One of a number of German journey games inspired by the classic Game of the Goose, the Eisenbahn-Spiel has players competing to reach the final (70) location first. In a variant on the traditional Game of the Goose, players are required to roll doubles for each number before being permitted to start, movement is determined by a single die (as opposed to the two dice traditionally used), and landing on some spaces will incur fines, with players unable to pay being eliminated.
The German version also included a stipulation that landing on spaces numbered 30 or higher that are divisible by 5 would return a player to space 23. Subsequent Dutch printings removed this rule.
The dating of the original German version to 1897 is an approximation based on the publisher's numbering system.