I ran through yet another playtest of Open Rails last night.  Three imaginary players.  The main rule changes I wanted to test were in there along with the slightly smaller share cards and smaller sized company mats to track things.  After sorting things out, I was good to go.  I proceeded to split out the stocks, took my time with each position and thoughtfully decided who should buy what.  

Midway through, player #2 decided to track Erie down south.  Player #3 was tracking the same way from Baltimore over straight away, hoping to get there before #2 could throw a station.  It didn't work out and actually, B&O couldn't build further west for three turns because of the pattern they took going across the mountains was straight with no spurs for cross paths!  It was an oversight on my part and a great enough one that needed remedied. Erie is the farthest railroad over and could block Cleveland which is the only major mid map city.

There were other things that niggled me as there is no real push to get west in the base game.  Bigger trains can cycle between NYC and Philadelphia all day long for little downside.  Sure, they might push the train rush, but there wasn't much there to really move things along.  And the C&O seemed to have few opportunities in the south after going for the quick money along the southern region of the map.  Sure, they could push north, but getting a station in Baltimore to fight to Philadelphia seems like a tough strategy.

After a little thought and jiggering, I decided to add a couple rules modifications to fix these two perceived issues.

• Looks like Erie can't start until another railroad at least draws even with it on the map.  This stops a potential serious block for any of the many railroads trapped north.
• Cincinatti is added to the map with a station and Cleveland is increased to $3.  Louisville is upsized to a formal $2.  Nashville gets upsized to a $2.  Chicago moves to $6 and the western red squares are bumped up to $6 and $8.  The increased money out west should encourage players to build out in the flat west once they bridge the gap over the mountains. 
  
• Speaking of mountains, a few ridges were rearranged in West Virginia to give C&O and B&O favorable expansions to the newly opened up southern area of the map.  Hills along the north side of the Ohio River have been flattened.
• If a single railroad is further west than the others, it also receives a stock bump to the right.

I think the combination of the above will work favorably to building westward.  There is still no harm in staying east with smaller resourced railroads.  Actually, the less that a railroad is dropped and the more consistent its revenue stream, the more valuable it is in the end game.  I think this dynamic will work.  More playtests this week.