In Gleiswerk you take over a small railway in the Rhineland and grow it into a network between Duisburg and Bonn. It is the most expensive business in the whole arcade: you start with 0 € in the cash box, and even the entry ticket — a second-hand loco with two wagons — costs 104,000 €. Gleiswerk is the end goal you save up for with the other businesses: you get the money via the current account or a bank loan on the start page (all real euros, 1:1 — see the bank help page at /hilfe.php?thema=bank). In return, the starter line Leverkusen – Opladen including both halts is free: it belongs to the public network — you only pay track access charges per kilometre run. Everything keeps running in real time while you are away, and none of it is real money.
Gleiswerk is the only one of the five games without a time lapse: a game day is a real day, and a 14 km run takes the starter train about 16 real minutes. Everything you set in motion runs to its end without you.
From an empty account to your first trip:
You will find orders in the 📋 Orders tab — they keep coming in on their own, even while you are away.
Six classes, unlocked by level. Loaded trains run slower: fully loaded costs up to 25 % of the top speed.
| Loco | Price | Speed | Max wagons | Running cost/km | Maintenance/km | From level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V 60 (second-hand) | 60,000 € | 60 km/h | 4 | 9 € | 2.58 € | 1 |
| V 100 | 120,000 € | 95 km/h | 8 | 14 € | 5.16 € | 2 |
| Electric loco BR 143 | 265,000 € | 120 km/h | 10 | 11 € | 11.40 € | 5 |
| Railcar BR 628 | 395,000 € | 140 km/h | 6 | 15 € | 16.99 € | 7 |
| Heavy-haul loco BR 232 | 610,000 € | 100 km/h | 14 | 23 € | 26.23 € | 9 |
| Express loco BR 101 | 980,000 € | 180 km/h | 12 | 19 € | 42.14 € | 12 |
The BR 628 has a bonus: +30 % revenue on commuters, +15 % on mail.
The “Maintenance/km” column is new (2 Aug 2026) and matters: it appeared nowhere before — neither here nor in the game. The bigger the loco, the more maintenance it eats. On the BR 232 that is 26 € per kilometre on top of the 23 € running costs. How maintenance works in detail is in the section Intervals and railway works.
Selling is possible: trains fetch part of the purchase price depending on condition (60 % in perfect shape down to 30 % for a worn-out train), individual wagons 65 %.
Every loco has three maintenance intervals, and they run on kilometres, not on time. A train standing still for a week misses nothing — being away is never punished here.
| Interval | every | Cost | Time in works | V 60 | BR 232 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inspection | 1,000 km | 1.5 % of loco price | 12 min | 900 € | 9,150 € |
| Scheduled service | 5,000 km | 6 % | 90 min | 3,600 € | 36,600 € |
| Major overhaul | 25,000 km | 40 % | 6 hrs | 24,000 € | 244,000 € |
A bigger interval covers the smaller ones: after a major overhaul, the inspection and scheduled service are fresh again too.
What happens if you overrun an interval? The train keeps running — only the loco kilometres get dearer (up to +15 % for the inspection, +25 % for the scheduled service, +35 % for the major overhaul, and these add up). No train is ever stranded, there is no forced break and nothing fails while you are away.
Railway works make maintenance cheaper and quicker. You may service a loco anywhere — at a works it just pays off more. One can be built in any town with at least a station (level 2):
| Level | Name | Cost | Spare parts | Time in works | From level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engine shed | 200,000 € | −25 % | — | 10 |
| 2 | Railway works | 550,000 € | −35 % | −30 % | 14 |
| 3 | Main repair works | 1,400,000 € | −45 % | −50 % | 18 |
The old repair works in Opladen has belonged to the railway from the start and counts as level 1 — maintenance was always 25 % cheaper there. You can upgrade it like any other.
Handy: switch on auto maintenance (“🛠️ Auto”). The train then handles due intervals itself whenever it arrives somewhere. If the cash box does not stretch, nothing happens at all — it just keeps running.
Wagons always belong to a train (Trains tab, 🚃 button) and cost 4 € per kilometre to run.
| Wagon | Price | Carries | From level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open goods wagon | 18,000 € | gravel, coal, timber, steel | 1 |
| Covered wagon | 22,000 € | grain, paper, tools, mail | 1 |
| Tank wagon | 34,000 € | chemicals | 1 |
| Passenger coach | 16,000 € | commuters | 1 |
The covered wagon is the best start: mail is the most valuable cargo and is needed almost everywhere.
