Train Tracks Puzzle Rules: The Complete, Simple Rulebook

The goal

Build a single continuous railway from the entrance to the exit. The line may bend as often as it needs to, but it has to be one unbroken path from start to finish.

The six rules

A finished board satisfies all of these at once.

• The track starts at the entrance tab and ends at the exit tab.
• Every number beside the grid equals the count of track squares in that row or column.
• Each track square is either a straight (two opposite connections) or a corner (two adjacent connections).
• Pieces must connect to each other: no piece may have an end that points at nothing.
• The track never branches and never crosses itself.
• Grey squares at the start are pieces already placed; they stay where they are.

What counts as a piece

There are six pieces: two straights (horizontal and vertical) and four corners (up-right, up-left, down-right, down-left). Every square is either empty or holds exactly one of them.

One solution only

Every puzzle has exactly one valid solution, and you can always reach it by logic. If you find yourself guessing, a deduction was missed; go back to the counts and the border rule instead.

Winning and losing here

In this version a wrong placement costs a life: five on Easy, four on Medium, three on Hard. The board is solved the moment the line is complete and every clue is matched.