There are plenty of ways for kids to enjoy trains in video games. Some games let them build elaborate railways from scratch, while others put them in the driver’s seat of a locomotive or ask them to keep an entire transportation network running. There are even games that capture the appeal of model railways, letting players create their own little worlds and then watch the trains move through them. That gives parents a lot more options than simply looking for a game with a train somewhere in it.
The challenge is finding the right kind of train game for your child’s specific interests. A younger kid might get more out of a simple railway-building sandbox, while an older child or teen could be perfectly happy spending hours learning how signals, schedules, freight and railway operations work. Some of the games below are easy to pick up, but others are surprisingly deep simulations that can take time to understand.
With that in mind, we’ve rounded up the best games for kids and teens who love trains, covering everything from digital train sets and relaxed railway puzzles to management games and serious simulators. Whether the big selling point is being able to build the tracks, drive the locomotive or simply watch a railway come together, there’s something here for just about every kind of young train enthusiast.
Railbound Turns Railway Routing Into A Puzzle Game
Railbound takes one of the simplest things you can do with a train set – deciding where the track goes – and turns it into a surprisingly clever puzzle game. The goal usually revolves around getting the locomotive and its carriages to the right place, but figuring out how to make that happen is where things get interesting. A misplaced section of track can send a carriage in the wrong direction, while a switch or tunnel can completely change the route.
The early stages of the game give kids plenty of room to figure out how the railway behaves before the puzzles start demanding more careful planning. Later layouts can require several things to happen in the right order, which means a solution that looks perfectly sensible at first glance can fall apart once the train starts moving. With more than 150 puzzles and optional objectives to chase, Railbound works well as a genuine test of problem-solving.
Why Kids Will Love Railbound
Railbound is all about experimentation and encouraging players to figure things out on their own through trial and error. There’s very little getting in the way of that process, which makes the game easy to understand even when some of its later puzzles can be difficult to solve.
- Regular Price: $19.99
- ESRB Rating: Not Rated
- Content Descriptors: No ESRB rating assigned
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, iOS, Android
- Players: Single-player
Locomoto Lets Kids Run Their Own Train
Locomoto embodies the childhood fantasy of actually owning a train. The locomotive is your home as well as your means of transportation, and the journey gradually becomes a little more personal as new passengers come aboard and new parts of the world open up. There’s plenty happening away from the controls, too, with resources to collect, furniture to craft and spaces inside the train to decorate.
Locomoto is quite a bit more forgiving compared to a lot of other railway simulators. Keeping the train fueled and moving still matters, but nobody expects a young conductor to memorize railway procedures before they’re allowed to enjoy the trip. The story gives the journey some direction as well, with the conductor helping their hometown deal with an environmental crisis. For younger children, it’s an appealing combination of train fantasy, exploration and customization without the weight of a traditional management game.
Why Kids Will Love Locomoto
The train gradually becomes something that feels like it belongs to the player. Kids can decide how it looks, meet the people traveling aboard it, and spend time exploring between journeys. There’s enough freedom to make the experience feel personal without turning the game into a complicated simulation.
- Regular Price: $24.99
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: None
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
- Players: Single-player
Tracks – The Train Set Game Is A Digital Toy Box
Tracks – The Train Set Game is the video game equivalent to playing with a bunch of wooden trains on the floor. The game simply removes the floor of the living room and replaces it with a digital space where the railway can keep expanding. Bridges, stations, towns and scenery can all become part of the layout, and once the track is finished, you can climb aboard and ride through it yourself.
One of Tracks’ biggest strengths is that it doesn’t revolve around a campaign that pushes players toward designing a railway that serves a specific purpose. A young child might be perfectly happy with just a small loop and a single train. Meanwhile, older players can keep adding junctions, scenery and multiple trains until the layout starts looking like a miniature railway world. In other words, the complexity is down to each player’s individual preferences.
