v0.8.0.16 — the guide a tester can reach, and a flag that named the card instead of the gate

v0.8.0.15 wrote a Quickstart for a tester who has never played and then left it
in docs/, where a tester does not look — reachable only by somebody who already
has the repository. Nobody handed the box had it. build-web.ts now copies it to
dist/quickstart.md and the splash page offers it under the three doors, as a
line rather than a fourth door: reading the guide is not a way to play, and
giving it equal weight in that grid would say it is.

COPIED, NEVER RE-WRITTEN. The Markdown document stays the one copy. A
hand-written HTML twin drifts from it on the first edit, which is the failure
#15a was raised about and precisely what the v0.8.0.15 pass spent itself
undoing. It is served as PLAIN TEXT, which is honest rather than good — tables
render as pipes and the links do not click. Rendering it into a styled page
wants a small Markdown converter and is filed as TODO #109; build-web.ts's
comment names that number rather than gesturing at "the next step", so the file
and the worklist cannot drift the way the references just did.

Two things had to be true and tsc checks neither, so both are tests. The href on
the splash page and the filename the build writes are two strings with nothing
connecting them: rename the document and the build quietly publishes nothing
while the page keeps offering a link that 404s. And a .md file must not arrive
as a download — the server's MIME fallback is application/octet-stream, which a
browser saves instead of displaying, so the link would have handed a tester a
file to save rather than a page to read. '.md' is in http.ts's table now, and
the test reads that table out of the source rather than asserting on a copy of
it, which would pass while the real one was wrong.

VERIFIED AGAINST A RUNNING SERVER, not only compiled: 200,
text/plain; charset=utf-8, the guide's own first lines, and the splash link
resolving.

THE sortsCars COMMENT. Asked after v0.8.0.15 whether everything now agreed, and
the audit turned up one place that did not — the field's own doc comment named
the card's printed text as though it were the flag's meaning. Nothing reads it
to permit a sort; its two readers, resolveExtraStart in apply.ts and the
enumeration in legal.ts, both ask whether this is the one Mainline card with a
Yard Limit and therefore the one an Extra may be made up and started on. Comment
only, and worth the bump because of where it is: it is what a developer reads
before using the flag, and it is the likeliest source of the sentence v0.8.0.15
had to correct off the board. The name is kept for its link to the card face and
the comment now says outright that the name is not the meaning.

The five references and docs/design.md read v0.8.0.16. They describe this build
because the audit re-checked them against it, not because the number was swept
forward — a stamp bumped without a reading is worth less than none.

1001 fast tests and 35 sim tests pass.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01MUizFYCMHRWhbWwXhp7WPR

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -19,6 +19,307 @@ page as `v0.1.0 · <sha> · <date>`, so what is deployed can always be identifie
 
 ---
 
+## 0.8.0.16 — 2026-09-20
+
+The Quickstart put where a tester can actually reach it, the last place that still told the old
+story about the Interchange, and the release that carries v0.8.0.15's corrected card text into a
+package.
+
+### The Quickstart is published beside the game
+
+v0.8.0.15 wrote a Quickstart for a tester who has never played, and then left it in `docs/`, where
+a tester does not look — reachable only by someone who already has the repository. Nobody being
+handed the box has it.
+
+`build-web.ts` now copies `docs/StationMaster-Quickstart.md` into `dist/quickstart.md`, and the
+splash page offers it under the three doors: *New to Station Master? Read the Quickstart guide.*
+**Not a fourth door** — reading the guide is not a way to play, and giving it equal weight in that
+grid would say it is.
+
+**Copied, never re-written.** The Markdown document stays the one copy. A hand-written HTML twin
+would drift from it on the first edit, which is exactly the failure #15a was raised about and
+exactly what the v0.8.0.15 pass spent its time undoing: four references a month and two minor
+versions out of date.
+
+**Served as plain text, which is honest rather than good.** Tables render as rows of pipes and the
+links do not click. Rendering it into a styled page wants a small Markdown converter and is filed
+as **TODO #109**; this is the fifteen-minute version that gets the guide in front of testers for
+this round instead of leaving them without one.
+
+Two things had to be true and neither is checked by `tsc`, so both are tests:
+
+- **The link has to find the file.** The href on the splash page and the filename the build writes
+  are two strings with nothing connecting them — rename the document and the build quietly
+  publishes nothing while the page keeps offering a link that 404s. The test asserts the guide is
+  in `dist`, is the guide, and is the file the splash page names. The build also warns loudly
+  rather than silently skipping a missing document.
+- **A `.md` file must not arrive as a download.** The server's MIME fallback is
+  `application/octet-stream`, which a browser saves instead of displaying, so the link would hand a
+  tester a file rather than a page. `'.md': 'text/plain; charset=utf-8'` was added to the table in
+  `http.ts`, and the test reads that table out of the source rather than asserting on a copy of it,
+  which would pass while the real one was wrong.
+
+### `sortsCars` says what it gates, not what the card prints
+
+Asked directly after v0.8.0.15 — does everything now agree? — and the audit turned up one place that
+did not. The field's own doc comment read:
+
+```ts
+/** Interchange: "Sort cars in new order". */
+sortsCars: boolean;
+```
+
+which names the printed text as though it were the flag's meaning. Nothing reads it to permit a
+sort. Its two readers — `resolveExtraStart` in `apply.ts` and the enumeration in `legal.ts` — both
+ask the same question, which is whether this is the one Mainline card with a Yard Limit and
+therefore the one an Extra may be made up and started on.
+
+**Comment only, and worth the bump because of where it is.** This is what a developer reads before
+using the flag, and it is the most likely source of the sentence v0.8.0.15 had to correct — the one
+telling players, on the board, that cars could be sorted at an Interchange. The name is kept for its
+link to the card face, and the comment now says outright that the name is not the meaning.
+
+Everything else already agreed, and was checked rather than assumed: `mainlineDescription`, the
+generated `rules/as-built.md`, the Mainline deck reference and the Rules FAQ all say the printed
+sorting is unimplemented and that a consist is re-ordered at a Small Yard. `rules/implications.md`
+is the deliberate exception and was already correct — it transcribes what the card face prints and
+then records that the concept is "still unimplemented".
+
+### The reference stamps, and what was filed rather than done
+
+The five documents v0.8.0.15 stamped — the Quickstart, the Rules, Components, the Home deck and the
+Mainline deck — plus `docs/design.md` now read **v0.8.0.16**, and the Rules book's implementation
+note about `card.discard` says the same. They describe this build because the audit above re-checked
+them against it, not because the number was swept forward: the point of the stamp is that it was
+earned, and a stamp bumped without a reading is worth less than none.
+
+**TODO #109** holds the part deliberately not done — rendering the guide into a styled page instead
+of serving it as plain text. `build-web.ts`'s comment names that number rather than gesturing at
+"the next step", so the file and the worklist cannot drift apart the way the references just did.
+
+### Why this is a release at all
+
+One player-visible change, the link to the guide, and one that only a developer reads. The
+Interchange correction a player actually sees on the board is v0.8.0.15's; this is the version the
+wrapper bundles, so that correction reaches the box rather than only the repository — and a tag
+with an uncommitted comment sitting on top of it is not a thing to package.
+
+## 0.8.0.15 — 2026-09-20
+
+The reference documentation brought up to the game as it actually runs, ahead of the next round of
+testing, plus a **Quickstart** to hand a tester who has never played. One live bug fell out of the
+pass.
+
+### The Interchange advertised an action the game does not have
+
+`mainlineDescription` told players "Cars may be sorted into any new order here." It is the printed
+capability and **it has never been implemented** — nothing reads `sortsCars` to permit a sort. Its
+one live use is identifying the card an Extra may be made up on, because the Interchange is the
+Mainline card with a yard.
+
+That sentence was not only in the documentation. `view.ts` renders this text as a Mainline card's
+`what`, so it is what a player reads **on the board**, and the generated card reference printed a
+"Sorts cars: yes" column beside it. A card advertising a button that does not exist sends a player
+hunting for it and then concluding the game is broken. The description now says what the card does,
+the generated column is headed "Extra may start", and the Rules FAQ answer says the card used to
+claim otherwise.
+
+### The documents
+
+Four hand-written references had not been touched since **v0.6.2** and were a month and two minor
+versions stale. Each now carries the build it describes at the top. The `v0.4.5` in their filenames
+is the prototype rules edition they were first written against, and the names are kept deliberately:
+`src/`, `CHANGELOG.md` and `docs/rules/` all cite them, and several of those citations are historical
+records of what a document said at the time.
+
+- **`StationMaster-Quickstart.md` — NEW.** What the game is, how you win, the shape of a Stage, what
+  is on the screen, a first twenty minutes, the things that surprise new players, and what to report.
+  Written for somebody about to play rather than somebody building it.
+- **Rules.** §3.4 replaced outright — the `firstToTarget` / `highestAfterDays` victory model and the
+  `target`-bearing length presets have not existed since 2026-08; it is a free `days` count and a
+  combined floor of `3 × players × days`, with extended play. §3.5 and §6 said there was no lobby, no
+  server and no multiplayer; there is. All three optional rules are implemented now, and "Sister
+  Trains" never existed. Crossing time is regions, not mph. Extras are started where the player
+  chooses. Added: the coach ratchet, the Small Yard's nose sorting, the make-up shortfall report, and
+  the screen's names for the last two phases, which differ from the rules' names.
+- **Home deck.** Restructured around how the deck is *used* — piles, hand limit, reshuffle,
+  placement, upgrades, what a modifier grant means — and defers every per-card table to
+  `rules/as-built.md`. The counts table came out under TODO #15a, Jesse's own ruling: counts move
+  with balance, and that table had been wrong for a month. Also corrected: industry track length
+  (four cars like any card, not the box count), modifier grants, and `emptiesOnly`, which is enforced.
+- **Mainline deck.** Said cards were dealt "with replacement" in its opening paragraph and corrected
+  itself four sections later; priced crossings in mph; and listed the Uncontrolled Siding as a
+  passing card, which it is not — it puts an arriving train in the siding a region behind.
+- **Components.** Verified against `ROLLING_STOCK_SUPPLY`; the table was right. Added the Crew Tray,
+  Whistle Post and Limits supplies, the coach ratchet, and what the Fedora actually carries.
+- **`docs/design.md`**, the index everything starts from, said **v0.4.3**, "what is not: the server",
+  and 493 tests. It now lists the player-facing references — which it never has — so the Quickstart
+  is findable, and marks `card-reference.md` superseded rather than presenting it as the card spec.
+
+**`rules/as-built.md` needed no correction beyond the Interchange**, which is the point of generating
+it: `npm run build:cards` rewrites it from `content.ts` and `test/card-reference.test.ts` fails if
+the checked-in file disagrees. Everything hand-maintained around it had drifted; it had not.
+
+## 0.8.0.14 — 2026-09-17
+
+Six reports from the Day 2-3 playtest of v0.8.0.13. Two were the same shortage seen from opposite
+ends, one was a rule working as designed that Jesse has now reversed, and three were the screen
+saying too little or too much.
+
+**THIS RELEASE STRANDS GAMES IN PROGRESS, INCLUDING THE ONE ON THE BOX.** Modifiers are now bounded
+by the Limits, which makes a once-legal move illegal — so a save holding one is refused at that move.
+Measured on the playtest save: `whistle-6945.day3.stage10` stops at intent 528 of 539, eleven moves
+from the end, on `card.play c55 → (-2,4)`. The file is untouched and v0.8.0.13 still finishes it.
+
+### Every coach in the game was stuck in the Classification Yard
+
+Two reports, one cause. The Sparrow (trains 5/6) calls for three coaches and nothing else, and ran
+the length of the Division empty; Tom had a loaded coach standing at his Depot and could find no way
+to unload the passengers. Both are §2.2 and §9.2 acting exactly as printed, and the combination is a
+one-way ratchet: boarding discards the emptied coach into the **Classification** Yard, detraining
+draws a fresh empty **out of the Division Yard**, and Classification comes back only when the
+Division Yard runs bare.
+
+Measured across the save, because the shape of it is the point: sixteen coaches in the Division Yard
+at setup, **zero from Day 2 Stage 8 onward**, fifteen piled up in Classification — while the Division
+Yard sat at 46-47 freight cars and stopped draining, so the refill was never going to fire. Every
+passenger operation in the game was over, and four of the twelve timetabled trains carry nothing but
+coaches.
+
+**Jesse's ruling: the rule stands, the game says so loudly.** The same ruling Gitea#2 got, and the
+same one 0.8.0.13 gave the blocked Depot panel. Three places say it now:
+
+- **A train made up short reports it** (`makeUpShort`). `trainNeedingCars` returns null both when a
+  consist is full and when the yard holds nothing it will take — the same answer for "done" and
+  "cannot be done" — so the phase moved on in silence, and the only trace was a MADE UP line
+  promising "now taking cars" with nothing after it. It now names what the card wanted, how many are
+  waiting in Classification, and how far the Division Yard is from bare.
+- **The yard panel warns while the condition lasts**, rather than only at the moment a train goes
+  short.
+- **The Depot's blocked panel already said it**, and still does — it was correct all along, off to
+  the side, and read by nobody who had gone looking in the wrong place.
+
+### A modifier may no longer stand outside the Limits
+
+Reported as a bug and it was working as designed — the design being a call of Jesse's, recorded in
+`apply.ts`: a Modifier is not track, so a Facility standing at the limit kept all nine of its spots,
+because bounding the card looked like it would make it unplayable exactly where a district ends.
+**Reversed.** What decided it is what the board shows — Transmission Lines at (-2,4) with the sign at
+column 3 reads as building outside your own territory, and §8.1 and §10 both reason about what lies
+inside a player's Limits.
+
+The feared case was checked on the move that prompted the change rather than argued away: the Power
+Plant was at (-1,3) against a sign at column 3, and (-2,2) and (-2,3) were both free, legal and
+inside. Six of the nine spots survive a Facility at the limit, and the sign moves outward as the
+Running Track grows (§2.1, Gap 4a).
+
+### The history panel was full of coordinates
+
+"Does switching show up in history at all?" — it all did. A six-Move turn wrote a line per move,
+every one of them a pair of grid coordinates, plus one per mandatory coupling. **Switching is still
+logged in full**; what changed is what the panel DRAWS: the line saying somebody switched, the first
+move of the turn, work at an **industry**, the Small Yard sort, and a closing summary.
+
+**The suppressed lines are still written, marked `trace`, and that is not a detail.** Dropping these
+events was the first attempt and the step-queue suite caught it: `dwellForStep` gives a step no dwell
+when it produced no narration, so a switching move with no line became a silent step and the board
+stopped replaying switching altogether — the exact thing v0.8.0 was built to let a table watch. The
+tone is the seam. The caption keeps its text, the panel filters the tone.
+
+**The last move rides in the closing line rather than being kept in place**, and it has to: nothing
+knows a move was the last until the turn is over, and by then the line has been written and streamed
+to every client (`server/session.ts` § `linesSince`), so it cannot be revised. `switchingEnded` says
+what the turn cost and where the crew was left — "finished switching — 3 of 6 Moves used, leaving
+Train 10 at the Small Yard".
+
+Places are named rather than pointed at: `at the Freight House` and `the Small Yard` instead of
+`(1,1)`. Two smaller things fell out of reading these lines properly. Every move line ended with
+"The crew chip on the grid carries the whole train with it" — six times a turn, when the opener
+already says it once, and it pushed the useful half of the line out of the caption row. And the move
+count said "of 6" with the 6 hardcoded, which is simply wrong on a Reduced-Visibility night Stage
+where a turn gets five; the turn now carries its own allowance.
+
+### Making up a train says which train
+
+"I did not see anything in the history about making up train 10." It was all there — a MADE UP line
+and one line per car — and every one of those lines read "the train being made up", so a player
+looking back for train 10 found nothing under that name. `carPlacedOnTrain` and `carPassed` now carry
+the number, the way `trainArrived` carries its owner. Also "a empty tank" is now "an empty tank".
+
+### The Small Yard offered permutations, not trains
+
+The menu read `re-order consist [1,2,3,0]` — the engine's own array indices offered to a person. The
+option Jesse wanted was the **first of the five** and he could not tell which one it was. Each option
+now reads as the train it would build: `re-order to engine · loaded hopper · empty tank · caboose ·
+loaded boxcar (front to back)`.
+
+One of the five re-ordered nothing at all and would still have spent a Move — bringing the LAST car
+to the end is the identity — and a two-car train's "full reversal" duplicated its only real option.
+Both are filtered by the resulting ORDER rather than by the case that produced them, so a new
+generator cannot bring either back. No typed-order box: `check` already accepts any permutation, so
+one is buildable, and Jesse declined it as more to go wrong for a labelling problem.
+
+### A Small Yard may now put cars ahead of the engine
+
+Jesse's own open question, discussed and then built. **Two sources disagreed and the design notes
+won.** The v0.4.5 card text says a train there may "reorder its entire consist **and put the engine
+at the nose**", which is what `consistSorted` did unconditionally. `implications.md`, drawn from the
+design source, says a train "may sort itself into any order, **including cars ahead of the engine**"
+— and records that the Small Yard is the answer the switching puzzle was designed to have.
+
+`switch.sortConsist` carries an optional `engineAt`, absent meaning the nose, so every save written
+before this replays to exactly the train it built. **The menu did not multiply.** Offering every car
+order at every engine position takes a four-car consist from four options to twenty, which is the
+unreadability that started this; instead the engine is a separate short list offered against the
+consist as it stands — four re-orders and four engine positions, eight readable options. A player
+who wants both spends two Moves, the same price the yard charges for any second sort.
+
+**§8.2 needed no new code, and the reason is worth stating because the obvious guess is wrong.**
+`badlyMadeUp` is deliberately direction-free: a train with its whole consist ahead of the engine is a
+PUSHING train and fit to run. What it refuses is a broken-backed train — the engine buried among its
+own cars — and a caboose anywhere but the end away from the engine. So the hold Jesse asked for was
+already there, and the button now warns before the Move is spent by asking that same predicate rather
+than keeping a copy of it.
+
+That warning immediately earned itself: **every one of the eight options on train 10 is refused by
+§8.2**, including the arrangement asked for at the table, because that train carries a caboose and
+each sort moves it off the rear. The menu says so now instead of spending a Move to find out. It is
+also the correct answer rather than a gap — that train is ALREADY made up, so every sort on offer
+would break it — and the labels distinguish the two cases outright: `MADE UP, ready to leave` or
+`HELD at the Office: <why>`.
+
+**A made-up order is always on the menu for a train that needs one**, which is worth stating because
+it looks as though it might not be. A yard sort serves two errands — pulling one car out to an end to
+be spotted, and putting the train back together to leave — and the curated orders are written for the
+first. They cover the second as a by-product: "bring car k to the tail" is enumerated for EVERY car,
+so bringing the CABOOSE to the tail is always among them. An explicit "make it up to leave" option
+was written and then deleted, because it produced exactly that order and was dropped by the dedupe
+every time.
+
+### West to east, the way the board draws it
+
+"Front to back" is not a direction a table can read: which end is the front depends on which way the
+train is pointed, and the board has drawn the crew strip **west on the left** since v0.8.0 —
+reversing the consist for an east-facing train so its nose lands at the east end, with the engine as
+a ◀ or ▶ arrow. The sort labels now read the same way, so the button and the picture describe the
+same train and "ahead of" and "behind" the engine are read off the strip rather than asserted:
+
+```
+re-order — west to east: loaded boxcar · caboose · empty tank · loaded hopper · ENGINE ▶ · HELD at the Office: the caboose must be at the rear of the train
+put the whole consist ahead of the engine — west to east: ENGINE ▶ · caboose · empty tank · loaded hopper · loaded boxcar
+```
+
+`badlyMadeUp`'s "1 car(s) ahead of it" is a real plural now; it reaches a player through the held
+train's reason as well as through these labels.
+
+### A role says what it is for
+
+Tom reached for the Freight Agent to unload passengers, which it has never done — detraining is a
+**Porter's** action in the Cargo phase. Both halves were working and neither was visible. The
+Freight Agent, Porter and Laborer groups now carry a sentence saying what the role does, where the
+role is chosen, rather than leaving a player who picked the wrong one to discover it by finding
+nothing there.
+
 ## 0.8.0.13 — 2026-09-16
 