⚠️ Careful with the open goods wagon. It sits first in the catalogue and is cheap — but in the starting area it can barely load anything: Leverkusen supplies chemicals, mail and commuters, Köln mail, commuters and tools. The only source within reach is the gravel works in Opladen, and gravel is the weakest cargo in the game. It only really comes into its own with Neuss (gravel, coal) and Duisburg (steel, coal, timber). Every catalogue card in the Expand tab now tells you which towns its cargo comes from — read that before you buy.
Orders appear continuously on their own — the bigger your cities and the better their stations, the faster the rate and the more slots. Every order has a deadline of 2 to 8 hours; deliver before it and you get the punctuality bonus ×1.20 (+20 % revenue). A train may take just part of an order — the rest stays put and is paid pro rata.
Revenue formula (per wagon): base price + rate × kilometres.
| Cargo | Base | per km | over 14 km | Wagon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49 € | 27 € | 427 € | covered | |
| 🔧 Tools | 58 € | 23 € | 380 € | covered |
| 🧪 Chemicals | 65 € | 23 € | 387 € | tank |
| 🧳 Commuters | 50 € | 20 € | 330 € | passenger |
| 📄 Paper | 50 € | 17 € | 288 € | covered |
| 🔩 Steel | 61 € | 15 € | 271 € | open |
| 🌾 Grain | 45 € | 13 € | 227 € | covered |
| 🪵 Timber | 41 € | 11 € | 195 € | open |
| ⚫ Coal | 43 € | 9 € | 169 € | open |
| 🪨 Gravel | 36 € | 7 € | 134 € | open |
From level 11, framework contracts add +10 % to all order revenue. From level 13 you get a quarter more order slots.
This is the most important expansion in the whole game. Until you have one, all towns share a single order list, and while that list is full no new order appears anywhere on the network. You can do nothing but wait — buying more trains achieves nothing, because there simply is not more freight lying around.
A branch line breaks that open. You lay a track up to a works, and from there comes a freight stream of its own that does not count against the shared slots. For the first time you are not the recipient of demand but its source. Works traffic also pays a 15 % bonus — the price for the railway running right up to the works gate.
Sixteen works, each with a fixed cargo and three upgrade levels (branch line → loading road → works station). You connect them in the 🏗️ Expand tab; you can also see their status by tapping the town on the map.
| Town | Works | Cargo | From level | Connection |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leverkusen | Chempark works railway | 🧪 chemicals | 6 | 180,000 € |
| Opladen | Opladen railway works | 🔧 tools | 6 | 140,000 € |
| Köln | Niehl Rhine harbour | 🪨 gravel, ⚫ coal | 7 | 300,000 € |
| Berg. Gladbach | Paper mill | 📄 paper | 7 | 230,000 € |
| Leverkusen | Mail sorting centre | 8 | 150,000 € | |
| Neuss | Grain silo at the harbour | 🌾 grain | 8 | 190,000 € |
| Neuss | Gravel works | 🪨 gravel | 8 | 160,000 € |
| Dormagen | Dormagen chemical park | 🧪 chemicals | 9 | 220,000 € |
| Solingen | Blade works | 🔧 tools | 9 | 210,000 € |
| Düsseldorf | Exhibition grounds | 🧳 commuters | 10 | 250,000 € |
| Remscheid | Tool forge | 🔧 tools, 🔩 steel | 11 | 260,000 € |
| Wuppertal | Paint works | 🧪 chemicals | 11 | 280,000 € |
| Köln | Eifeltor transhipment yard | 📄 paper, 🔧 tools | 12 | 520,000 € |
| Bonn | Central mail depot | 12 | 340,000 € | |
| Duisburg | Steel works | 🔩 steel, ⚫ coal | 13 | 480,000 € |
| Duisburg | Inland harbour | 🪵 timber, 🪨 gravel | 14 | 420,000 € |
The upgrades cost 2.5× and 6× the connection price. They raise how many orders wait at once (1 → 2 → 3), how fast new ones appear (every 40 → 28 → 20 minutes) and how big an order is (around 5 → 7 → 9 wagon loads).
