Sunday evening

The seed post came

Plus a new train. Pick one packet.

Too crowded!

0Gnomes home

0Days

0Best

The rules

How the railway works

Plots are garden spots. The icon says what kind.
Lay a line: drag from one plot to another. A train comes with it.
Gnomes wait on the bench. The icon on a gnome is where it wants to go. They ride, and change trains where lines meet, all by themselves.
Fares: every gnome home pays 1 coin (2 for a rare kind). The shop sells trains, wagons, footbridges, greenhouses, colours and upgrades.
Any length: drag a line's end bar onto more plots. A line can run through as many plots as you like; longer lines need more trains.
More lines: each colour is its own line. Drag the middle of a line onto a plot to add a stop.
Change your mind: tap a line. The scissors cut it there, an x takes a plot off, or drag a plot off into the lawn. The card has the same buttons.
The brook needs a footbridge per crossing. Crowding: more gnomes than seats and the ring fills; full ring, garden closed. A greenhouse doubles the seats.
Sundays the seed post brings a train and a gift. Pause any time (Space); you can still change lines. Zoom with + and -, a pinch or the mouse wheel, and drag the lawn to look around. The bulb gives a tip when a plot is in trouble; the podium ranks the rarest plots (a lone plot draws a big crowd) and lights them up. Pick a line and its card shows the kinds it misses, each with how many changes of line it takes to get there; tap one to light it up. Changed a line by mistake? Undo (or Ctrl Z) puts it back. Once a run, after taking up every line, you can close for repairs: everyone waiting walks home and you build again from a calm garden. The Meadow and the Orchard each open one more line colour.

The garden keeps growing

New ground: in week 4 the gate opens onto Hedgerow Meadow (windmills, hedgerows, mole runs, Express trains). In week 7 comes The Old Orchard (scarecrows, the big pond, the Junction, Big Bertha).
Hedgerows: a line goes under one through a mole run, one per crossing. Mole runs come back when you take the line up.
The big pond: no line can cross it, so go round. Fruit trees keep plots away but lines may pass over.
Trains: the Express is quick (4 seats a car, one wagon). Big Bertha is slow but huge (10 seats a car, two wagons). Pick the kind in your shed.
The Junction: build it on a busy plot where gnomes change trains. They board first there, and it seats 18.
Garden days: a fete, a village show, a summer shower or a bank holiday or, now and then, market day (trains, wagons, footbridges and greenhouses at half price) or a garden wedding (bring 6 of the 8 guests where they want to go by midnight for a greenhouse). Each is announced the day before and lasts a day.
Frost Garden: ten days of frost, then four of thaw. While frozen, lines skate across the ponds for free and the garden is quiet. The day before it melts you get a warning: then a line over a pond needs a footbridge per pond. A line short of footbridges waits at the bank and runs all the way again once you have them, and every gnome comes out at once.
Benches and towers: the shop sells a Garden bench (gnomes wait 30% longer at that plot) and a Water tower (trains stop there for half the time). Drag each onto a plot, one of each per plot.
Five gardens: keep a garden open to the end of week 8 for its bronze medal, and the next garden opens: Willow Delta, Terrace Hill, The Three Isles, Moonlit Garden. Silver at week 9, gold at week 10, on any level. Finishing never ends the run.
The Engine Works: every finished run banks tickets. Spend them on upgrades that stay for every run. Your rank (all the gnomes you ever brought home) opens more of the Works. The medal works open with medals on harder levels: a bronze on Medium on a map opens its line, a bronze on Hard opens level 2.
Help when you want it: once a run a hay cart can rescue a plot about to close. Ads come later; for now it is a short wait, and it never buys score.

Once a run

Send a hay cart?

The flower bed is about to close. A hay cart can take its waiting gnomes home.

They ride home on the hay, so they do not count as gnomes home and pay no fares.

Once a run

Close the railway for repairs?

Everyone waiting walks home, every ring empties and every train is back in the shed now. Then build it again, better.

Walkers do not count as gnomes home. You get one repair a run.

Upgrades that stay

The Engine Works

Porter

New here?

Take the 2-minute lesson

A small garden that waits for you while you try each move. Or jump straight in; the rules are under the ? button.

Shop

0 coins

The garden waits while the shop is open.

Gnome Line