 Nine reports from the Day 1–2 playtest of v0.8.0.12. One was a real bug that cost a car, one was a

README.md

@@ -46,6 +46,15 @@ deliberately no longer names one: it went stale for six releases.
   from the game. Dwell is assigned **by kind** — a switching move holds the screen, turn bookkeeping
   costs nothing — and is tunable per viewer without a rebuild. Solitaire runs the same path, which is
   where its automatic phases finally get a visible beat.
+
+  **The caption and the history panel are not the same list**, since 2026-09-17. Switching is logged
+  in full; a move from the middle of a turn writes its line as tone `trace`, so the step still
+  carries it — the board captions the move and earns its dwell, and `dwellForStep` pays nothing for a
+  step that said nothing — while the history panel filters the tone out. What the panel draws is the
+  line saying somebody switched, the FIRST move, work at an **industry**, the Small Yard sort, and a
+  closing summary. The last move rides in that summary rather than being kept in place: nothing knows
+  a move was the last until the turn is over, by which time the line has been written and streamed to
+  every client, so it cannot be revised.
   **Not yet checked in a browser:** the mechanism is proven server-side against a live SSE stream and
   the page is proven not to throw, but nobody has watched a bot switch on screen.
 - **Not built** — the opponent-directed cards (the Action and Space-use categories, held out of every

TODO.md

@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ Not items. Things that are true of every change, and that have gone wrong when s
 3. **Multiplayer, sessions and operations** — #8 #7 #76 #77 #79
 4. **The screen** — #44 #81 #33 #36
 5. **Replays and saved games** — #14 #47 #48 #49 #50 #51 #52
-6. **Rules** — #12 #80 #82 #83 #85
+6. **Rules** — #12 #80 #82 #83 #85 #108
 7. **Play balance** — #61 #62 #63 #64 #67 #68 #69 #70 #71 #72 #73 #66 #65 #74
 8. **The bot** — #104 #105 #106 #41 #57 #59 #54 #58 #55 #56 #60
 9. **Code health and housekeeping** — #46 #45 #84 #87
@@ -407,6 +407,42 @@ need RAR or Jesse rather than code.**
 - [ ] **#85** — The 0.4.9 playtest line is behind on a rules ruling, and that was checked rather than
       assumed. See **Reference · #85**.
 
+- [x] **#107** — **May a Small Yard put cars on the NOSE of the engine? YES** — raised by Jesse
+      2026-09-17, discussed the same day and built. Two sources disagreed: the v0.4.5 card text says
+      a train there reorders "and puts the engine at the nose", `implications.md` says "any order,
+      INCLUDING cars ahead of the engine". The design notes won.
+
+      `switch.sortConsist` gained an optional `engineAt` (absent = the nose, so older saves replay
+      unchanged). The menu did NOT multiply: the engine is a separate short list offered against the
+      consist as it stands, so a four-car train has eight options rather than twenty, and a player
+      wanting both a re-order and an engine move spends two Moves. §8.2 needed no new code —
+      `badlyMadeUp` already holds a broken-backed train, and is deliberately direction-free, so a
+      PUSHING train (whole consist ahead of the engine) is fit to run. The button warns first, by
+      asking that predicate rather than copying it.
+
+      Labels read WEST TO EAST with the engine drawn as the board's own ◀ / ▶ arrow, because "front
+      to back" depends on which way the train points and the board has reversed east-facing consists
+      since v0.8.0. Each says `MADE UP, ready to leave` or `HELD at the Office: <why>`.
+
+- [ ] **#108** — **The coach ratchet: every coach ends up in the Classification Yard and never comes
+      back.** RULED 2026-09-17 — *the rule stands, the game says so loudly* — and recorded here
+      because the ruling was made on one game's evidence and the balance question behind it is open.
+
+      §9.2 boarding discards the emptied coach into **Classification**; detraining draws a fresh
+      empty **out of the Division Yard**; §2.2 returns Classification only when the Division Yard runs
+      bare. Coaches therefore move one way only. **Measured over `whistle-6945` (3 Days, 539
+      intents):** 16 coaches in the Division Yard at setup, **0 from Day 2 Stage 8 to the end**, 15
+      in Classification — while the Division Yard held steady at 46-47 freight cars, so the refill
+      could not fire. From that point no passenger can board or detrain anywhere on the board, and
+      four of the twelve timetabled trains (1/2 Crack Limited, 5/6 Sparrow) carry nothing but
+      coaches.
+
+      The two changes that would break the ratchet were put up and declined for now: sending the
+      emptied coach back to the **Division** Yard instead of Classification (a one-line change to the
+      boarding reducer), or amending §2.2 to refill when the Division Yard holds no car of a NEEDED
+      type rather than only when bare. **Revisit with a second game's data** — one game cannot tell a
+      rule from a seed.
+
 ---
 
 ## Play balance
@@ -546,6 +582,23 @@ What the project says about itself, and what it ships alongside the code.
 - [ ] **#88** — `card-reference.md`'s industry table may still be stale beyond Grocer's Warehouse and
       the Oil Refinery. See **Reference · #88**.
 
+- [ ] **#109** — **Render the published Quickstart instead of serving it as plain text.** v0.8.0.16
+      publishes `docs/StationMaster-Quickstart.md` to `dist/quickstart.md` and links it from the
+      splash page, served as `text/plain` — so a tester reads the guide's tables as rows of pipes and
+      its links do not click. That was the fifteen-minute version, taken deliberately to get the
+      guide in front of testers for this round rather than to leave them without one.
+
+      **Copy the document, do not re-write it.** A hand-written HTML twin drifts from the Markdown on
+      the first edit, which is the whole argument of #15a. The step is a small Markdown-to-HTML
+      converter in `scripts/build-web.ts` writing `quickstart.html` beside the game, styled like the
+      splash page — headings, lists, tables, links and code spans are the whole of what the guide
+      uses. The `.md` MIME entry in `src/server/http.ts` and the two assertions in
+      `test/web.test.ts` (`the Quickstart guide reaches the site`) move to the rendered file with it.
+
+      **Cost:** an afternoon, most of it in the converter's table and list handling. No dependency —
+      a Markdown library would be the only runtime dependency this project has, and the guide uses a
+      small enough subset that it is not worth becoming the first.
+
 ---
 
 ## Reference — measurements, rulings and rejected approaches

docs/StationMaster-Components-v0.4.5.md

@@ -1,7 +1,16 @@
 # Station Master — Components and Markers
 
-**Rules implementation reference: v0.4.5**  
-**Scope:** non-card physical components and supplies modeled by the v0.4.5 game. Card-created facilities, workers, deck piles, hand state, timetable state, and other markers are documented with their cards or in the rules book.
+**Describes the game as built at v0.8.0.16** (2026-09-20). Previously stamped "v0.4.5", the
+prototype rules edition these references were first written against; the filename keeps that stamp
+because `src/`, `CHANGELOG.md` and `docs/rules/` all cite this file by name.
+
+**Scope:** non-card physical components and supplies. Card-created facilities, workers, deck piles,
+hand state, timetable state and other markers are documented with their cards or in the
+[rules book](StationMaster-Rules-v0.4.5.md).
+
+The figures below are checked against `ROLLING_STOCK_SUPPLY` and the supply constants in
+`src/engine/content.ts`. They are physical inventory rather than deck tuning, which is why they are
+printed here at all — per-category CARD counts are deliberately not published anywhere (TODO #15a).
 
 ## Rolling stock
 
@@ -19,6 +28,14 @@ Rolling stock has a type and a load state. In the interface, coloured cars are l
 
 The engine is not rolling stock and does not count against the four-car Crew Tray limit.
 
+## Other supplies
+
+| Component | Count | Note |
+| --- | ---: | --- |
+| Crew Trays | players + 3 | Engine and tray are one combined resource; there is no "engine without a tray". |
+| Whistle Post cards | 4 | Every player starts on one; it is not drawn from the deck. |
+| Limits signs | 8 | "2N + spares", so relocating one is never a supply question. |
+
 ## The two yards
 
 ### Division Yard
@@ -34,7 +51,16 @@ When a train completes a run or is destroyed, its caboose returns to the Divisio
 
 ### Classification Yard
 
-The Classification Yard collects used rolling stock: cars displaced by boarding passengers, cars cleared from inbound red boxes, cars removed by unjamming a facility, ordinary cars from completed or destroyed trains, and empty cars replaced by a completed outbound freight load. It is not a player-selectable source. It returns to service only when the Division Yard is empty.
+The Classification Yard collects used rolling stock: cars displaced by boarding passengers, cars
+cleared from inbound red boxes, cars removed by unjamming a facility, ordinary cars from completed
+or destroyed trains, and empty cars replaced by a completed outbound freight load. It is not a
+player-selectable source. It returns to service only when the Division Yard is empty.
+
+> **This is a one-way ratchet for COACHES, and it decides games.** Boarding sends an emptied coach
+> here; detraining takes a fresh empty out of the *Division* Yard. Nothing returns a coach to the
+> Division Yard except the bare-yard refill — and a yard kept topped up with freight cars returning
+> from industries may never run bare. Measured over one three-Day game, every coach was here by the
+> middle of Day 2 and stayed. See [Rules](StationMaster-Rules-v0.4.5.md) §4.6.
 
 ## Crew Trays and trains
 
@@ -44,7 +70,16 @@ Within a tray, the engine can pull, push, or be between cars while switching. To
 
 ## Fedora
 
-The **Fedora** is the physical marker for the Superintendent. The player with it resolves following-train clearance decisions and takes the 5-Revenue penalty for a Mainline collision caused by an unsafe clearance. The initial holder is the first player tied for the highest Superintendent setup D12 roll. The Fedora passes to the next seat to the left at each third-stage shift change.
+The **Fedora** is the physical marker for the Superintendent. The player with it resolves
+following-train clearance decisions, takes the Yard Office and Red Flag questions, and is the player
+every round round the table starts with. A Mainline collision is their fault by §10, and costs 5
+Revenue. The initial holder is the first player tied for the highest Superintendent setup D12 roll.
+
+It passes at the end of Stages 3, 6, 9 and 12 — every third Stage, at the Supervisor Shift. Since
+v0.8.0.13 the handover is **announced on screen and written into the history**: it is the one thing
+in the game that changes hands on the clock rather than because somebody did something, so nobody is
+watching for it. Note that the Supervisor Shift refreshes every Laborer and Porter *every* Stage
+while the Fedora moves only every third.
 
 ## D12 and seeded randomness
 

docs/StationMaster-Home-Deck-v0.4.5.md

@@ -1,162 +1,153 @@
 # Station Master — Home Deck
 
-**Rules implementation reference: v0.4.5**  
-**Scope:** every card associated with the Home Office deck, including cards catalogued in the source but deliberately excluded from the dealt deck.
+**Describes the game as built at v0.8.0.16** (2026-09-20). Previously stamped "v0.4.5", the
+prototype rules edition these references were first written against; the filename keeps that stamp
+because `src/`, `CHANGELOG.md` and `docs/rules/` all cite this file by name.
 
-## Dealt card catalogue
+**Scope:** the Home Office deck — how it is dealt, drawn, discarded and reshuffled, and what the
+rules are for playing each kind of card out of it.
 
