I too have played many ‘trains & industry’ games and I find the track building and overall train simulation to be the best I’ve ever seen in a game.
What frustrates me to all hell is the stupid industry/economic model. Sometimes I can understand how it works – and then another time it doesn’t make any sense! I wish it were more like Industry Giant where you had areas of land that produced for one natural resource or another and you had to build your own industrial segments accordingly, and then ship the final product to stores, which then sold it according to the demands of that neighborhood – that would be more realistic. Or like RT3 that had the gradiated price map for products that showed you where to ship the goods to for the best profit.
All gripes aside, I’m still hooked on this game.