Why Kids Will Love Tracks – The Train Set Game
Tracks perfectly emulates the idea of building trains and tracks using nothing but wooden toy blocks. Build the track, put a train on it, climb aboard and see where it goes. The rest is entirely up to the imagination.
- Regular Price: $19.99
- ESRB Rating: Not Rated
- Content Descriptors: No ESRB rating assigned
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Players: Single-player
Conduct TOGETHER! Is A Train-Themed Family Game
At the heart of Conduct TOGETHER! there’s a simple railway conundrum: the trains won’t stop coming, and somebody has to make sure they don’t crash into one another. That someone is, of course, the player. A track switch might send one train safely around a junction, but another locomotive could already be approaching from the opposite direction. It’s up to the player to figure out how to fix messes like that and ensure that everything runs smoothly.
The game’s biggest selling point is putting multiple people in charge of the same network. Up to four players can divide responsibility between them, with one person watching a junction while another deals with a train somewhere else. Everyone has to communicate, pay attention to what the others are doing and react when something goes wrong. The occasional crash is presented with mild fantasy violence and an exaggerated style, so there’s no need to worry about the game showing realistic depictions of railway accidents.
Why Kids Will Love Conduct TOGETHER!
Conduct TOGETHER! gives siblings or parents and children a reason to actually talk to each other while playing. One person can spot a train heading toward trouble and warn the others, while somebody else has to react before it’s too late.
- Regular Price: $14.99
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10 and older
- Content Descriptors: Mild Fantasy Violence
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch
- Players: 1–4 on one system
Unrailed 2: Back On Track Is One Of The Best Co-Op Games About Trains
Unrailed 2 comes with an interesting quirk that you won’t find in many other games about trains. Namely, the train refuses to wait for the player. Once it starts moving, the only way to keep the journey going is to build more railway in front of it. Wood and other materials have to be gathered quickly, converted into track and placed before the locomotive reaches the end of the line.
The simple setup creates a pretty unique kind of cooperative game. Someone might be carrying materials while another person lays track, but the jobs can change instantly when the terrain gets more complicated or supplies run low. Compared to the original Unrailed, the sequel expands the formula with new environments, train upgrades, character abilities, bosses and a level editor. The original is still worth checking out, but the sequel is arguably better in pretty much every way.
Why Kids Will Love Unrailed 2: Back On Track
The game gives everyone on the team something to do and treats failure as part of the fun. Kids can divide up the work, shout warnings when the train is getting too close and watch a perfectly organized plan inevitably dissolve into chaos.
- Regular Price: $24.99
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10 and older
- Content Descriptors: Mild Fantasy Violence
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
- Players: Single-player, local co-op and online multiplayer
Train Valley 2 Takes Railway Logistics To The Next Level
Train Valley 2 puts players in charge of the sort of railway that looks easy to manage and the gameplay loop is pretty straightforward to begin with. A town needs something, a factory produces something else, and a train can carry one to the other. Then another factory enters the picture. Then another train. Before long, a route that worked perfectly a few minutes earlier is holding up an entire chain of production. That’s where Train Valley 2 becomes more interesting than a straightforward train-building game.
The challenge here is figuring out how all those moving parts can share the same railway without getting in one another’s way. A new track can easily solve a bottleneck while creating another one somewhere else, and changing the timing of a single train can have consequences across the entire network. Players looking for some structured progression should check out the 50-level Company Mode. Meanwhile, the level editor and Steam Workshop provide thousands of additional challenges for anyone who gets hooked on making the railway run efficiently.
Why Kids Will Love Train Valley 2
There’s a satisfying moment when a railway that looked completely tangled suddenly starts working. Train Valley 2 rewards curiosity without requiring the player to understand all the game’s many systems right away.