-The live Home Office deck contains **213 cards** in every currently supported mode. The rules for its setup, drawing, discarding, reshuffling, and hand limit are in the rules book, section 4.2.
+> **Per-card facts live in [`rules/as-built.md`](rules/as-built.md)**, which is GENERATED from
+> `src/engine/content.ts` and checked by `test/card-reference.test.ts`, so it cannot disagree with
+> the game. Read it for every card's name, effect, placement and whether its printed effect actually
+> resolves yet. This document is how the deck WORKS; that one is what is in it.
+>
+> **No card counts appear here, deliberately** (TODO #15a, Jesse's call 2026-08-22): counts move
+> with play balance, so a document printing them is answering a question that has a different answer
+> after the next retune. Where a count matters it is rendered as a yes/no — whether the deck deals
+> the card at all — which is a fact about the design. This page used to print a full counts table
+> and it was wrong for a month before anyone noticed.
 
-| Active category | Cards |
-| --- | ---: |
-| Track | 96 |
-| Office upgrades | 14 |
-| Freight facilities | 27 |
-| Facility modifiers | 23 |
-| Train cards | 22 |
-| Enhancements | 18 |
-| Mainline modifiers | 7 |
-| Maneuvers | 6 |
-| **Total dealt** | **213** |
+## The piles
 
-The catalogue also contains 12 space-use cards and 10 action cards. All 22 are excluded from every v0.4.5 dealt deck because their opponent-directed play rules are not implemented. They are listed at the end of this document for completeness.
+- **Home Office deck** — face down. The pile a Draw comes from.
+- **Three Departments** — face-up discard piles. A discard goes onto one, which is precisely so a
+  rival may take it; a Draw may take the top card of a Department instead of the deck.
+- **Salvage Yard** — where a played-out card ends up. An Extra's card goes here after its run.
 
-## Track cards — 96
+When the Home Office deck runs out it is rebuilt from the Salvage Yard and **all three Departments
+in full**, reshuffled from the seeded stream. A **spent timetabled train** is not collected — its
+number is on the timetable and it cannot run twice — but a *discarded* train was never played and
+is still runnable, so it comes back.
 
-Track cards are ordinary Home Office cards, not a separate personal supply. A placed card must connect to existing rail. The Running Track is the horizontal row from Limit to Limit; cards there must carry an east–west through route. Placing track on a Limit extends the Running Track and moves that Limit outward.
+## Hand and turn
 
-| Card | Copies | Implemented placement facts |
-| --- | ---: | --- |
-| Straight track | 32 | East–west Operational Rail. |
-| Curved track, right | 16 | A 45° curve; can rotate 180°, but cannot flip. Right-hand geometry is fixed to the `ne_sw` diagonal. |
-| Curved track, left | 16 | A 45° curve; can rotate 180°, but cannot flip. Left-hand geometry is fixed to the `nw_se` diagonal. |
-| Turnout, right | 16 | East–west through route plus one 45° branch. It may be passed through but is not Operational Rail, so a train cannot end a Move on it. |
-| Turnout, left | 16 | Same operational rules; opposite fixed diagonal. |
-| Sharp curved track, right | 0 | Catalogued but not dealt. |
-| Sharp curved track, left | 0 | Catalogued but not dealt. |
+The hand limit is **three**, or four while you hold a Red Flag. You may not end a turn over the
+limit: play a card or discard one to a Department. Some cards cannot be discarded at all — an Extra
+never can, and a timetabled train cannot when the `discardTimetabled` house rule is off — so a hand
+of nothing but those has exactly one way forward, which is to play one.
 
-A turnout may upgrade an existing straight, or a curve whose arc is exactly the turnout’s diverging arc. An upgrade is forbidden if the existing card holds standing cars or an enhancement. All other occupied squares are unavailable.
+The opening deal is a house-rule choice made when the game is dealt. The default (`threeRandom`) is
+three cards from one shuffled deck; `threeTrackThreeOther` deals three track and three others from
+two separately shuffled piles, deliberately over the hand limit, so the first turn is spent choosing
+which district you can afford to build.
 
-## Offices — 14
+Drawing is one of the three Local Operations options — see [Rules](StationMaster-Rules-v0.4.5.md)
+§4.2. Taking the option lets you draw **and** play or discard within the same turn.
 
-Every player begins at a Whistle Post, which is not drawn from the deck. Office cards are upgrades and must be played in sequence; they upgrade the existing Office rather than replacing its card or attached track.
+## Track cards
 
-| Card | Copies | A/D tracks | Porters | Passenger outbound/inbound slots | Other effect |
-| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- |
-| Depot | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 / 1 | Becomes a Control Point and Passenger Facility. |
-| Station | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 / 2 | Upgrade Depot only; Control Point and Passenger Facility. |
-| Terminal | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 / 3 | Upgrade Station only; Control Point and Passenger Facility. |
+Track cards are ordinary Home Office cards, not a separate personal supply.
 
-The Whistle Post has one A/D track, no porters, and no passenger slots. An Office upgrade preserves modifiers already applied to it.
+- A placed card must **connect to existing rail**: at least one neighbour must join it.
+- The **Running Track** is the row from Limit to Limit. A card placed there must carry an east–west
+  through route, or it breaks the main.
+- Placing track **on a Limit sign** extends the Running Track and moves that sign outward. The sign
+  is a physical card, so it moves rather than being left stranded mid-track.
+- **Nothing may be placed outside your Limits** — track, industries and, since v0.8.0.14, Modifiers
+  too. Your district ends at its sign.
+- Curves and turnouts are printed left- or right-handed. A card may be turned 180° but never flipped
+  over, so its 45° leg never changes diagonal.
+- A **turnout may upgrade** an existing straight, or a curve whose arc is exactly the turnout's
+  diverging arc. Not if the card holds standing cars or an enhancement. Every other occupied square
+  is unavailable.
+- A turnout may be **run through but not stopped on**: it is not Operational Rail, so a Move may not
+  end there.
 
-## Freight facilities — 27
+## Office cards
 
-An industry may be placed only on a connected straight stub off the Running Track. Each facility begins with one Laborer and a three-box MEN | AT | WORK freight pipeline. Its industry track has capacity equal to its base outbound plus inbound capacity, with a minimum of one car.
+Every player begins at a **Whistle Post**, which is not drawn from the deck: one A/D track, no
+Porters, no passenger slots, and not a Control Point.
 
-No Office Area may contain a duplicate industry, or both ends of a listed lockout pair.
+Office cards are **upgrades in strict sequence** — Whistle Post → Depot → Station → Terminal — and
+each upgrades the Office in place rather than replacing its card or its attached track. Modifiers
+already beside it are preserved. Each tier adds an A/D track, a Porter, and an outbound and inbound
+passenger slot; a Depot and above is a Control Point and a Passenger Facility.
 
-| Card | Copies | Cars handled | Flow | Base boxes | Lockout in same Office Area |
-| --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- |
-| Freight House | 6 | Boxcar | Outbound and inbound | 1 out / 1 in | Freight House; Grocer’s Warehouse |
-| Mine Tipple | 6 | Hopper | Outbound | 1 out / 0 in | Power Plant |
-| Refinery | 3 | Tank car | Outbound | 1 out / 0 in | Power Plant |
-| Power Plant | 6 | Hopper or tank car | Inbound | 0 out / 1 in | Mine Tipple; Refinery |
-| Packing Sheds | 3 | Reefer | Outbound | 1 out / 0 in | Grocer’s Warehouse |
-| Grocer’s Warehouse | 3 | Boxcar or reefer | Inbound | 0 out / 1 in | Packing Sheds; Freight House |
+An upgrade takes no placement: the Office is where it already is.
 
-## Facility modifiers — 23
+## Freight facilities
 
-A modifier occupies an empty square adjacent to an eligible facility. It is unique by modifier type within an Office Area. The implementation attaches it permanently to the first eligible adjacent facility found; it does not implement a per-Stage choice when one modifier touches more than one possible facility.
+An industry is placed on a connected straight **stub off the Running Track** — never on the Running
+Track itself, and never outside the Limits. A Facility carries its own rails, so placing one places
+track.
 
-`+ out` adds green outbound capacity only where the host can load; `+ in` adds red inbound capacity only where the host can unload. A capacity increase at a freight facility also lengthens its industry track by the usable number of added slots. Worker increases always apply.
+Each begins with one Laborer and a three-box **MEN | AT | WORK** pipeline. No Office Area may hold a
+duplicate industry, or both ends of a lockout pair — a producer and the consumer of the same
+commodity cannot be built in one district.
 
-| Modifier | Copies | Eligible host | Actual grant |
-| --- | ---: | --- | --- |
-| Waiting Area | 3 | Any Office | +1 outbound passenger slot; +1 Porter |
-| Restaurant | 2 | Any Office | +1 outbound passenger slot; +1 Porter |
-| Hotel | 1 | Any Office | +1 outbound passenger slot; +1 Porter |
-| Truck Dock | 2 | Freight House, Packing Sheds, Grocer’s Warehouse | +1 **inbound** slot; no Laborer |
-| Railroad Express Agency | 1 | Freight House | +1 outbound slot; +1 Laborer |
-| Forklifts | 2 | Freight House, Packing Sheds | +1 outbound slot; +1 Laborer |
-| Prep Plant | 1 | Mine Tipple | +1 outbound slot; +1 Laborer |
-| Coal Piles | 1 | Mine Tipple | +1 outbound slot; +1 Laborer |
-| Conveyor Belts | 1 | Mine Tipple | +1 outbound slot; +1 Laborer |
-| Pipelines | 1 | Refinery | +1 outbound slot; +1 Laborer |
-| Oil Depot | 1 | Refinery | +1 outbound slot; +1 Laborer |
-| Viscosity Breakers | 1 | Refinery | +1 outbound slot; +1 Laborer |
-| Transmission Lines | 1 | Power Plant | +1 Laborer |
-| Rotary Dumps | 1 | Power Plant | +1 Laborer |
-| Steam Turbines | 1 | Power Plant | +1 Laborer |
-| Ice House | 2 | Packing Sheds or Grocer’s Warehouse | +1 outbound slot; +1 Laborer |
-| Local Small Groceries | 1 | Grocer’s Warehouse | +1 Laborer |
+**An industry track holds four cars, like any other card.** It is *not* sized by the industry's box
+count. That distinction was a real bug: box count is how much WORK an industry can hold, not how
+much RAIL it has, and conflating the two invented a printed siding no industry card carries.
 
-A bonus beside a facility that cannot use its direction is not usable and does not create a slot or lengthen the track — an outbound bonus beside an inbound-only facility, or the Truck Dock's inbound bonus beside the outbound-only Packing Sheds, which leaves that card with no effect at all. Likewise, passenger modifiers beside a Whistle Post add Porters but do not create an outbound slot until the Office becomes a Passenger Facility.
+## Facility modifiers
 
-## Train cards — 22
+A Modifier sits on an empty square among the **nine spots around its host Facility** — and, since
+v0.8.0.14, **inside your Limits**, like everything else. It may not stand in the Running Track row.
+One of each kind per Office Area.
 
-Playing a timetabled train card rolls the seeded D12 and places its number in the first open timetable slot at or after the result, wrapping around the 12-slot chart. It then runs at that Stage every Day. An Extra is queued and made up when a Crew Tray becomes available; v0.4.5 automatically launches Extras eastbound from the Western Division Point.
+**A Modifier adds a BOX, never room for a car.** A Truck Dock beside a Grocer's Warehouse gives it a
+second red box — somewhere for one more arriving load to be cleared to — and changes nothing about
+how many cars may be spotted there.
 
-The listed consist is a maximum, not a minimum: a train may depart with fewer cars, but must not exceed the listed categories, put a car behind a caboose, or leave with the engine buried among cars. A Crew Tray holds no more than four rolling-stock cars.
+**A grant the host cannot use does nothing**, and the game says so rather than pretending. An
+outbound bonus beside an inbound-only facility, or the Truck Dock's inbound bonus beside the
+outbound-only Packing Sheds, is discarded — the latter leaving that card with no effect at all.
+Passenger modifiers beside a **Whistle Post** add Porters but create no outbound slot until the
+Office becomes a Passenger Facility; the panel reports that as DORMANT rather than claiming the
+facility "only receives", which was wrong in both directions.
 
-> **Changed 2026-08-22 (Gitea#7), Jesse's call:** the coach counts on **1/2 Crack Limited** and
-> **5/6 The Sparrow** were swapped — the Limited drops from three coaches to two, the Sparrow rises
-> from two to three. This is a change to the CARDS, not a correction to this table: `Trains3.pdf` and
-> the transcription in [`rules/implications.md`](rules/implications.md) §5 still show the original
-> numbers, and are right about what the printed cards said. `src/engine/content.ts` and this table
-> carry what the game plays.
+## Train cards
 
-| Train | Speed | Direction | Listed maximum consist | Implemented special rule |
-| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
-| 1/2 Crack Limited | Fast | 1 west / 2 east | **2 coaches** | No switching; passenger work only at Terminals; expedited. |
-| 3/4 Express | Fast | 3 west / 4 east | 2 freight | May exchange at most one freight car at each grid location during its switching turn; expedited. |
-| 5/6 The Sparrow | Fast | 5 west / 6 east | **3 coaches** | No switching; expedited. |
-| 7/8 Local | Slow | 7 west / 8 east | 1 freight, 1 coach | Its coach may not be set out during switching. |
-| 9/10 Heavy Freight | Slow | 9 west / 10 east | 3 freight, 1 caboose | — |
-| 11/12 Drag Freight | Slow | 11 west / 12 east | 2 freight, 1 caboose | — |
-| X13 Appleseed Extra | Slow | Player choice printed; v0.4.5 launches east | 3 empty freight, 1 caboose | May drop cars but cannot pick up. The engine enforces no pickup, but does not enforce the printed empties-only consist restriction at make-up. |
-| X14 Fruit Growers Express | Fast | Player choice printed; v0.4.5 launches east | 2 reefers, 1 caboose | Expedited. The code enforces reefers-only; the printed extra loaded-reefer pickup is not a separate rule. |
-| X15 Yard Xfer | Slow | Player choice printed; v0.4.5 launches east | 2 freight, 1 caboose | — |
-| X16 Light Engine Move | Fast | Player choice printed; v0.4.5 launches east | No cars | No switching. |
-| X17 Campaign Train | Fast | Player choice printed; v0.4.5 launches east | 1 coach | No switching. First Office arrival lays over for speeches; later arrivals are expedited. |
-| X18 Circus Train | Slow | Player choice printed; v0.4.5 launches east | 2 freight, 1 coach, 1 caboose | No switching. The first Mainline Phase in which it remains stopped awards its current Office’s player 1 Revenue. |
-| X19 Military Train | Slow | Player choice printed; v0.4.5 launches east | 1 freight, 2 coaches | No switching; no passenger work; expedited. |
-| X20 Director’s Private Car | Slow | Player choice printed; v0.4.5 launches east | 2 freight, 1 coach | No passenger work. |
-| X21 Freight Extra | Slow | Player choice printed; v0.4.5 launches east | 3 freight, 1 caboose | — |
-| X22 Pee-Dee | Slow | Player choice printed; v0.4.5 launches east | 1 caboose | May pick up empty cars only. |
+Playing a **timetabled** train rolls the seeded D12 and puts its number in the first open timetable
+slot at or after the result, wrapping around the 12-slot chart. It then runs at that Stage **every
+Day**.
 
-## Enhancements — 18
+Playing an **Extra** queues it; it is made up when a Crew Tray comes free, and **the player who
+played the card chooses where it starts and loads it as they choose** (§7). Where it may start is a
+house rule — `divisionPointsOnly`, `ownOffice`, or `anyOffice` (the default) — and the Interchange is
+also available, because it is the one Mainline card with a yard. An Extra runs once and its card
+goes to the Salvage Yard.
 
