Railroads was designed to be a game about table talk.  It's about making deals with other players, riding the rise and fall of various authentic nineteenth century railroad companies.  In most railroad board games, one player is one company, and is engaged in pure competition with the other players.  That doesn't make for a very social experience.  Since players are investors in Railroads, they have the opportunity to benefit from semi-cooperative ventures, while hedging out their allies with other investments.

Additionally, Railroads is not a game about budgets and check books.  Money functions as points and are never spent.  Stock tokens are played and moved in a simplified fashion that means strategy is emphasized and budgeting is eliminated.  Stocks are merely methods of earning money (scoring points) so players can focus on their larger plans.