more.
  • Huntington itself is low-value; early revenue is unimpressive and the mountain terrain east of home is pricey.
  • The B&O's reserved Cincinnati spot can complicate your best city.
The sleeper. Nobody's excited to launch the C&O, which is precisely its charm — cheap shares, empty corridor, and a viable E-W route that materializes while the northern companies pay each other's bridge tolls. A solid second corporation, or a first one for a player who enjoys being underestimated.

Erie ★★

Home: Salamanca4 tokensReserved $40 Erie token

Advantages

  • Guaranteed cheap second city: the reserved $40 token in Erie.
  • Instant access to eastern off-board money (Buffalo, and the east half of an E-W route is born connected).
  • Four tokens and a spot in the northern action.

Disadvantages

  • Salamanca is a low-value home in the far northeast — the wrong end of the map for growth.
  • It needs to cross the entire contested northern corridor (Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit — all someone else's home turf) to reach the west.
  • A route can't connect two East off-boards, which caps what the Erie can do in its own neighborhood.
The hardest railroad to love. Its neighborhood is rich but everything worth reaching is already claimed by NYC and friends, and its own corner generates modest runs. It can work — usually with the C&WI private buying a Chicago foothold, or as a late, cheap launch that milks eastern short-runs. But if I'm dealt a choice, the Erie is the one I leave in the box. Fittingly historical, honestly.

Baltimore & Ohio ★★

Home: Wheeling4 tokensReserved Cincinnati token ($40/$100) — no connection needed

Advantages

  • The escape hatch: drop the reserved Cincinnati token without a connection for $100 and instantly own a piece of a "Z" city in the middle of the map.
  • Wheeling has a port (Steamboat marker: +$40 there) and a fat tunnel connection to Pittsburgh's eastern money.

Disadvantages

  • Wheeling is a pocket: map-edge restrictions block its brown upgrade, terrain is expensive in every direction, and the natural exits run through everyone else's track.
  • That Cincinnati bailout costs $100 — a huge OR1/OR2 expense for a young company.
  • Without the token trick, the B&O risks spending Phase I–II merely escaping home.
A puzzle box. Played straight, it's the weakest company on the map; played around the Cincinnati drop — token first, track later, ideally with Tunnel Blasting and/or Ohio & Indiana to cheapen the reunion — it becomes respectable. I'd rather have this than the Erie because at least its problem has a printed solution. But launch it cheap; this stock has to crawl before it walks.

Quick Rankings (Fight Me)

#PrivateOne-liner#RailroadOne-liner
1Lake Shore LineBest yield + unblocks the best cities1PennsylvaniaFive tokens and a teleporting one
2Chicago & W. IndianaBuys the thing money fights over: Chicago2New York CentralBest geography, priced accordingly
3Meat Packing Co.+$30 exactly where the West already runs3Illinois CentralRichest treasury, loneliest corner
4Steamboat Co.Pays you before it's even sold4Grand TrunkFast money, three-token ceiling
5Michigan SouthernDetroit dividends from OR15Chesapeake & OhioQuietly fine while the north brawls
6Big 4The budget independent — great value6Baltimore & OhioA trap with a $100 escape hatch
7Tunnel Blasting Co.Boring 33% yield; take the money7ErieWrong corner, crowded neighbors
8Michigan CentralCorridor tolls, Michigan edition
9Ohio & IndianaCorridor tolls, Ohio edition
10Mail ContractTerrible in your hand, lovely on a mat — never pay $80
Context beats rankings. The MC and O&I jump two tiers when their corridor matters to your railroad; the Mail Contract is arguably top-three by Phase III if a long-train corporation owns it; and any "weak" railroad becomes a fine investment at the right launch price. The rankings above assume a vacuum — your table is not a vacuum.
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