-| Card | Copies | Placement | v0.4.5 behavior |
-| --- | ---: | --- | --- |
-| Interlocking | 2 | Bare Running Track straight | When the Office is full, an inbound train is held at the Limits instead of colliding. |
-| Facing Point Locks | 2 | Any card; requires an Interlocking somewhere in the district | Blocks Derail. Derail is unavailable in v0.4.5, so this remains dormant. |
-| Yard Office | 1 | Bare Secondary Track straight | A coachless inbound train is diverted to this track instead of occupying an A/D track. |
-| Small Yard | 1 | Bare Secondary Track straight | A train may spend one switching Move here to reorder its entire consist and put the engine at the nose. |
-| Water Column | 2 | Bare Running Track straight | Removes a Watertower. Watertower cards are unavailable, so this remains dormant. |
-| Overpass | 1 | Any card | No implemented effect. |
-| Telegraph | 3 | Bare Running Track straight | Once per Day, the Superintendent may add 4 to an opposing train’s number when that makes a facing clearance safe. |
-| Telephone | 2 | On a Telegraph | Same dispatch mechanism, +8 once per Day. |
-| Radio | 2 | On a Telephone | Same dispatch mechanism, +12 once per Day. |
-| ABS Signals | 2 | Any Mainline card | Prevents rear-end collisions and holds a following train short. |
+> The v0.4.5 behaviour of launching every Extra eastbound from the Western Division Point was
+> replaced in v0.6.2. The number no longer decides an Extra's direction; the start does.
 
-An enhancement requiring a bare straight cannot share that straight with another such enhancement. Telephone and Radio are the explicit stackable chain.
+The listed consist is a **maximum, not a minimum**. A train may depart with fewer cars, but not with
+more, not of the wrong category, not with a car behind the caboose, and not with the engine buried
+among its own cars. A Crew Tray holds four pieces, and a caboose counts toward the four.
 
-## Maneuvers — 6
+A train made up short of what its card calls for is reported as such, with what it wanted and why
+the yard could not supply it — see Rules §4.4.
 
-| Card | Copies | Behavior |
-| --- | ---: | --- |
-| Red Flags | 5 | May be played at any time on a train stopped on a Mainline card. An approaching following train is held instead of moving into it. |
-| Flying Switch | 1 | During the owner’s switching option, spend one Move to roll a tail-end cut into a track-connected freight facility without moving the engine there. |
-| Poling | 0 | Catalogued but not dealt; no rule is implemented. |
+**Per-train consists and printed rules: [`rules/as-built.md`](rules/as-built.md) § Trains.** It
+carries the `empties only`, `reefers only`, `drop only` and `pick up empties only` restrictions,
+every one of which the engine enforces.
 
-## Catalogued but not dealt — 22 opponent-directed cards
+## Enhancements, Mainline modifiers and Maneuvers
 
-### Space-use cards — 12
+- **Enhancements** are played into your district and change what a square does — the **Small Yard**
+  (re-order a consist for one Move), **Interlocking**, **Yard Office**, **ABS Signals** and the rest.
+  `as-built.md` marks each one `live`, `dormantSolo` or `unbuilt`, which is the part only the
+  implementation knows.
+- **Mainline modifiers** are played onto a Mainline card: the Heavy Grade helpers and Realignment.
+  See [Mainline deck](StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.md).
+- **Maneuvers** are held and spent: **Red Flags** and **Flying Switch** have their own actions.
+  Poling is catalogued but its effect is recorded as "TBD in the source", so there is nothing to
+  implement.
 
-Bean House (1), Flop House (1), Watertower (1), Hobo Jungle (1), Section House (1), City Blocks (4), Engine Shops (1), Tenderloin District (1), and Engineer Cemetery (1) are excluded. Their source descriptions say they consume table space; Hobo Jungle additionally describes vandalism looting a passing boxcar. No placement or effect is available in v0.4.5.
+## Opponent-directed cards — not dealt
 
-### Action cards — 10
-
-Derail (2), Broken Coupler (1), Railroad Crossing (1), Per Diem Inventory (1), Demurrage Charge (1), Customer Complaints (1), Vandalism (1), Hotbox (1), and Outlawed (1) are excluded. Their printed target/effect text is catalogued in the code, but `card.play` rejects the categories as not implemented. Consequently, no card can currently be played on another player.
-
-There are also two **Facing Point Locks** listed among Mainline modifiers. They are treated as the same grid enhancement as Facing Point Locks above, require an Interlocking, and are included in the active 213-card total.
+The **Action** and **Space-use** categories are opponent-directed and are **excluded from every
+dealt deck**, because their play rules are not implemented. They are catalogued in
+`as-built.md` so the composition is on record, and `check` refuses to play one. This is deliberate:
+silently accepting them would make a card look playable while doing nothing.

docs/StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.md

@@ -1,21 +1,62 @@
 # Station Master — Mainline Deck
 
-**Rules implementation reference: v0.4.5**  
-**Scope:** the tarot-sized Mainline cards placed between Offices. This is an implementation reference, not a transcription of earlier prototype rules.
+**Describes the game as built at v0.8.0.16** (2026-09-20). Previously stamped "v0.4.5", the
+prototype rules edition these references were first written against; the filename keeps that stamp
+because `src/`, `CHANGELOG.md` and `docs/rules/` all cite this file by name.
+
+**Scope:** the tarot-sized Mainline cards placed between Offices — how the deck is dealt, what a
+card does to a train crossing it, and the Home Deck cards played onto one.
+
+> **Per-card numbers live in [`rules/as-built.md`](rules/as-built.md)**, which is GENERATED from
+> `src/engine/content.ts` and checked by `test/card-reference.test.ts`, so it cannot disagree with
+> the game. This document explains how the deck is used; that one is the table of record. Where the
+> two ever differ, as-built is right.
 
 ## How Mainline cards work
 
-At setup the game places one randomly selected Mainline card between each neighbouring pair of Offices and one beyond each end Office, between it and a Division Point. Thus, a game with *N* players has *N + 1* Mainline cards. The implementation selects types with replacement; it does not deal them from a shuffled finite deck.
+At setup the game lays one Mainline card between each neighbouring pair of Offices and one beyond
+each end Office, between it and a Division Point — so a game with *N* players uses **N + 1** cards.
+They are **dealt from a finite deck without replacement** (since v0.6.2), so no Division can hold
+two of a card printed once. The two Division Points are the fixed ends of the Division and are not
+in the deck: `buildDivision` lays them itself.
 
-A train crossing a Mainline card spends Stages, rather than moving through its printed cells. A 60 mph card costs one Stage and a 30 mph card costs two. A Slow train adds one Stage to every crossing. On Hilly terrain, any train carrying at least one coach uses the passenger rate; a train carrying no coach uses the freight rate. No crossing can take less than one Stage.
+A card does not belong to either neighbouring Office. It is shared Division.
 
-The card does not itself determine which player owns the adjacent Office. It is part of the shared Division.
+### Crossing time is REGIONS, not mph
 
-## Physical card inventory in `Mainline Cards.pdf`
+A card is divided into **regions**, and a train advances **one region per Stage**. Crossing time is
+therefore `regions − startRegion`, and nothing else. **The printed mph is scenery.**
 
-The supplied PDF has **ten** tarot-sized terrain cards. Plains appears twice; the other terrain types appear once each. It also includes two Division Point cards.
+This is the part most likely to be remembered wrong, because it used to work the other way: mph set
+the cost and a Slow train added a Stage to *every* card. It does not. Four things move a train's
+start region and nothing else does:
 
-| Physical card | Copies in the PDF |
+1. **The card's own back region.** The Uncontrolled Siding and the Interchange print a back region
+   that is not part of the road, so a train running through begins past it.
+2. **A card that prints a Fast and a Slow start — and only Hilly does.** A fast train starts one
+   region along and crosses in 1 Stage; a slow one takes 2. **No other card reads a train's
+   Fast/Slow rating at all.**
+3. **The permanent Heavy Grade modifiers**, each moving a train one region up the hill.
+4. **Occupancy**: arriving to find the card occupied can put a train in the siding, a region behind.
+
+No crossing ever takes less than one Stage.
+
+### Traffic
+
+Only **Double Track** lets two trains stand on one card, so a following train is not held behind a
+slower one. Every other card holds one train at a time. The **Uncontrolled Siding** is not a passing
+card: arriving to find a train already there puts you in the siding a region behind it — you do not
+run into it, and it costs you the extra Stage instead.
+
+Whether a following train may enter an occupied card at all is the Superintendent's ruling (§8.1,
+Rules §4.5). Getting it wrong is what causes collisions.
+
+## The deck
+
+Ten drawable cards — Plains twice, the other eight once each — plus the two Division Point cards,
+which are not drawn.
+
+| Card | Copies |
 | --- | ---: |
 | Plains | 2 |
 | Curves | 1 |
@@ -26,60 +67,62 @@ The supplied PDF has **ten** tarot-sized terrain cards. Plains appears twice; th
 | Tunnel | 1 |
 | Trestle | 1 |
 | Interchange | 1 |
-| East Division Point | 1 |
-| West Division Point | 1 |
+| East / West Division Point | 1 each, not dealt |
 
-The PDF art labels this card “Yard”; this reference uses the implementation’s correct name, **Interchange**, to distinguish it from the Division Yard, Classification Yard, Yard Office, and Small Yard.
+The PDF art labels the Interchange "Yard". This reference uses **Interchange** throughout, to keep
+it apart from the Division Yard, the Classification Yard, the Yard Office and the Small Yard — five
+different things.
 
-## Implemented Mainline card reference
+**Region counts and entry points per card are in [`rules/as-built.md`](rules/as-built.md).**
 
-| Card | Implemented crossing time and feature |
-| --- | --- |
-| Plains | 60 mph; one Stage for Fast, two for Slow. The implementation has one Plains *type* rather than the PDF’s two physical copies. |
-| Curves | 30 mph; two Stages for Fast, three for Slow. |
-| Hilly | Passenger train: 60 mph. Freight-only train: 30 mph. Add one Stage if Slow. |
-| Heavy Grade | Starts at 30 mph; two Stages for Fast, three for Slow. The card prints “Player sets orientation”; **the game deliberately overrides that and rolls the uphill direction from the seed** — settled in v0.5.0 and re-confirmed 2026-08-23, see the note below. Grade modifiers can reduce the time, to a minimum of one Stage. |
-| Double Track | 60 mph. Printed capability: trains may pass. The traffic-resolution rule is in Rules §4.5. |
-| Uncontrolled Siding | 60 mph. Printed capability: trains may pass. The traffic-resolution rule is in Rules §4.5. |
-| Tunnel | 30 mph. |
-| Trestle | 60 mph. |
-| Interchange | 60 mph. A train may be reordered there only through the card’s printed “sort cars” concept; the current engine does **not** provide a Mainline sorting action for it. |
+## The Interchange, and what it does NOT do
 
-### PDF/code mismatch — CORRECTED
+The Interchange prints a car-sorting capability. **It is not implemented, and never has been.** The
+one thing the card's `sortsCars` flag actually gates is that an **Extra Train may be made up and
+started here** — it is the Mainline card with a yard, which is why §7 allows it (v0.6.2). An Extra
+starting here begins in the back region and takes the extra Stage.
 
-**Was:** `src/engine/content.ts` defines nine `MAINLINE_PROFILES` types: one Plains entry plus the eight other terrain types above. `setup.ts` selected uniformly from that nine-type list, **with replacement**. The second Plains card shown in `Mainline Cards.pdf` was therefore not represented as a duplicate card or as extra Plains weight in setup — and, worse than a weighting error, a Division could be dealt two Interchanges, two Tunnels or two Trestles, none of which the deck contains.
+Re-ordering a consist is done at a **Small Yard** in an Office Area, for one switching Move. See
+Rules §4.3.
 
-**Now:** `MAINLINE_DECK` in `content.ts` is the inventory table above — ten drawable cards, Plains twice and the other eight once each — and `buildDivision` deals from it without replacement. The two Division Point cards are not in that deck: they are the fixed ends of the Division, laid by `buildDivision` itself rather than drawn.
-
-The Interchange is what forced the correction. §7 lets an Extra be started at the Interchange "if one is on the board" (see `docs/rules/implications.md`, §7), which only reads as a rule if the board can hold at most one.
-
-The executable state represents East and West Division Points as fixed end nodes, not as card records. They are functionally present at the ends of the Division, but are not represented as the two PDF cards in the deck/state model.
+> **Corrected 2026-09-20.** Until this pass the card said "Cars may be sorted into any new order
+> here" — on the board, in the tooltip a player reads, and in the generated reference. A card
+> advertising an action the game will not offer sends a player hunting for a button that does not
+> exist. The description now says what the card does.
 
 ## Heavy Grade modifiers
 
-These cards come from the Home Office deck and are played onto a Mainline card during a player’s Draw option.
+Home Office cards, played onto a Mainline card during a player's Draw option.
 
-| Card | Copies | Placement and actual effect |
-| --- | ---: | --- |
-| Brakeman | 1 | Heavy Grade only. Reduces a downhill crossing by one Stage. |
-| Airbrakes | 1 | Heavy Grade only, and Brakeman must already be on that card. Reduces a downhill crossing by one additional Stage. |
-| Helpers | 1 | Heavy Grade only. Reduces an uphill crossing by one Stage. |
-| Realignment | 2 | May be played only onto an unoccupied Mainline card. Changes Plains → Double Track, Curves → Plains, Uncontrolled Siding → Double Track, or Trestle → Uncontrolled Siding. It cannot be played on any other card type. |
+| Card | Placement and effect |
+| --- | --- |
+| Brakeman | Heavy Grade only. A **downhill** train starts one region further on. |
+| Airbrakes | Heavy Grade only, and **Brakeman must already be on that card**. A downhill train starts one region further again. |
+| Helpers | Heavy Grade only. An **uphill** train starts one region further on. |
+| Realignment | Only onto an **unoccupied** Mainline card. Plains → Double Track, Curves → Plains, Uncontrolled Siding → Double Track, Trestle → Uncontrolled Siding. No other card may be realigned. |
 
-For the grade cards, “uphill” should be the direction selected by the player when the card is placed. In v0.4.5 it is the seeded `gradeUp` direction because setup has no player-choice step.
-
-## What is not implemented
-
-- There is no player choice or physical placement interaction for Mainline cards; setup deals them automatically from the seeded random stream. There **is** a finite draw pile as of v0.6.2 — the deck above, dealt without replacement, so no Division can hold two of a card printed once.
-- Interchange is catalogued as a “sort cars” card, but v0.4.5 has no operation that reorders a train on the Interchange. The Small Yard in an Office Area is the implemented sorting mechanism.
-- Interchange now has one player-facing use: an Extra Train may be **started** there, made up in its yard and highballing onto the Mainline when the Subdivision is clear (§7, v0.6.2). Car sorting remains unimplemented.
+A Heavy Grade is 3 regions, so it is 3 Stages to climb and 3 to run down before help. Modifiers
+never reduce a crossing below one Stage.
 
 ## Heavy Grade orientation is settled, not missing
 
-Heavy Grade orientation is rolled from the seed rather than chosen by a player. **This is a decision, not a gap, and it is not awaiting a player-selection step.**
+Heavy Grade orientation is **rolled from the seed**, not chosen by a player. **This is a decision,
+not a gap.**
 
-The card prints “(Up)” and “Player sets orientation”, which assumes the card has an owner. This one does not: `buildDivision` lays the Division as `DP · Mainline · Office · Mainline · … · DP`, so a Heavy Grade always sits **between two districts**, or beyond an end Division Point next to one — never inside a single player’s own district.
+The card prints "(Up)" and "Player sets orientation", which assumes the card has an owner. This one
+does not: the Division is laid `DP · Mainline · Office · Mainline · … · DP`, so a Heavy Grade always
+sits **between two districts**, or beyond an end Division Point beside one — never inside a single
+player's district.
 