Connecting all sixteen costs 4.33 m €, upgrading them all about 41 m €. That is deliberate: every single step should be a real decision (“is the gravel works worth it when my trains barely have any open wagons?”).
Every trip costs, per kilometre:
And one cost that does not hang on kilometres: every train costs 1,000 € a day in staff, stabling and insurance — even when it stands still. A train doing nothing is the only reliable way to lose money in Gleiswerk.
Example V 60 with 2 covered wagons, Leverkusen → Köln (14 km):
Remember: the track charge is always due, no matter how empty the train is. Empty runs cost in full and earn nothing. From level 14 the group discount cuts running costs by 10 %.
The game shows all of this in every destination row: “💶” is the profit that goes straight into the cash box, “🔧” the maintenance this trip uses up, and “📈 €/hr” counts both — that is the figure to decide by.
Build cost = 12,000 € + km × 3,400 € × terrain factor. Flat land has factor 1.0, hills and mountains up to 1.5, the Rhine bridge to Dormagen 1.7. Examples:
To build, tap a dashed line on the map; one of the two cities must already be on the network. Distance pays: revenue grows with every kilometre while the fixed loading time spreads over more track. A V 100 with 8 wagons earns around 10,400 €/hr on 60 km versus about 6,300 €/hr on the 5 km shuttle.
Since 2 Aug 2026 the line “pays back after ≈ N trips” uses the contribution margin of a sample train, i.e. after running costs and maintenance. Before that it used the bare revenue, which made the figure systematically too flattering.
Every connected city starts as a halt (free): loading there takes 240 s plus 20 s per load — which really slows down short shuttle runs. Upgrades open up from player level 3 and make a worthwhile first real investment:
| Level | Name | Base time | Per load | Cost* | From level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Halt | 240 s | 20 s | free | 1 |
| 2 | Station | 80 s | 9 s | 38,000 € | 3 |
| 3 | Freight yard | 50 s | 6 s | 105,000 € | 6 |
| 4 | Transhipment hub | 28 s | 4 s | 260,000 € | 10 |
* times city size — big cities like Köln cost more but also deliver more. A better station loads faster, brings more order slots and a faster order rate in that city.
⚠️ Honestly though: the order rate and the order slots are both capped, and those caps are reached at around nine connected towns with a station. From then on a further station upgrade only improves the loading time. The transhipment hub in Köln costs 780,000 € and saves roughly 50 seconds a trip there — do the maths on whether that is worth it to you. If you want more freight, build works branch lines.
A station from level 2 is also the precondition for building a railway works in that town.
Right from the start you can put a train on a roster: a ring of stops it works over and over — even while you are offline (for as long as your pause setting says, see below). At every stop it picks up whatever is heading towards the next one.
If it finds nothing, it moves on to the next stop instead of taking a loss-making run. Standard freight (25 % of the revenue) still exists — but only when it really covers its full costs. Otherwise the train would rather wait: a standing train costs the 1,000 € a day it costs anyway — a loss-making run costs that on top.
⚠️ This was different until 2 Aug 2026, and it was a real problem: the old scheduled service took standard freight unconditionally, and that only fills wagons of one type while the costs fall due for the whole train. Three mixed BR 232 on the Leverkusen–Köln service came out at a measured −91,000 €/day. The same fleet on a roster over six stops makes +28,000 €/day. If you had an old scheduled train: it has automatically become a roster with two stops and otherwise behaves exactly the same.
Two stops are open to every train. For more you need the control centre (400,000 €, from level 12) — after that, rosters with up to eight stops are free for all trains. This is where the tinkering lives: spend an hour working out which ring over which towns carries best, then watch. A ring pays because the train never empties the same source twice in a row.
After a very long absence, the remainder is settled at a flat 90 % of your average so far — within the pause time the Gleiswerk keeps running without you (see the next section).
Your business till may go into the red — but not without limit. If it drops below −500 €, the Gleiswerk halts and stands still.
It starts again as soon as you have topped it up from your current account so the till is back at 0 €. Neither the 24-hour window nor any waiting time applies to that — that is exactly what this exception is for.
Standing still really means standing still, in both directions:
That is the whole point of the rule: you should be able to buy your way out once and then carry on normally — not drop back below −500 € in the same moment because the standstill gets billed retrospectively.