- Regular Price: $14.99
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: None
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Players: Single-player
Railgrade Is About Building Railways That Actually Do Something
Every railway in Railgrade exists for a reason. Somewhere on the map, a mine has materials that a factory needs, and that factory often produces something another part of the network depends on. The trains are the link between all those places, which means that a badly planned route can leave an entire production chain sitting idle. As the network expands, the railway suddenly feel less like a collection of individual train lines and more like a single large system.
Extra tracks can relieve congestion, different locomotives can handle different jobs, and multi-level construction helps fit more traffic into busy areas. Railgrade includes both a campaign and sandbox play, but its biggest selling point is the satisfaction of finding the reason a network isn’t working and changing the railway until everything begins running again.
Why Kids Will Love Railgrade
Railgrade does a great job at rewarding players who go out of their way to find out why parts of a railway system aren’t working. Fixing problems can feel like solving a puzzle that just so happens to contain a lot of trains.
- Regular Price: $29.99
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: None
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Players: Single-player
Station To Station Keeps Railway Building Relaxed
The world of Station to Station starts with a tiny settlement that needs railways to connect to other parts of the map. Connecting another location opens up new possibilities, and the landscape gradually changes as the network grows. What begins as a couple of isolated buildings can eventually become a collection of connected communities with trains running between them. There’s strategy here, but the game doesn’t demand the constant attention of something like Railgrade or Transport Fever 2.
Routes have to make sense, optional challenges encourage more careful planning, and expansion still comes with decisions about where to spend resources. The difference is that mistakes rarely feel disastrous. Compared to some of the more hardcore train simulators, Station to Station is fairly slow-paced and a lot more relaxing. That makes it a good choice for children who like building and watching a world develop without wanting to manage every last detail of a transportation empire.
Why Kids Will Love Station To Station
There’s an immediate visual payoff to almost everything you build. A railway reaches a new settlement, more of the map opens up and the landscape gradually becomes more developed. Kids can experiment with their network and still have a pleasant-looking world at the end, even if their railway isn’t perfectly optimized.
- Regular Price: $19.99
- ESRB Rating: Not Rated
- Content Descriptors: No ESRB rating assigned
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
- Players: Single-player
Ticket To Ride Brings A Classic Railway Board Game To The Screen
Ticket to Ride turns railway construction into a race against everyone else at the table. Much like the board game, the video game adaptation revolves around claiming routes between cities and completing the destination tickets you’ve been given. The interesting decisions start when two players want to grab the same connection. Waiting might give you the cards you need for a longer route, but it could also give somebody else time to take the track you were counting on.
The digital version handles the opponents for you, so a child doesn’t necessarily need a group of friends or family members available every time they want to play. It’s worth noting that playing online requires a third-party Marmalade Bubble account, but single-player matches against the AI on Steam don’t have any requirements like that. For kids who enjoy board games, Ticket to Ride is also a nice introduction to the idea that sometimes the best move depends on figuring out what somebody else is planning.
Why Kids Will Love Ticket To Ride
The railway map gives kids something concrete to think about, but the real fun comes from watching everyone else’s plans develop. Taking a route at just the right moment can completely change the game, and learning to spot what another player is trying to do gives even the simple rules a lot of depth.
- Regular Price: $19.99
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: None
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, iOS, Android
- Players: Single-player, local and online multiplayer
Transport Fever 2 Lets Players Build An Entire Transportation Network
Transport Fever 2 isn’t exclusively focused on trains, but they do play a very important role in the game. Players can use railways to connect distant cities, but moving cargo between places requires additional forms of transportation like trucks, ships, planes, and more. Before long, the train line becomes just one part of a much larger network. Transport Fever 2’s broader approach to transportation makes it one of the more demanding games on this list
Cities in this game grow around the connections you establish, industries depend on reliable deliveries, and the transportation system becomes increasingly more complicated as the map fills up. There are three campaigns alongside free-play and editor options. Between all of that, the game covers road, rail, air and water transportation.