-Orientation is not cosmetic: Brakeman and Airbrakes each take a Stage off a train running **downhill**, Helpers takes one off a train running **uphill**, and odd-numbered trains run west while even run east. Turning the card around therefore decides which of those modifier cards are worth anything and which direction of traffic is favoured — permanently, for the whole game. Handing that to one of the two neighbours advantages them over the other, and no player has a fair claim to it.
+Orientation is not cosmetic. Brakeman and Airbrakes help a train running **downhill**, Helpers helps
+one running **uphill**, and odd-numbered trains run west while even run east. Turning the card
+around decides which modifiers are worth anything and which direction of traffic is favoured, for
+the whole game. Handing that to one of two neighbours advantages them over the other, and neither
+has a fair claim to it.
 
-**Re-opened and closed again on 2026-08-23**, when the option of giving the choice to the Superintendent was considered and rejected. Jesse’s call: v0.5.0’s ruling stands. Rolling from the seed is deterministic, roughly even (51/49 east/west over 400 games), identical for solitaire and multiplayer, and keeps setup non-interactive — the game has no setup phase, so the question would have to interrupt play before the first Local Operations, in the minority of games that deal the card at all (20% at one player, rising to 50% at four).
+**Re-opened and closed again on 2026-08-23**, when giving the choice to the Superintendent was
+considered and rejected. Jesse's call: v0.5.0's ruling stands. Rolling from the seed is
+deterministic, roughly even (51/49 east/west over 400 games), identical in solitaire and
+multiplayer, and keeps setup non-interactive — the game has no setup phase, so the question would
+have to interrupt play before the first Local Operations, in the minority of games that deal the
+card at all (20% at one player, rising to 50% at four).

docs/StationMaster-Quickstart.md

@@ -0,0 +1,199 @@
+# Station Master — Quickstart
+
+**For a tester who has never played. Describes the game as built at v0.8.0.16** (2026-09-20).
+
+Read this once before you sit down. It is about twenty minutes of reading and will save you an hour
+of confusion. The deeper references are listed at the end.
+
+---
+
+## 1. What the game is
+
+You are a railroad **Office** — a town — on a shared east–west main line called the **Division**.
+Everyone's Office sits in a row along it, west to east, with **Mainline cards** between them.
+
+Two jobs run at once:
+
+**Your own job, in your district.** Build track. Build industries and a passenger platform. Shunt
+cars around with a switching crew to get the right car to the right place, so that freight can be
+loaded and unloaded and passengers can get on and off. Every one of those completed pieces of work
+pays **Revenue**, which is the score.
+
+**The shared job, out on the Division.** Scheduled trains run across everybody's territory on a
+timetable. They arrive at your Office, and you work them. When two trains want the same stretch of
+track, the player wearing the **Superintendent's Fedora** rules on whether the second may follow the
+first. Rule wrong and they collide, which costs 5 Revenue and counts against a limit that can end
+the game.
+
+The tension the game is built around: **the useful work is local and slow, and the trains are shared
+and do not wait.**
+
+---
+
+## 2. How you win
+
+The game runs a set number of **Days** — five by default. Each Day is **12 Stages**, which you can
+think of as two-hour clock periods from midnight.
+
+At the end of the last Day:
+
+1. **The table's combined Revenue is checked first**, against a floor of **3 × players × Days**. At
+   three players over five Days that is 45. **Miss it and everybody loses**, however well you
+   personally did. This is the number to watch.
+2. **Co-op:** meeting the floor is the win, together.
+3. **Competitive:** meeting the floor puts the game on, and the **highest individual Revenue** wins.
+4. **Solitaire:** meet the floor by yourself.
+
+**Collisions can end it early and badly.** Breaching the collision limit stops play at once in a
+collective loss — the railroad has been declared unsafe. Default limits are 3 in one Day and 5 in
+the game.
+
+**Falling short offers another Day** rather than just ending, so a game that misses the floor can be
+played on. A game stopped by collisions cannot.
+
+### Where Revenue comes from
+
+| Work | Pays |
+| --- | --- |
+| A passenger boarding at your platform | 1 |
+| A passenger getting off at your platform | 1 |
+| Completing an outbound freight load | 1 |
+| Completing an inbound freight unload | 1 |
+| A train completing its run across the whole Division | 0 by default, to every player |
+
+Those rates are set when the game is dealt and can be changed. The default means **your score comes
+almost entirely from working cars in your own district** — trains passing through pay nothing by
+themselves.
+
+---
+
+## 3. The shape of a Stage
+
+Every Stage runs five phases in this order. Only two of them are your turn.
+
+| # | Phase | What happens |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| 1 | **Local Operations** | **Your turn.** Choose ONE of three things (below). Each player in turn, starting with the Superintendent and working eastward. |
+| 2 | **New Train** | Trains due this Stage are made up from the Division Yard. The table takes turns adding one car each. |
+| 3 | **Mainline** | Automatic. Trains move, lowest number first. This is where clearance rulings and collisions happen. |
+| 4 | **Cargo** | **Your turn.** Your Laborers and Porters do their work — the loading, unloading, boarding and detraining that actually pays. |
+| 5 | **Supervisor Shift** | Automatic. Laborers and Porters refresh; expedited trains depart. Every third Stage the Fedora passes. |
+
+### Local Operations: you get exactly one of these
+
+- **Switch** — take a crew and shunt. **Six Moves** (five at night under Reduced Visibility). This is
+  how cars physically get from the yard to an industry and back. Cars you run over are coupled up
+  automatically, so plan the route.
+- **Draw** — take a card, then play and/or discard. This is how your district gets built: track,
+  industries, Office upgrades, modifiers, train cards.
+- **Freight Agent** — one clerical act: stock a green outbound box, clear a red inbound box, or
+  unjam a facility.
+
+**You cannot do two of them in one Stage.** Choosing is most of the game. A Stage spent drawing is a
+Stage not spent switching.
+
+> Passengers are **not** the Freight Agent's job. They board and get off in the **Cargo** phase, with
+> a **Porter**. Reaching for the wrong role and finding nothing there is the single most common new
+> player mistake, so each role now says on screen what it is for.
+
+---
+
+## 4. The screen
+
+Left column, top to bottom:
+
+- **The Division — west to east.** The shared main line: every Office and the Mainline cards between
+  them, with trains drawn where they are. **West is always on the left**, and a train's engine is
+  drawn as an arrow (◀ or ▶) showing which way it points.
+- **Your Office Area.** Your own grid of track cards. This is where switching happens. It folds away
+  outside the phases that change it, unless you pin it open.
+- **History.** What has happened, most recent first.
+
+Right column:
+
+- **Your Move** — the buttons. If it is not your turn this is empty, and the board tells you who is
+  acting.
+- **Cards in My Hand**, and the **Department decks** — three face-up discard piles anyone may draw
+  the top of.
+- **The Yards.** The **Division Yard** is the live supply of cars. The **Classification Yard** is
+  where used cars go, and it comes back **only when the Division Yard runs completely bare**.
+- **Timetable** — who is due out and when.
+- **Blocked — why nothing is moving.** *Read this panel.* When something will not work, this is
+  where the game explains why, in rules terms.
+- **Facilities** — the load pipelines at each industry.
+
+Across the top: your Revenue, the target, the Day and Stage, collisions, and the game code.
+
+**When other players are acting**, their turns are replayed on your board a step at a time rather
+than arriving already rearranged, with a `[N behind]` counter, **Pause** and **Skip**. Your own moves
+are not replayed at you — they are already on your screen.
+
+---
+
+## 5. Your first twenty minutes
+
+Play a **solitaire** game first. It needs no server and nobody else, and it is the same rules.
+
+1. Open the site, choose **Play solitaire**, accept the defaults, **Deal**.
+2. **Stage 1 — Draw.** You start on a **Whistle Post** with almost nothing. Play a track card or two
+   to extend your Running Track, and get a **Depot** down as soon as one appears: it is the upgrade
+   that makes you a passenger facility and gives you a second A/D track.
+3. **Build one industry** on a stub off the main — not on the Running Track itself, which the game
+   will not allow.
+4. **Play a train card** when you get one. It rolls onto the timetable and then runs at that Stage
+   **every Day**.
+5. **When a train arrives at your Office**, switch cars to it or from it, and do the paying work in
+   the **Cargo** phase.
+6. Watch the **Blocked** panel whenever you are stuck. It is usually one missing thing: no empty car
+   spotted, no loaded car in the yard, a full box, a locked industry track.
+
+Then play a Day or two of multiplayer with bots filling the other seats, to see the table take turns.
+
+---
+
+## 6. Things that surprise new players
+
+- **A turnout cannot be stopped on.** You may run through it; you may not end a Move there.
+- **Coupling is mandatory.** Run over a standing car and you take it, whether or not you wanted it.
+- **An industry track locks while a load is on its MEN | AT | WORK boxes.** No train can enter,
+  cross or work there until it clears.
+- **A modifier adds a BOX, never room for a car.** It raises how much work an industry can hold, not
+  how much rail it has.
+- **Nothing may be built outside your Limits** — track, industries and modifiers alike. Your district
+  ends at its sign, and the sign moves outward as your Running Track grows.
+- **A train must be made up to leave.** Engine at one end; if it has a caboose, the caboose at the
+  far end. A train shunted out of shape sits at your Office until you fix it — a **Small Yard** will
+  re-order a consist for one Move, and each option tells you whether the result can leave.
+- **Passengers may dry up completely.** Coaches move one way — boarding sends the emptied coach to
+  the Classification Yard, and it only comes back when the Division Yard is bare, which may never
+  happen. When it does, the yard panel warns you and passenger trains are made up empty. **This is
+  the rules working as designed**, not a bug; report how it felt, not that it happened.
+- **Expedited trains leave the same Stage they arrived**, after the Cargo phase. Ordinary ones wait.
+
+---
+
+## 7. What to report
+
+Most useful, in order:
+
+1. **What you expected versus what happened**, with the Day and Stage. "Day 2 Stage 9, train 5 had
+   no coaches" is worth more than "passengers seem broken".
+2. **Save the game** (the **Save replay** button) and send the file. A save is the seed and the moves
+   made, so it replays exactly and the bug can be looked at directly.
+3. **Anything the screen did not explain.** If you had to guess a rule, that is a finding even when
+   the game was right.
+4. **Anything you went looking for and could not find.**
+
+Bugs go to the tracker; anything unclear in this guide is also worth saying.
+
+---
+
+## 8. Where to read more
+
+| For | Read |
+| --- | --- |
+| The rules in full, with the FAQ | [Rules](StationMaster-Rules-v0.4.5.md) |
+| Every card, generated from the code | [`rules/as-built.md`](rules/as-built.md) |
+| How the Home Office deck is dealt and played | [Home deck](StationMaster-Home-Deck-v0.4.5.md) |
+| The Mainline cards and what they do to a train | [Mainline deck](StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.md) |
+| Rolling stock, yards, trays, the Fedora | [Components](StationMaster-Components-v0.4.5.md) |

docs/StationMaster-Rules-v0.4.5.md

@@ -1,7 +1,15 @@
 # Station Master — Rules
 
-**First-draft rules reference for v0.4.5**  
-**Authority:** observed v0.4.5 code paths and tests. Where a card face, prototype document, and executable behavior differ, this document reports executable behavior and marks unimplemented material.
+**Describes the game as built at v0.8.0.16** (2026-09-20). Previously stamped "v0.4.5", the
+prototype rules edition this reference was first written against; the filename keeps that stamp
+because `src/`, `CHANGELOG.md` and `docs/rules/` all cite this file by name.
+
+**Authority:** observed code paths and tests. Where a card face, a prototype document and executable
+behaviour differ, this document reports **executable behaviour** and marks unimplemented material.
+Per-card numbers are not repeated here — [`rules/as-built.md`](rules/as-built.md) is generated from
+`src/engine/content.ts` and is the table of record.
+
+**New to the game? Start with the [Quickstart](StationMaster-Quickstart.md).**
 
 ## 1. Overview and background
 
@@ -19,11 +27,14 @@ This book is divided as follows:
 6. the implemented multiplayer/engine status; and
 7. FAQs and implementation limits.
 
-The companion references are [Mainline deck](StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.md), [Home deck](StationMaster-Home-Deck-v0.4.5.md), and [components](StationMaster-Components-v0.4.5.md).
+The companion references are the [Quickstart](StationMaster-Quickstart.md) for a new player,
+[Mainline deck](StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.md), [Home deck](StationMaster-Home-Deck-v0.4.5.md),
+[components](StationMaster-Components-v0.4.5.md), and the generated per-card table
+[`rules/as-built.md`](rules/as-built.md).
 
 ## 2. Definitions
 
-| Term | Meaning in v0.4.5 |
+| Term | Meaning |
 | --- | --- |
 | A/D track | An Office arrival/departure capacity. A Whistle Post has 1; Depot, Station, and Terminal have 2, 3, and 4. |
 | Card location | A square in an Office Area grid. A train may end a switching Move only on Operational Rail. |
@@ -43,7 +54,7 @@ The companion references are [Mainline deck](StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.
 | Operational Rail | A card on which a train may finish a Move. Turnouts are pass-through only; a locked industry is not usable at all. |
 | Running Track | The east–west track between an Office Area’s Limits, including its Office. |
 | Secondary Track | All local rail inside the Limits that is not Running Track. |
-| Stage | One of twelve turns in a Day. Its phases are Local Operations, New Train, Mainline, Load/Unload, and Shift Change. |
+| Stage | One of twelve turns in a Day. Its phases are Local Operations, New Train, Mainline, Load/Unload and Shift Change. **On screen the last two are labelled "Cargo" and "Supervisor Shift"** — same phases, the names the interface uses. |
 | Subdivision | Mainline between Division Points or Control Points. Clearance checks look through the whole next Subdivision. |
 | Superintendent | The player with the Fedora. The role decides same-direction clearances and rotates every three Stages. |
 | Timetabled train | A numbered train card scheduled to one of the 12 Stage slots, then due at that slot each Day. Odd numbers go west; even numbers go east. |
@@ -52,11 +63,18 @@ The companion references are [Mainline deck](StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.
 
 ### 3.1 Starting a new game in the shipped client
 
-The v0.4.5 browser page creates a **one-player solitaire Standard game**. Select **New game**, then choose:
+The front page has three doors: **Play multiplayer**, **Play solitaire**, and **Browse replays**.
+
+**Solitaire** runs entirely in your own browser and needs nothing from the server. Select **New
+game**, then choose:
 
 1. a numeric seed, or leave it blank for a fresh browser-generated seed;
 2. a starting hand;
-3. passenger, freight, and train-transit Revenue rates.
+3. passenger, freight, and train-transit Revenue rates;
+4. the number of Days, and the optional rules.
+
+**Multiplayer** goes to the lobby — see §3.5. It needs the server, because the game is authoritative
+there rather than in any one browser.
 
 The browser writes those choices into the URL. A particular game is defined by the **seed plus these house rules**, not the seed alone.
 
@@ -87,7 +105,7 @@ In a multi-player engine game, every player receives two seeded D12 rolls:
 - The **division roll** orders seats from low west to high east; equal results put the lower player index farther east.
 - The **Superintendent roll** gives the initial Fedora to the first player tied for highest.
 
-The opening deal starts at the Superintendent’s seat and proceeds left (eastward in the engine’s seat ordering).
+The opening deal starts at the Superintendent’s seat and proceeds **eastward** — increasing seat index, which is how the Division map draws the table.
 