⚠️ Your current account is not affected: rent, cost of living and loan instalments keep running. It is the business that halts, not your account.
Your trains keep running while you are away — but not forever. The clock runs from your last click: every action in the game resets it to zero. After that the yard stands still until you open the Gleiswerk again or click anywhere.
How long the Gleiswerk runs without you is your own choice. On the start page, below the game tiles, there is the collapsible box “⏸️ Pause setting per game”; there you pick it for each business separately. Without a setting of your own the default of 6 hours applies. For the Gleiswerk you can choose 6, 12, 18 or 24 hours — deliberately no more, because a standing train costs 1,000 € a day: three days would be 3,000 € per train on their own, and a hole like that takes weeks to climb out of. The change takes effect the next time you open the game.
⚠️ Leaving a tab open does not help: if you only watch and never click, your Gleiswerk halts after exactly the same time. You will see a “Paused” notice at the top — one click and everything carries on. No need to reload.
A halt really is a halt, in both directions:
You lose nothing by it — you simply do not gain any further. Come back after three weeks and the welcome window tells you exactly how much of those three weeks your Gleiswerk really ran; from the moment you open it, everything carries on as normal.
⚠️ Your current account is not affected: rent, living costs and loan instalments run on regardless of the Gleiswerk. It is the operation that halts, not your account.
Every city produces certain goods and needs others (tap it on the map). Deliver a cargo to a city that does not need it and you take a 20 % cut (onward transport). A few anchors:
The best route serves both directions: an order out, return traffic back instead of standard freight.
The map follows the real clock: night falls from 9 pm to 5 am, with dusk and dawn either side. It is purely visual — trains, orders and deadlines run on around the clock.
📦 Market freight is a named delivery from the arcade’s supply contracts (farm → clinic/apartments): “200× eggs from farm X to clinic Y”. The goods have always already arrived at the recipient — your train runs the special service with a name tag on it. It sits at the top of the Orders tab and is entirely optional: ignore it and the game plays exactly as before.
📣 Weekly event: Every now and then the arcade calls a shared event (trade fair in Cologne, rail strike …) — a banner above the view shows the text and remaining days, and all trip revenue is multiplied by a factor between ×0.5 and ×2.0. After the end date everything returns to normal automatically.
Since the central warehouse went live, real food moves through the arcade: the Rheinhof farm fills the central warehouse in Cologne, and from there the hotel, restaurant, clinic and apartments draw their daily supplies. Those flows show up in your 📋 Orders tab as 🚂 goods runs — with the name of the business you are hauling for and the goods spelled out (“3,000× eggs · 600× milk”). Like market freight they are entirely optional: the goods have long since arrived at the recipient, your train runs the named service afterwards.
Two directions:
⚠️ The main route is the haulage firm, not the railway. Short hops and small loads go by lorry; the train only joins in once enough has piled up. That is not arbitrary but calculated: a run only covers its full cost (loco, wagons, track access and maintenance provision) from a certain number of wagons upwards. For the V 60 that is 2 wagon loads over the 14 km to the warehouse and 3 on the runs to Bonn or Düsseldorf; a bigger loco needs correspondingly more, because it costs more to run. That exact number is shown in the row while a run is still too small.
The railway bundles. A single goods run rarely fills a whole wagon. The Gleiswerk therefore combines all open goods runs on the same line into one consolidated train — that is the advantage a train has over a lorry. Only that consolidated train reaches the threshold. One click takes it as a single special grain consignment; on arrival the game reports each bundled consignment separately to the central warehouse.
Taking it reserves every consignment for you — the haulage firms see the same freight list, and whoever takes it first gets it. If one was already gone, the game tells you and the train runs with the rest.
It pays the perfectly ordinary freight revenue — there is no premium and no refund on a goods run (unlike the market freight from supply contracts). The appeal is a different one: it is extra, predictable cargo on a line you serve anyway — and an order with a real fellow player behind it.
⚠️ Two cases where no train runs at all, and the row says so plainly: the recipient sits in the same town as the warehouse (nothing to haul), or you are missing the line there — build it in the 🗺️ Network tab. If a goods run expires after 48 hours nothing happens: the recipient has the goods, you have merely passed up the extra earnings.