The rails have progressed further to the north, which opens new opportunities for you to deliver your cattle farther than before, even to cities outside American borders. Those locations can be highly advantageous, but they require more work and effort, such as constructing branchlets to give you more opportunities to deliver and gain different rewards.

Much of the content in Great Western Trail: Rails to the North (Second Edition) was included in the original Rails to the North expansion, but it has been reworked and upgraded, with the player boards being dual-layered, a game board extension that features different rail paths, and the medium town tiles being modified. Other elements included in this expansion are new objective cards, a revised building 13a-13b, new solo-mode materials for Sam, and a new breed of orange cows.