 ### 3.3 Saving, resuming, and replaying solitaire
 
@@ -97,25 +115,61 @@ The browser also stores the current local game and resumes it automatically when
 
 **Undo is solitaire-only.** It removes the final accepted intent and rebuilds the game from the earlier history. Random outcomes are not rerolled: replaying the same action consumes the same seeded result. Undo can therefore change the player’s decision after seeing an outcome, but cannot fish for a different timetable die roll.
 
-### 3.4 Engine game modes and endings
+### 3.4 Game modes and endings
 
-The engine defines Solitaire, Competitive, and Co-op modes. The browser exposes only Solitaire.
+Three modes: **Solitaire**, **Competitive** and **Co-op**. All three are playable.
 
-| Length | Target | Days |
-| --- | ---: | ---: |
-| Short | 10 | 3 |
-| Standard | 20 | 5 |
-| Campaign | 45 | 10 |
+**Length is a free `days` count**, not a preset. The old `short`/`standard`/`campaign` presets
+carried a `target` and were dropped in 2026-08; they survive only as a convenience argument for the
+simulation tooling, resolving to 3, 5 and 10 Days. The default is 5.
 
-With `firstToTarget`, competitive mode ends when any individual reaches the target; co-op uses target × player count and total Revenue. With `highestAfterDays`, competitive mode requires the table’s combined Revenue to reach `3 × players × days`; otherwise everyone loses. If that floor is met, the highest individual score wins. Solitaire and co-op win only if their score reaches their target at the end of the length.
+**How a game ends and who wins:**
 
-Competitive mode also ends in a collective loss after three collisions in one Day.
+1. **The timetable runs out** at the end of the last Day. Then:
+2. **The combined Revenue floor** is checked first — `3 × players × days`. Fall short and
+   **everybody loses**, whatever anyone individually scored.
+3. **Co-op** wins as a table if the floor is met.
+4. **Competitive** is won by the **highest individual Revenue** once the floor is met.
+5. **Collisions end it early.** Breaching the per-Day or total collision limit ends play at once in a
+   collective loss — the railroad has been declared unsafe.
 
-The configuration contains four optional-rule flags. Only two have engine effects: **Reduced Visibility** gives five rather than six switching Moves in Stages 1, 2, 3, 11, and 12; **Emergency Toolbox** initially sets the Red Flags hand-limit status, allowing four cards. Sister Trains and Employee Rotation are represented in configuration/state design but are not executed by v0.4.5.
+**Extended play (Gitea#11).** Both days-based endings — running out of timetable, and closing short
+of the Revenue floor — offer **another Day**, because they are the same event seen twice: the last
+Day ended, and this is what the books say. A collision ending is **not** extendable, and neither is a
+collision breach during an extended Day. The official result is frozen when the timetable first ran
+out, so a railroad declared unsafe on Day 9 does not retract who won on Day 5.
 
-### 3.5 Multiplayer setup status
+**Three optional rules, all implemented:**
 
-There is no multiplayer lobby, room creation flow, remote server, invitation flow, or network session in v0.4.5. The engine can be called with multiple player names (and rejects a Solitaire configuration with more than one), but the delivered page always calls it for one local player. See section 6.
+| Rule | Effect |
+| --- | --- |
+| Reduced Visibility | Five switching Moves instead of six, in Stages 1, 2, 3, 11 and 12 — the night Stages. |
+| Employee Rotation | Every player moves one chair at the end of each Day. Revenue and the Fedora travel with the player; the Office Areas stay with the seats. |
+| Emergency Toolbox | Starts every player holding the Red Flags status, so the hand limit opens at four. |
+
+(There is no "Sister Trains" flag. It appeared in an earlier draft of this document and never in the
+configuration.)
+
+### 3.5 Multiplayer setup
+
+Multiplayer is delivered and is what this package is for. The flow:
+
+1. **Create or join.** The host creates a game and gets a **game code**; everyone else joins with
+   that code. Seats fill as people arrive, and any seat left empty can be **filled with a bot**.
+2. **Start.** Once the host starts, that same page is where every player plays their turns and
+   watches the table. There is nothing else to open.
+3. **The server is authoritative.** The game lives on the server, not in a browser: it survives a
+   page reload, a browser restart and a service update, replaying its intent history to get back to
+   where it was.
+4. **Your seat is a token in YOUR browser**, scoped to the origin you joined at. A reload finds it
+   and puts you straight back. Clearing site data, a private window, or a different browser does not:
+   the seat is still yours and still on the server, but that browser can no longer prove it is you.
+   An administrator can mint a **single-use recovery link** (StartOS action **Restore a Seat**) that
+   trades a code for the token and expires in 30 minutes.
+5. **Watching the table.** Other players' turns arrive as an ordered replay rather than as a board
+   that has silently rearranged itself, with a `[N behind]` counter, Pause and Skip.
+
+Solitaire needs none of this and runs with the page alone.
 
 ## 4. Basic game mechanics
 
@@ -124,13 +178,16 @@ There is no multiplayer lobby, room creation flow, remote server, invitation flo
 Each of 12 Stages follows this sequence:
 
 ```text
-1. Local Operations — each player, starting with the Superintendent and proceeding left
-2. New Train — make up due timetabled trains, then queued second sections and Extras
-3. Mainline — automatic train movement in numeric order
-4. Load/Unload — each player, starting with the Superintendent and proceeding left
-5. Shift Change — expedited departures, clocks/workers, and possibly the Fedora
+1. Local Operations — each player, starting with the Superintendent and proceeding eastward
+2. New Train      — make up due timetabled trains, then queued second sections and Extras
+3. Mainline       — automatic train movement in numeric order
+4. Load/Unload    — each player, same order.        On screen: "Cargo"
+5. Shift Change   — expedited departures, workers.  On screen: "Supervisor Shift"
 ```
 
+**"Proceeding left" is seat order, west to east**, which is how the Division map draws it — the
+screen says "eastward" for that reason, because a table has no shared left.
+
 At a Shift Change, Laborers and Porters reset. The Fedora moves after Stages 3, 6, 9, and 12. At Day end, dispatch-device use resets, collision count resets, the Day and Stage roll over, and victory is checked.
 
 ### 4.2 Local Operations: choose one option
@@ -139,13 +196,19 @@ On a player’s Local Operations turn, choose exactly one available option.
 
 **Switch.** Select any Crew Tray currently in that player’s Office Area. It gets six Moves, or five under Reduced Visibility on the listed night Stages. A Move travels any connected distance in one direction and must end on Operational Rail. Reversing is a separate Move. A train may pass through a turnout but cannot stop on it. It may not share or pass through another train except through an Office with a free A/D track.
 
-Standing cars couple automatically when the train reaches them; it may not pass them, and the resulting consist may not exceed four cars. Coupling forward places cars ahead of the engine; coupling while backing places them behind it. Setting out cars does not spend a Move, but the cut must come from an outer end of the consist and may not be left on the Office. A Small Yard can reorder a consist for one Move. Flying Switch spends one Move to roll a tail cut into a connected Freight Facility.
+Standing cars couple automatically when the train reaches them; it may not pass them, and the resulting consist may not exceed four cars. Coupling forward places cars ahead of the engine; coupling while backing places them behind it. Setting out cars does not spend a Move, but the cut must come from an outer end of the consist and may not be left on the Office. A **Small Yard** re-orders a consist for one Move, and since v0.8.0.14 may also place cars **ahead
+of the engine** — which is how a cut is set up to be shoved into a facing industry. Each option on
+the menu shows the train it would build, laid out west to east as the board draws it, and says
+whether the result may leave the Office or would be held there. Flying Switch spends one Move to
+roll a tail cut into a connected Freight Facility.
 
 **Draw.** Take one card from the face-down Home Office or the exposed top of one Department pile. During this option, play eligible cards and/or discard cards to Department piles, then finish at the hand limit. Track, facilities, offices, modifiers, enhancements, and train cards have the placement or scheduling rules in the deck references. Mainline modifiers are played from this option as well.
 
 **Freight Agent.** Make one of these operations, then the turn ends: stock one green outbound box from a matching loaded Division Yard car; clear one red inbound box to the Classification Yard; unjam one outbound, inbound, or MEN | AT | WORK load to the Classification Yard; or explicitly end without acting. Freight can be stocked only when an unclaimed empty matching car is already spotted at that industry. Passengers may wait in a green Office box without a train present.
 
-Implementation note: `card.discard` is accepted by the v0.4.5 engine during Local Operations without checking that Draw was chosen. This unusual implementation behavior is not a separate published turn option.
+Implementation note, still true at v0.8.0.16: `card.discard` is accepted during Local Operations
+without checking that the Draw option was chosen — unlike `card.play`, which does check. This is an
+implementation quirk rather than a fourth published turn option.
 
 ### 4.3 Track, switching, and local safety
 
@@ -159,18 +222,36 @@ Train-card restrictions also apply while switching. No-switching trains cannot m
 
 At the Stage shown on the timetable, the engine makes up the matching timetabled train if a Crew Tray is free. It starts at the Division Point appropriate to its direction. A train may receive matching loaded or empty cars from the Division Yard until its listed maximum consist is reached or no suitable car remains. It is permitted to leave under-strength.
 
-A Second Section order on the due train creates another identical timetabled train behind it when a free tray is available. A played Extra is made up after timetabled trains and Second Sections when a tray is free; v0.4.5 automatically sends every Extra east from the Western Division Point.
+A Second Section order on the due train creates another identical timetabled train behind it when a
+free tray is available. A played Extra is made up after timetabled trains and Second Sections when a
+tray is free, and **the player who played the card chooses where it starts** — either Division
+Point, the Interchange, or an Office, according to the `extraStart` house rule — and loads it as they
+choose rather than going round the table.
+
+A timetabled train's consist is built by the table: **starting with the Superintendent and working
+eastward, each player adds ONE car**, going round again until the train is full or the Division Yard
+holds nothing it can take.
+
+**When the yard can supply nothing, the game says so.** The round is skipped — there is no point
+asking for a car that cannot be given — and the train is reported as made up short, naming what its
+card wanted, how many such cars are waiting in the Classification Yard, and how far the Division Yard
+is from bare. See §4.6 for why that happens to coaches in particular.
 
 ### 4.5 Mainline movement and Office arrival
 
 Mainline movement is automatic and processes lower train numbers first; a timetabled train outranks an Extra with the same number. A train at a Division Point, at an Office A/D track, or already crossing a Mainline card attempts its applicable movement.
 
-Crossing time comes from the Mainline card and train speed. On a normal card, a train must check the entire next Subdivision before entering it:
+**Crossing time is the card's REGIONS**, one per Stage — not its printed mph, which is scenery, and
+not the train's Fast/Slow rating, which only **Hilly** reads. See the
+[Mainline deck](StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.md) reference for what moves a train's entry
+point. On a normal card, a train must check the entire next Subdivision before entering it:
 
 - an opposing train normally blocks entry;
 - a following same-direction train asks the Superintendent to allow or deny clearance;
 - Red Flags or ABS Signals hold the follower automatically; and
-- passing cards allow entry without this occupancy check.
+- **Double Track** — the one card two trains may stand on — allows entry without that check. The
+  **Uncontrolled Siding** is not a passing card: a train arriving to find it occupied takes the
+  siding a region behind, which costs it the extra Stage instead of a collision.
 
 An Office arrival normally takes a free A/D track. If the Office is full, the inbound train collides and the local Office player loses 5 Revenue; Interlocking instead holds it at the Limits. A coachless inbound train may divert to a Yard Office. Cars fouling the Running Track at the Office also cause a collision.
 
@@ -185,7 +266,22 @@ Passenger work occurs during Load/Unload, at a Depot, Station, or Terminal. Each
 - **Board:** replace an empty coach on an eligible train at the Office with a loaded coach from a green outbound box. The removed empty coach goes to the Classification Yard. Earn configured passenger Revenue.
 - **Detrain:** replace a loaded coach on an eligible train with an empty coach from the Division Yard, placing the loaded coach into an available red inbound box. Earn configured passenger Revenue.
 
-Crack Limited trains permit passenger work at Terminals only. Military Train and Director’s Private Car permit no passenger work. A Whistle Post has no Porters.
+Crack Limited trains permit passenger work at Terminals only. Military Train and Director's Private
+Car permit no passenger work. A Whistle Post has no Porters.
+
+> **Coaches travel one way, and it is worth knowing before you plan around passengers.** Boarding
+> sends the emptied coach to the **Classification** Yard; detraining draws a fresh empty out of the
+> **Division** Yard; and §2.2 returns the Classification Yard only when the Division Yard runs
+> completely bare. Measured over one three-Day game: sixteen coaches in the Division Yard at setup,
+> **none from Day 2 Stage 8 onward**, fifteen piled in Classification while the Division Yard held
+> steady at 46–47 freight cars and stopped draining — so the refill never fired and no passenger
+> could board or detrain anywhere for the rest of the game, while trains whose cards call for coaches
+> were made up empty.
+>
+> **This is the rules working as printed and the ruling is that it stands** (Jesse, 2026-09-17, the
+> same ruling Gitea#2 got: running out is part of the game). What changed is that the game now says
+> it — the yard panel warns while the shortage lasts, and a train made up short reports why. Whether
+> the ratchet should be broken is open as TODO #108, to be decided on a second game's evidence.
 
 ### 4.7 Freight work
 
@@ -197,43 +293,77 @@ For an **inbound unload**, a matching loaded car must be spotted at an inbound-c
 
 ## 5. Solitaire
 
-The implemented game is solitaire: one named player, one Office Area, local browser execution, Standard length, highest-after-days victory, and the default house rules unless changed in New Game. The game has no AI opponent. “Multiplayer” gameplay does not occur locally by simulating other players.
+Solitaire is one named player and one Office Area, running entirely in the browser with no server.
+It is **not** the only implemented game any more — see §6 — but it is the one that needs nothing but
+the page.
 
 Solitaire-specific features are:
 
 - a local browser save, automatic resume, and JSON download/load;
-- unlimited step-by-step Undo back through accepted action history; and
+- **unlimited step-by-step Undo** back through accepted action history — multiplayer has none,
+  because a shared game cannot be rewound under the other players; and
 - a seed/rules URL suitable for sharing or reproducing a game.
 
+Automatic phases get a visible beat in solitaire too, so the board plays its own moves out rather
+than jumping.
+
 The active deck removes all 22 opponent-directed cards. Therefore, the defensive cards whose only purpose is to answer them (Facing Point Locks and Water Column) can be placed but have no opportunity to fire; Overpass has no effect at all. The game still includes shared-rail mechanics such as Mainline clearance, but with one player no other player can occupy the Division.
 
-To win the default game, finish Day 5 with at least 20 Revenue. A result below 20 is a loss. Train-transit Revenue defaults to zero, so the default score must principally come from passenger and freight work.
+To win the default one-player game, finish Day 5 having met the combined Revenue floor —
+`3 × players × days`, which at one player over five Days is **15**. Below it is a loss, and the game
+offers you another Day rather than simply ending. Train-transit Revenue defaults to zero, so the
+score has to come principally from passenger and freight work.
 
 ## 6. Multiplayer
 
 ### 6.1 What the engine supports
 
-The engine has player, seat, score, Office Area, Director/Division, phase-order, co-op, and competitive-mode data for multiple named players. It deals each player a hand, creates one Office Area per seat, starts acting order at the Superintendent and proceeds left, and models the following multiplayer-specific outcomes:
+The rules engine has always supported multiple named players; since v0.7 the lobby, server and
+client around it are delivered too, so this section now describes a game people actually play. The
+engine has player, seat, score, Office Area, Division, phase-order, co-op and competitive-mode data
+for multiple named players. It deals each player a hand, creates one Office Area per seat, starts acting order at the Superintendent and proceeds eastward, and models the following multiplayer-specific outcomes:
 
 - the D12 seating and Superintendent rolls described in section 3;
 - individual Revenue in competitive play and shared total Revenue in co-op;
-- a competitive collective loss after three collisions in one Day;
-- a collective Revenue floor for competitive highest-after-days games; and
+- a collective loss on breaching the collision limits;
+- the combined Revenue floor, `3 × players × days`; and
 - train-transit Revenue awarded to every player, if that revenue setting is nonzero.
 