Why Kids Will Love Transport Fever 2
A single train line can eventually become part of something enormous. Watching passengers move between cities, raw materials reach factories, and different forms of transportation hand work off to one another gives the game a sense of scale that few of the simpler train games can match.
- Regular Price: $39.99 on PC; varies by platform and edition
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone on PC; E10+ on some console editions
- Content Descriptors: Alcohol Reference, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes and Use of Tobacco on some console editions
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch
- Players: Single-player
Railway Empire Lets Kids Build A Railroad Business
Railway Empire is less about the fantasy of driving a train and more about everything that has to happen before the train can make money. Every new railway needs stations, routes and locomotives, but those lines also have to serve towns and industries well enough to keep the business growing. Slowly but surely, the map fills with competing companies and increasingly valuable routes, turning what began as a small railroad into a full-blown business.
Railway Empire is a particularly good choice for older kids and teens who like management games. Expanding the network is only part of the challenge, as research unlocks new technology, rivals can interfere with your plans, and a route that looked profitable at first may become much less attractive once another company starts competing for the same passengers or freight. Railway Empire 2 expands the formula with larger maps and cooperative multiplayer.
Why Teens Will Love Railway Empire
There’s something satisfying about seeing a tiny railroad turn into a transportation empire. Early decisions have consequences much later on, especially when an apparently harmless route becomes the backbone of a more impressive network.
- Regular Price: Varies by game and edition
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: Alcohol Reference, Mild Language, Mild Violence, Use of Tobacco, Violent References
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch
- Players: Single-player; Railway Empire 2 supports up to 4-player online co-op
Mashinky Is A Train Tycoon For Kids Who Like Complexity
Mashinky puts players in charge of a relatively modest railway that has plenty of room to grow. The map is procedurally generated, the technology changes as the game switches between different historical eras, and a network that looks perfectly manageable at the beginning can become much harder to control once passenger and freight traffic begin competing for space. The game doesn’t try to hide its complexity, as stations, routes and trains all become part of a bigger economic system.
Mashinky is one of the more demanding train games on this list, but that’s exactly what makes it particularly appealing for older kids and teens who enjoy figuring out complicated systems on their own. Anyone looking for a quick train-building game should probably look elsewhere. Anyone who likes the feeling of gradually understanding a complicated machine has plenty to sink their teeth into here.
Why Teens Will Love Mashinky
The deeper Mashinky gets, the more there is to understand. For teens who enjoy figuring out how complicated systems fit together, the escalating complexity can keep the game interesting long after the basic mechanics have been mastered.
- Regular Price: $29.99
- ESRB Rating: Not Rated
- Content Descriptors: No ESRB rating assigned
- Platforms: PC
- Players: Single-player
Railroader Is About Actually Running A Railroad
Railroader takes a more hands-on approach to railway management. The setting is a short-line railroad in Appalachia, and much of the gameplay centers around dealing with the ordinary jobs that keep a small railroad operating smoothly. For instance, freight needs to be transported, passenger services have to reach their destinations, cars need to be arranged correctly, and the line itself has to keep expanding if the business is going to grow.
The railroad in this game isn’t just a collection of colored lines on a map. Cars have to be switched into the right places, locomotives have to be chosen for the work at hand, and an expanding business creates more work to manage. Railroader can be played alone or cooperatively, with the latter giving multiple people a chance to divide up the railroad’s responsibilities.
Why Teens Will Love Railroader
Railroader gives train enthusiasts a chance to get their hands dirty. Much of the fun comes from making the little decisions that keep a railroad running, then seeing those decisions add up to a larger operation. It’s a particularly good fit for teens who have already moved beyond the “I just want to drive the train” stage.
- Regular Price: $29.99
- ESRB Rating: Not Rated
- Content Descriptors: No ESRB rating assigned
- Platforms: PC
- Players: Single-player and online co-op
Railroads Online Lets Players Build The Railroad Piece By Piece
Railroads Online gives the player an open world and lets them build railroad networks pretty much wherever they wish. There isn’t a neat prebuilt network waiting to be expanded here. Instead, players build everything and need to consider that bridges have to cross rivers, stations need to be positioned sensibly, and every new section of track changes the shape of the route that comes after it.