 The engine’s setup checks only that there is at least one player and that Solitaire has exactly one player. It does not enforce a maximum player count, although the test and design material exercise two through four players.
 
-### 6.2 What is not delivered in v0.4.5
+### 6.2 What IS delivered
 
-There is no implemented multiplayer game setup for end users: no server, lobby, invitation, room code, player join flow, authoritative remote state, or remote Session. The browser page creates a local single-player session only. Accordingly, there is no supported procedure for resuming a multiplayer game, and no multiplayer Undo.
+Everything in §3.5: a lobby with game codes, seating, bots filling empty chairs, an authoritative
+server that survives restarts and updates by replaying its intent history, per-seat reconnection, an
+administrator's single-use seat-recovery link, and an ordered replay of other players' turns on each
+player's own screen.
 
-The 12 space-use cards and 10 action cards are not dealt in competitive or co-op either. The engine rejects attempts to play either category. Thus, **no card can currently be played on another player**. This includes Derail, Broken Coupler, Railroad Crossing, score-penalty cards, Vandalism, Hotbox, Outlawed, and all table-space cards. Facing Point Locks and Water Column are implemented only as dormant defences for these unavailable effects.
+The package also exposes administrative **actions** on StartOS — list games in progress, get the
+join secret, manage a game, restore a seat — documented in the wrapper repository rather than here.
 
-### 6.3 Difference from solitaire, if a multi-player engine session is created
+### 6.3 What is NOT delivered
 
-Players have separate local districts, hands, and scores, but they share the Home Office deck, Department piles, yards, timetable, Mainline, and traffic consequences. Turn order is sequential; one current actor acts at a time. The Superintendent role is attached to a player while Offices are attached to fixed seats. Employee Rotation is not active, so players do not actually change seats in v0.4.5.
+**No card may be played at another player.** The 12 space-use and 10 action cards are excluded from
+every dealt deck in every mode, and `check` rejects playing one. That includes Derail, Broken
+Coupler, Railroad Crossing, the score-penalty cards, Vandalism, Hotbox, Outlawed and all
+table-space cards. Facing Point Locks and Water Column exist only as dormant defences against
+effects nothing can currently cause, and Overpass has no effect at all.
 
-The deck is still 213 cards and still excludes opponent-directed content. Therefore multi-player engine mode changes shared traffic, scores, turns, and win/loss evaluation—not card attacks or a remote user experience.
+**No multiplayer Undo.** A shared game cannot be rewound under the other players.
+
+### 6.4 How multiplayer differs from solitaire
+
+Players have separate districts, hands and scores, and share the Home Office deck, the Department
+piles, the yards, the timetable, the Mainline and every traffic consequence. One player acts at a
+time.
+
+**A seat is not a player**, and the distinction is load-bearing. Offices belong to seats; Revenue,
+hands, the Fedora and identity belong to players. With **Employee Rotation** on, players move one
+chair at the end of each Day and take their Revenue and the Fedora with them, while the districts
+stay where they are.
+
+So multiplayer changes shared traffic, scores, turn order and how the game is won or lost — not card
+attacks, which do not exist in any mode.
 
 ## 7. Frequently asked questions
 
@@ -271,20 +401,42 @@ It may be on Secondary Track rather than the Office, or be badly made up: its en
 
 ### Why did an expedited train leave after passenger/freight work?
 
-Expedite means it departs in the Stage it arrived, but v0.4.5 waits until Shift Change so it remains present for that Stage’s Load/Unload phase.
+Expedite means it departs in the Stage it arrived, but the departure waits until Shift Change so the
+train is still present for that Stage's Load/Unload phase.
 
 ### Can I choose the direction of an Extra or a Heavy Grade?
 
-Not in v0.4.5. The engine launches Extras eastbound from the Western Division Point. Heavy Grade orientation is seeded automatically at setup.
+**An Extra, yes** — the player who played the card chooses where it starts and which way it runs, and
+loads it as they choose (v0.6.2). **A Heavy Grade, no**: orientation is rolled from the seed. That is
+a decision rather than a gap — the card sits between two districts and belongs to neither, so handing
+the choice to one neighbour would advantage them permanently. See the Mainline deck reference.
 
 ### Can I use an Interchange to reorder a train?
 
-No. The card is catalogued with a sorting concept, but there is no implemented Interchange sorting action. Small Yard is the available local sorting mechanism.
+**No, and the card used to claim otherwise.** Its printed car-sorting has never been implemented; the
+description was corrected on 2026-09-20 to stop advertising it. What the Interchange actually offers
+is the one Mainline card with a yard, so an **Extra may be made up and started there**. Re-ordering a
+consist is done at a **Small Yard** in a district.
 
 ### Can I play attack cards on another player?
 
-No. All action and space-use cards are excluded from every dealt deck in v0.4.5 and their play is rejected.
+No. All action and space-use cards are excluded from every dealt deck in every mode, and playing one
+is rejected.
 
 ### Is multiplayer playable?
 
-No. Multi-player state and rules-engine support exist, but the lobby, server, remote client, and opponent-directed card mechanics are not implemented.
+**Yes.** Lobby, game codes, seating, bots, an authoritative server that survives restarts, per-seat
+reconnection and a replayed view of everyone else's turns are all delivered — see §3.5 and §6. The
+opponent-directed cards remain unimplemented in every mode, so there are still no card attacks.
+
+### Why did my passenger train arrive with no coaches?
+
+Almost certainly the coach ratchet in §4.6: every coach has ended up in the Classification Yard,
+which comes back only when the Division Yard runs completely bare. The yard panel warns when this
+has happened, and a train made up short says so in the log.
+
+### Why is every option in the Small Yard marked "HELD at the Office"?
+
+Because that train is **already made up**, so every re-order on offer would break it — most often by
+moving the caboose off the rear, which §8.2 will not let a train depart with. If the train is *not*
+currently fit to run, at least one option will be marked "MADE UP, ready to leave".

docs/design.md

@@ -20,13 +20,30 @@ These stay as-is. Everything below is derived from them.
 > placeholder for exactly this material, and the balance measurements in Gap 12 were taken against a
 > ruleset that does not match the design.
 
+## For players and testers
+
+Written to be handed to somebody who is about to play, rather than to somebody building the game.
+
+| Document | What it is |
+| --- | --- |
+| [`StationMaster-Quickstart.md`](StationMaster-Quickstart.md) | **Start here if you have never played.** The point of the game, how a Stage runs, what is on screen, how you win, a first twenty minutes, and what to report. |
+| [`StationMaster-Rules-v0.4.5.md`](StationMaster-Rules-v0.4.5.md) | **The rules in full**, as the engine actually runs them, with a FAQ. |
+| [`rules/as-built.md`](rules/as-built.md) | **Every card, GENERATED from `src/engine/content.ts`** and checked by a test, so it cannot disagree with the game. The table of record for per-card facts. |
+| [`StationMaster-Home-Deck-v0.4.5.md`](StationMaster-Home-Deck-v0.4.5.md) | How the Home Office deck is dealt, drawn and played out. |
+| [`StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.md`](StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.md) | The Mainline cards, how the deck is dealt, and what a card does to a train crossing it. |
+| [`StationMaster-Components-v0.4.5.md`](StationMaster-Components-v0.4.5.md) | Rolling stock, the two yards, Crew Trays, the Fedora, the D12. |
+
+The `v0.4.5` in four of those filenames is the **prototype rules edition they were first written
+against**, not the version they describe — each says at the top which build it is current to. The
+names are kept because `src/`, `CHANGELOG.md` and `docs/rules/` cite them.
+
 ## Rules
 
 | Document | What it is |
 | --- | --- |
 | [`rules/rules-v0.1.md`](rules/rules-v0.1.md) | Faithful markdown transcription of the PDFs. No corrections. The baseline everything diffs against. |
 | [`rules/rules-v0.2.md`](rules/rules-v0.2.md) | **The working ruleset.** v0.1 with all ten gaps resolved, each change marked with its gap number. |
-| [`rules/card-reference.md`](rules/card-reference.md) | What is printed on every card, plus the economy summary. The spec an engine or a print-and-play layout consumes. |
+| [`rules/card-reference.md`](rules/card-reference.md) | **⚠ SUPERSEDED** — an invented 52-card placeholder, kept for its economy summary and its history. For what is printed on every card, read [`rules/as-built.md`](rules/as-built.md), which is generated from the code. |
 | [`rules/glossary.md`](rules/glossary.md) | Every defined term, alphabetized. |
 | [`rules/open-questions.md`](rules/open-questions.md) | All thirteen gaps, each with the options considered, the decision, and the rationale. |
 | [`rules/implications.md`](rules/implications.md) | **Read this first.** What the four recovered design files (`Deck cards2.xlsx`, `Mainline Cards.pdf`, `Trains3.pdf`, `tracks.png`) change — and which decisions they supersede. |
@@ -49,23 +66,20 @@ must do.
 
 ## Current status
 
-**v0.4.3.** Rules formalized, card faces specified, architecture documented, and the game playable
-solitaire in a browser. See [`../CHANGELOG.md`](../CHANGELOG.md) for what each version changed and
-[`../TODO.md`](../TODO.md) for what is open; this section is the shape of the project, not a
-running tally, because a hand-maintained tally is what drifted last time.
+**v0.8.0.16.** Rules formalized, card faces specified, architecture documented, and the game
+playable **solitaire and multiplayer** in a browser against an authoritative server. See
+[`../CHANGELOG.md`](../CHANGELOG.md) for what each version changed and [`../TODO.md`](../TODO.md) for
+what is open; this section is the shape of the project, not a running tally, because a
+hand-maintained tally is what drifted last time.
 
-**What is built.** The rules engine, the developer bot, the balance harness, the replay viewer and
-the playable page — components 1–7, 17 and 18 of
-[`architecture/components.md`](architecture/components.md). A game can be saved, shared, replayed and
-stepped back through. **493 tests.**
+**What is built.** The rules engine, the developer bot, the balance harness, the replay viewer, the
+playable page — and the server: lobby, game codes, seating, bots, per-seat reconnection, persistence
+by replaying the intent history, and an ordered replay of other players' turns on each player's own
+screen. It ships as a StartOS package. **999 fast tests and 35 simulation tests.**
 
-**What is not.** The server. Phases 0 and 1 of
-[`architecture/multiplayer.md`](architecture/multiplayer.md) landed in v0.4.0 — seat and player are
-separate, turn state is per player, and the page talks to a `Session` rather than to the engine, so a
-`RemoteSession` drops in without the page changing. Phase 2 onward is **deliberately held** until the
-two provisional rules introduced in v0.3.0 have been played at a table: changing a rule after the wire
-format is live costs far more than changing it before. Also unbuilt: the 22 opponent-directed cards
-and real audio.
+**What is not.** The 22 opponent-directed cards — the Action and Space-use categories — are held out
+of every dealt deck until they have an implementation, along with the two defensive cards whose only
+purpose is to answer them. Real audio: everything the game plays is synthesised from oscillators.
 
 **Balance is not where it should be, and no conclusion should be read from the revenue numbers yet.**
 The rebalance pass is deliberately deferred until the rules stop moving — card counts, industry counts
@@ -85,17 +99,17 @@ on that. [`architecture/protocol.md`](architecture/protocol.md) §3 has the reas
 `test/events.test.ts` pins it.
 
 **The economy, in one line:** Local Operations actions are the main currency — one per Stage, twelve
-per Day — but **inbound work bypasses them**, which is where the game's variance comes from. See
-`card-reference.md` §7.
+per Day — but **inbound work bypasses them**, which is where the game's variance comes from.
 
 **Stack: TypeScript**, chosen so the engine runs in both the server and the browser — one
 implementation of the movement rules, and instant affordances without a round-trip. Node 22 runs
 TypeScript natively, so there is no build step during development, which also means **erasable syntax
 only**: no `enum`, no parameter properties, no namespaces.
 
-Running alongside, and independent of all of it: **print-and-play components.** `card-reference.md`
-specifies every card face, so layout and art are the only remaining work before a table playtest —
-which answers the one question simulation cannot, whether it is fun.
+Running alongside, and independent of all of it: **print-and-play components.**
+[`rules/as-built.md`](rules/as-built.md) carries every card face as the game actually deals it, so
+layout and art are the only remaining work before a table playtest — which answers the one question
+simulation cannot, whether it is fun.
 
 Run the harness with `node src/sim/harness.ts [games] [length]`.
 

docs/rules/as-built.md

@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ card prints are what it costs to cross. Where a train *enters* is what the rules
 train on Hilly, a Heavy Grade with Helpers, or a card whose back region is a siding rather than
 part of the road all change the entry point rather than the card's length.
 
-| Card | Regions | Default entry | Fast / slow entry | Trains may pass | Sorts cars |
+| Card | Regions | Default entry | Fast / slow entry | Trains may pass | Extra may start |
 | --- | ---: | ---: | --- | :---: | :---: |
 | Plains | 1 | 0 | — | — | — |
 | Curves | 2 | 0 | — | — | — |
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ the Division and are not dealt. What each card does, in the words the game uses
 - **Uncontrolled Siding** — 2 regions — one Stage each. · A train with the card to itself starts past the back region and is across in 1 Stage. · UNCONTROLLED SIDING — arrive to find a train already here and you take the siding, a region behind it. You are not in the same place, so you do not run into it; it costs you the extra Stage instead. · One train at a time — anything following has to wait for it to clear.
 - **Tunnel** — 2 regions — one Stage each. · 2 Stages for every train. · One train at a time — anything following has to wait for it to clear.
 - **Trestle** — 1 region — one Stage each. · 1 Stage for every train. · One train at a time — anything following has to wait for it to clear.
-- **Interchange** — 2 regions — one Stage each. · A train with the card to itself starts past the back region and is across in 1 Stage. · An Extra beginning its run here starts in the back region and takes the extra Stage. · One train at a time — anything following has to wait for it to clear. · Cars may be sorted into any new order here.
+- **Interchange** — 2 regions — one Stage each. · A train with the card to itself starts past the back region and is across in 1 Stage. · An Extra beginning its run here starts in the back region and takes the extra Stage. · One train at a time — anything following has to wait for it to clear. · This is the one Mainline card with a yard, so an Extra Train may be made up and started here. Its printed car-sorting is NOT implemented — a consist is re-ordered at a Small Yard in a district.
 