Once the line is built, the trains have to haul freight across it, and the physical layout suddenly becomes much more important. A steep grade that looked fine while laying the track can become a serious obstacle once a loaded train is trying to climb it. The game supports solo play as well as online co-op, so friends and siblings can work on the same railroad together.
Why Teens Will Love Railroads Online
Railroads Online makes the railway feel like a physical thing. A bridge isn’t just an icon on a map and a station isn’t simply a destination since their placement affects how the trains will actually traverse the world.
- Regular Price: $39.99
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: Users Interact
- Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S
- Players: Single-player and online co-op
Derail Valley Puts You Behind The Controls
Derail Valley is an open-world game that focuses heavily on the intricacies of train operation. From the cab, the railway becomes a physical space that has to be dealt with one job at a time. Among other things, cars need to be coupled and uncoupled, switches have to be set correctly, freight has to reach the right destination and locomotives need fuel and maintenance. A mistake with a switch can send a train down the wrong line, while mishandling a locomotive can create another problem further down the road.
Derail Valley can seem a bit intimidating at first, but the career mode gradually opens up more of the railway and more capable locomotives, giving the player a chance to learn how everything works. VR support makes the experience even more immersive, however, the game also works perfectly well without it. This is firmly an older-kid and teen recommendation because the simulator expects players to pay close attention to what they’re doing and mistakes are punished pretty harshly.
Why Teens Will Love Derail Valley
Derail Valley is an excellent game for anyone who wants to know what it would feel like to operate a real locomotive. Every new locomotive feels like a challenge that needs to be figured out instead of another vehicle that behaves exactly like the last one.
- Regular Price: $39.99
- ESRB Rating: Not Rated
- Content Descriptors: No ESRB rating assigned
- Platforms: PC
- Players: Single-player
Train Sim World 6 Is The Serious Train Simulator
Train Sim World 6 is for kids who looked at the simpler train games on this list and thought they weren’t realistic enough. The routes and locomotives are modeled after real railway operations, and the game spends plenty of time on the details that make those trains behave differently from one another. A guided training system helps newcomers learn the controls, while assists can take some of the pressure off when the full simulation feels a bit too overwhelming.
That last part is important for younger players because Train Sim World 6 can be intimidating at first. There’s a lot to learn, but the game does have a pretty smooth learning curve designed to help players out. Training and assistance options let a new player get comfortable with the basics before taking on more demanding mechanics. Train Sim World 6 is the game to go for if you’re looking for something that resembles a hobby more than a toy.
Why Teens Will Love Train Sim World 6
The biggest selling point of Train Sim World 6 is authenticity. These aren’t generic locomotives moving around a made-up railway. They’re trains based on real-world equipment operating on detailed routes. Kids who are already deep into railway videos, real-world train spotting or model railways can spend a lot of time here learning how those systems work.
- Regular Price: $49.99 for the Standard Edition; varies by edition
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: Users Interact, In-Game Purchases
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Players: Single-player
Train Simulator Classic Is Like A Rabbit Hole For Train Fans
Train Simulator Classic has been around for long enough that its biggest draw isn’t just a single campaign or feature. Instead, it’s the sheer amount of railway content that has accumulated around it. Real-world routes, locomotives and scenarios have been added over the course of many years, and the Steam Workshop gives the community even more ways to access additional content.
At first glance, Train Simulator Classic may seem less inviting than something like Locomoto or Tracks. The interface is older, the amount of downloadable content can be overwhelming, and there is a lot of material aimed at people who already know exactly what kind of train or route they want. For some players, though, those qualities become strengths because they can keep digging into the simulator and find an enormous amount of related content.
Why Teens Will Love Train Simulator Classic
This is the kind of game that can become a hobby instead of something you finish and move on from. A teenager who becomes fascinated with a particular locomotive or railway can spend hours exploring different routes and scenarios built around it.
- Regular Price: $29.99; additional routes and locomotives vary
- ESRB Rating: Not Rated
- Content Descriptors: No ESRB rating assigned
- Platforms: PC
- Players: Single-player
Trainz Is A Train Simulator And Model Railway In One
The Trainz series occupies an interesting space between train simulation and model railroading. A play session can be about driving a locomotive along a carefully recreated route, but the game also gives enthusiasts tools for building routes and creating their own railway environments. Interestingly enough, AI-controlled trains can operate alongside the one you’re driving, making a layout feel more like a functioning railroad than a collection of static scenery.
That level of versatility is one of the biggest reasons behind why the series has remained popular for so long. Someone interested mainly in driving can concentrate on locomotives and routes, while another player can spend hours designing a railway and deciding how everything should operate. The enormous amount of community-created content adds another layer on top, although the sheer quantity of extra content can make the series more complicated to get into.
Why Teens Will Love Trainz
Trainz gives a train enthusiast two different ways to get hooked. One day can be spent driving a locomotive through someone else’s carefully built route, another could disappear into building a railway from scratch. The ability to switch between those two sides of the hobby gives the series a lot more staying power than a conventional simulator.
- Regular Price: Varies by Trainz edition
- ESRB Rating: Not Rated
- Content Descriptors: No ESRB rating assigned
- Platforms: PC
- Players: Single-player
JR EAST Train Simulator Brings Real Japanese Railways To The Screen
JR EAST Train Simulator takes a different route to realism. Instead of recreating the world entirely with computer-generated scenery, the simulator uses footage recorded from the driver’s cab of real JR East trains. The result is a strange but interesting combination where the controls and railway systems behave like a serious simulator, but the scenery outside the window is the actual Japanese railway passing by.
There isn’t much of a traditional game structure surrounding that experience. You’re here because you want to drive a train along a real route, follow its signals and speed restrictions, and stop at the stations along the way. Someone who wants a story, progression system or large management layer should look elsewhere, but a teen fascinated by Japanese culture and landscapes can look forward to an experience that the more conventional simulators can’t quite reproduce.
Why Teens Will Love JR EAST Train Simulator
The real-world footage of Japan gives this one a sense of authenticity that’s difficult to mimic. The scenery isn’t just inspired by a Japanese railway, you’re watching an actual route from the driver’s perspective.
- Regular Price: $39.99; varies by route
- ESRB Rating: Not Rated
- Content Descriptors: No ESRB rating assigned
- Platforms: PC
- Players: Single-player
Rail Route Turns Railway Dispatching Into A Strategy Game
Whereas a lot of train simulators offer a first-person perspective, Rail Route opts for an aerial view of an entire railway network has to keep running without becoming hopelessly congested. Trains arrive, new services need to be scheduled and the network has to expand as the demands placed on it increase. Signals and automation eventually become just as important as the tracks themselves. The top-down view makes Rail Route a particularly good fit for older kids and teens who enjoy strategy games more than simulations.
There’s a certain level of satisfaction in watching a complicated network operate smoothly, especially after a section that was constantly causing delays has finally been redesigned. The game draws inspiration from real-world cities and gradually introduces more demanding traffic. Sooner or later, a simple railway generally turns into a dispatching challenge that requires constant attention.
Why Teens Will Love Rail Route
Rail Route lets kids see the railway from the perspective of the people who have to keep everything moving. There’s no scenic train ride to enjoy and no locomotive to customize. The reward comes from turning a messy network into one where dozens of trains can pass through without bringing the whole system to a standstill.
- Regular Price: $19.99
- ESRB Rating: Not Rated
- Content Descriptors: No ESRB rating assigned
- Platforms: PC
- Players: Single-player