 ---
 

package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "station-master",
-  "version": "0.8.0.13",
+  "version": "0.8.0.16",
   "private": true,
   "type": "module",
   "description": "Station Master — a railroad operations game",

scripts/build-card-reference.ts

@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ w('card prints are what it costs to cross. Where a train *enters* is what the ru
 w('train on Hilly, a Heavy Grade with Helpers, or a card whose back region is a siding rather than');
 w('part of the road all change the entry point rather than the card\'s length.');
 w();
-w('| Card | Regions | Default entry | Fast / slow entry | Trains may pass | Sorts cars |');
+w('| Card | Regions | Default entry | Fast / slow entry | Trains may pass | Extra may start |');
 w('| --- | ---: | ---: | --- | :---: | :---: |');
 for (const m of MAINLINE_PROFILES) {
   const ss = m.speedStarts ? `${m.speedStarts.fast} / ${m.speedStarts.slow}` : '—';

scripts/build-web.ts

@@ -188,6 +188,27 @@ if (existsSync(imageSrc)) {
   for (const f of readdirSync(imageSrc)) copyFileSync(join(imageSrc, f), join(imageOut, f));
 }
 
+/**
+ * The Quickstart, published beside the game so a tester can reach it from the box.
+ *
+ * COPIED, NOT RE-WRITTEN. `docs/StationMaster-Quickstart.md` is the one copy; a hand-written HTML
+ * twin would drift from it on the first edit, which is the whole lesson of TODO #15a and of the
+ * 2026-09-20 documentation pass that found four references a month out of date.
+ *
+ * SERVED AS PLAIN TEXT for now, which is honest rather than good: tables render as pipes and the
+ * links do not click. Rendering it into a styled page needs a small Markdown converter and is
+ * filed as TODO #109 — this is the fifteen-minute version that gets the guide in front of testers
+ * for this round rather than leaving them without one.
+ */
+const guideSrc = join(root, 'docs/StationMaster-Quickstart.md');
+if (existsSync(guideSrc)) {
+  copyFileSync(guideSrc, join(dist, 'quickstart.md'));
+} else {
+  // Loud rather than silent: a missing guide is a broken link on the splash page, and the build is
+  // the only place that can still notice.
+  console.error('WARNING: docs/StationMaster-Quickstart.md is missing — the splash link will 404');
+}
+
 // A tiny note for whoever unzips this later and wonders what it needs.
 writeFileSync(
   join(dist, 'README.txt'),

src/engine/advance.ts

@@ -31,12 +31,13 @@ import {
   houseRules,
   officeProfile,
   mainlineProfile,
+  consistSize,
 } from './content.ts';
-import type { Direction, MainlineEntry, MainlineKind } from './content.ts';
+import type { CarType, Direction, MainlineEntry, MainlineKind } from './content.ts';
 import type { GameEvent } from './events.ts';
 // `trainNeedingCars` lives in apply.ts beside `check`'s copy of the same question, so the phase and
 // the legality test cannot disagree about which train is being assembled.
-import { areaAtSeat, areaOf, occupancyFor, trainNeedingCars } from './apply.ts';
+import { acceptsCar, areaAtSeat, areaOf, isBeingMadeUp, occupancyFor, trainNeedingCars } from './apply.ts';
 import { legalActions } from './legal.ts';
 import type { CrewTray, DivisionNode, GameState, GridCoord, Outcome, PlayerIndex, RollingStock, SeatIndex, TrayId } from './state.ts';
 import { cloneTally, coordKey, freshTurns, isExtendable, playerAtSeat, playerLeftOf, pooled, railFacingOf, subdivisions, totalRevenue, turnOf } from './state.ts';
@@ -393,6 +394,45 @@ function newTrainPhase(s: GameState, events: GameEvent[]): AdvanceResult {
     return { events, needsInput: true };
   }
 
+  /**
+   * SAY SO WHEN A TRAIN GOT NOTHING, before the round is over and the train runs (playtest,
+   * 2026-09-16: "train 5, the sparrow, has no coaches, which seems strange").
+   *
+   * `trainNeedingCars` returns null both when every consist is full and when the Division Yard holds
+   * nothing a short train will take — the same answer for "done" and for "cannot be done" — so the
+   * phase moved on in silence and the only trace was a MADE UP line promising "now taking cars". The
+   * Sparrow calls for three coaches and left empty twice in one game.
+   *
+   * REPORTED HERE RATHER THAN AT THE MADE-UP MOMENT, because a train made up early in the round can
+   * still be filled by a later placement; only once the round has nothing left to offer is the
+   * shortfall a fact. This is reached exactly once per Stage — the next line enters the Mainline
+   * Phase — so the report cannot repeat.
+   */
+  for (const tray of s.trays.values()) {
+    if (!isBeingMadeUp(tray) || tray.trainNumber === null) continue;
+    const profile = trainProfile(tray.trainNumber, tray.trainIsExtra);
+    if (!profile) continue;
+    const category = (t: CarType): 'freight' | 'coach' | 'caboose' =>
+      t === 'coach' ? 'coach' : t === 'caboose' ? 'caboose' : 'freight';
+    // What the card still wants: asked of `acceptsCar` per category, so a full category and a
+    // category barred by the card's own rules answer the same way here as they do to a player.
+    const missing = (['freight', 'coach', 'caboose'] as const).filter((cat) => {
+      const sample: CarType = cat === 'coach' ? 'coach' : cat === 'caboose' ? 'caboose' : 'boxcar';
+      return acceptsCar(tray, sample);
+    });
+    if (missing.length === 0) continue;
+    events.push({
+      type: 'makeUpShort',
+      trainNumber: tray.trainNumber,
+      isExtra: tray.trainIsExtra,
+      placed: tray.consist.length,
+      wanted: consistSize(profile.consist),
+      missing: [...missing],
+      waiting: s.yards.classificationYard.filter((c) => missing.includes(category(c.type))).length,
+      divisionYardHolds: s.yards.divisionYard.length,
+    });
+  }
+
   return { events: [...events, ...enterPhase(s, 'mainline')], needsInput: false };
 }
 
@@ -544,7 +584,7 @@ export function badlyMadeUp(tray: CrewTray): string | null {
   const pulling = tray.engineAt === 0;
   const pushing = tray.engineAt === n;
   if (!pulling && !pushing) {
-    return `not made up — the engine is buried in the train, ${tray.engineAt} car(s) ahead of it`;
+    return `not made up — the engine is buried in the train, ${tray.engineAt} car${tray.engineAt === 1 ? '' : 's'} ahead of it`;
   }
   const caboose = tray.consist.findIndex((c) => c.type === 'caboose');
   if (caboose === -1) return null;

src/engine/apply.ts

@@ -974,6 +974,16 @@ export function check(s: GameState, player: PlayerIndex, i: Intent): RejectionCo
       const seen = new Set(i.order);
       if (seen.size !== i.order.length) return 'CONSIST_ORDER';
       if (i.order.some((n) => n < 0 || n >= tray.consist.length)) return 'CONSIST_ORDER';
+      /**
+       * The engine may finish anywhere in the train, including with cars ahead of it (Jesse,
+       * 2026-09-17). `engineAt` indexes the SORTED consist, so `consist.length` is legal and means
+       * the engine on the tail with everything ahead of it — the shoving case a Small Yard exists to
+       * set up. Refused outside that range rather than clamped: a clamp would silently build a
+       * different train from the one the player asked for.
+       */
+      if (i.engineAt !== undefined && (i.engineAt < 0 || i.engineAt > tray.consist.length)) {
+        return 'CONSIST_ORDER';
+      }
       return null;
     }
 
@@ -1426,17 +1436,30 @@ function checkPlay(
       if (!placement) return 'NO_PLACEMENT';
       if (area.grid.has(coordKey(placement))) return 'NOT_CONNECTED';
       /**
-       * NOT ON THE RUNNING TRACK ROW — AND NOT BOUNDED BY THE LIMITS EITHER. Jesse's call, both
-       * halves.
+       * NEITHER ON THE RUNNING TRACK ROW NOR OUTSIDE THE LIMITS — Jesse's call, both halves, the
+       * second REVERSED on 2026-09-17 after a Day 3 playtest.
        *
-       * A Modifier is not track (§9), so unlike a siding it may hang outside the Limits: a Facility
-       * standing at the limit has three of its nine spots out there, and refusing them would make
-       * the card unplayable exactly where the district ends. What it may NOT do is stand in the row
-       * the Running Track grows along. Inside the Limits that row is always full, so this bites only
-       * beyond the sign — which is the ground the main extends onto, and a Modifier parked there
-       * would block your own sign from moving outward (§2.1) with nothing on screen to warn you.
+       * It used to read the other way: a Modifier is not track (§9), so unlike a siding it could
+       * hang outside the Limits, because a Facility standing at the limit has three of its nine
+       * spots out there and refusing them would make the card unplayable exactly where the district
+       * ends. What that argument missed is what the board then shows — Transmission Lines at (-2,4)
+       * with the sign at column 3 — which reads as building outside your own territory, and §8.1 and
+       * §10 both reason about what lies inside a player's Limits.
+       *
+       * THE UNPLAYABLE CASE WAS CHECKED ON THE REPORTED MOVE, not assumed away: the Power Plant was
+       * at (-1,3) against a sign at column 3, and (-2,2) and (-2,3) were free, legal and inside. Six
+       * of the nine spots survive a Facility at the limit, and the sign moves outward as the Running
+       * Track grows (§2.1, Gap 4a), so the ground arrives with the district.
+       *
+       * The Running Track row stays barred for its own reason: inside the Limits that row is always
+       * full, so it bit only beyond the sign, where a Modifier would block the sign from moving
+       * outward with nothing on screen to warn you. That ground is now out of bounds anyway, which
+       * makes this the narrower rule rather than a redundant one — the row is barred INSIDE the
+       * Limits too, where a square can fall vacant if the main is rebuilt around it.
        */
       if (placement.row === area.runningRow) return 'ON_RUNNING_TRACK';
+      // §2.1 — a district's cards belong inside its own sign, Modifiers included since 2026-09-17.
+      if (!withinLimits(area, placement)) return 'OUTSIDE_LIMITS';
       // One of a kind per Office Area, as with industries (Q4) — no district gets two Ice Houses.
       if (hasModifierInArea(area, card.kind.modifier)) return 'FACILITY_LOCKED';
       // §9 — a Modifier is not track. It must sit adjacent to a Facility THAT CAN HOST IT (one of
@@ -1680,6 +1703,9 @@ function execute(s: GameState, player: PlayerIndex, i: Intent): GameEvent[] {
           from,
           to: i.to,
           movesRemaining: turnOf(s, player).movesRemaining - 1,
+          // "3 of 6" was written with the 6 hardcoded in the narrator, which is wrong on a night
+          // Stage under Reduced Visibility, where a turn gets five. The turn knows; the event carries.
+          movesAllowed: turnOf(s, player).movesAllowed,
           /**
            * A TRAIN THAT BACKS UP HAS NOT TURNED AROUND — AND A CURVE IS NOT A STRAIGHT.
            *
@@ -1775,11 +1801,29 @@ function execute(s: GameState, player: PlayerIndex, i: Intent): GameEvent[] {
           at: here,
           before: tray.consist.map((c) => ({ ...c })),
           after: i.order.map((n) => ({ ...tray.consist[n]! })),
+          // Absent means the nose, which is what every sort did before 2026-09-17 — so an older save
+          // replays to exactly the train it built.
+          engineAt: i.engineAt ?? 0,
         },
       ];
     }
 
-    case 'switch.end':
+    /**
+     * The closing summary comes BEFORE `phaseEnded`, so the history reads as the turn ending rather
+     * than as a postscript to it. Split out of the shared case below for that one line.
+     */
+    case 'switch.end': {
+      const turn = turnOf(s, player);
+      const ended: GameEvent = {
+        type: 'switchingEnded',
+        player,
+        movesUsed: turn.movesAllowed - turn.movesRemaining,
+        movesAllowed: turn.movesAllowed,
+        ...(turn.lastMove ? { lastMove: turn.lastMove } : {}),
+      };
+      return [ended, { type: 'phaseEnded', player, phase: 'localOps' }];
+    }
+
     case 'draw.end':
     case 'freightAgent.end':
       return [{ type: 'phaseEnded', player, phase: 'localOps' }];
@@ -1956,18 +2000,41 @@ function execute(s: GameState, player: PlayerIndex, i: Intent): GameEvent[] {
       ];
     }
 
-    case 'newTrain.placeCar':
+    /**
+     * THE TRAIN'S NUMBER RIDES ALONG (playtest, 2026-09-16: "I did not see anything in the history
+     * about making up train 10 and how each person added each car to it").
+     *
+     * It was all there — a MADE UP line and one line per car — but every one of those lines read
+     * "the train being made up", so a player scanning the history for train 10 found nothing under
+     * that name. The tray id is no use to a reader and the narrator has no state to look it up in,
+     * so the number travels with the event, exactly as `owner` does on `trainArrived`.
+     */
+    case 'newTrain.placeCar': {
+      const placeTray = s.trays.get(i.trayId);
       return [
         {
           type: 'carPlacedOnTrain',
           player,
           trayId: i.trayId,
           stock: { type: i.carType, loaded: i.loaded },
+          trainNumber: placeTray?.trainNumber ?? null,
+          isExtra: placeTray?.trainIsExtra ?? false,
         },
       ];
+    }
 
-    case 'newTrain.passCar':
-      return [{ type: 'carPassed', player, trayId: i.trayId }];
+    case 'newTrain.passCar': {
+      const passTray = s.trays.get(i.trayId);
+      return [
+        {
+          type: 'carPassed',
+          player,
+          trayId: i.trayId,
+          trainNumber: passTray?.trainNumber ?? null,
+          isExtra: passTray?.trainIsExtra ?? false,
+        },
+      ];
+    }
 
     case 'newTrain.secondSection':
       return [{ type: 'secondSectionOrdered', player, trainNumber: i.trainNumber }];
@@ -2141,7 +2208,10 @@ export function reduce(s: GameState, e: GameEvent): void {
       }
       // Only the player sitting in this district can be switching this tray, so the Moves come off
       // their turn. The event carries no player of its own.
-      turnOf(s, playerAtSeat(s, seat)).movesRemaining = e.movesRemaining;
+      const mover = turnOf(s, playerAtSeat(s, seat));
+      mover.movesRemaining = e.movesRemaining;
+      // Where the crew was left, for the line that closes the turn — see `switchingEnded`.
+      mover.lastMove = { trayId: e.trayId, to: e.to };
 
       const area = areaAtSeat(s, seat);
 
@@ -2219,9 +2289,18 @@ export function reduce(s: GameState, e: GameEvent): void {
     case 'consistSorted': {
       const tray = s.trays.get(e.trayId)!;
       tray.consist = e.after.map((c) => ({ ...c }));
-      // A Small Yard re-makes the train, and putting the engine back on the nose is the whole reason
-      // to use one: §8.2 will not let a train leave the Office with cars in front of its engine.
-      tray.engineAt = 0;
+      /**
+       * WHERE THE SORT PUT THE ENGINE — 0 on every sort before 2026-09-17, and on most of them
+       * since, because putting the engine back on the nose is what a Small Yard is usually for:
+       * §8.2 will not let a train leave the Office with cars in front of its engine.
+       *
+       * It is no longer forced. The design source (`implications.md`) has always said a train here
+       * "may sort itself into any order, INCLUDING cars ahead of the engine", against a v0.4.5 card
+       * text that says the engine ends at the nose; Jesse settled it for the source. A numbered
+       * train left nose-loaded is held at the Office by §8.2 until it sorts again — see
+       * `departureRefusal`.
+       */
+      tray.engineAt = e.engineAt;
       // "Spends one move in the yard" — the sort costs a Move.
       const sorter = turnOf(s, playerAtSeat(s, trayySeat(tray)));
       sorter.movesRemaining = Math.max(0, sorter.movesRemaining - 1);

src/engine/content.ts

@@ -589,7 +589,20 @@ export type MainlineProfile = {
   speedStarts?: { fast: number; slow: number };
   /** Double Track: "Trains may pass". */
   trainsMayPass: boolean;
-  /** Interchange: "Sort cars in new order". */
+  /**
+   * Interchange only. The card prints "Sort cars in new order" — **and that is not what this flag
+   * does**, which is why it is worth spelling out where the field is declared.
+   *
+   * The printed sorting has never been implemented: nothing reads this to permit a sort, and a
+   * consist is re-ordered at a Small Yard in a district (`switch.sortConsist`). What this actually
+   * marks is the one Mainline card with a Yard Limit, and therefore the one an Extra may be made up
+   * and started on (`apply.ts` § resolveExtraStart, `legal.ts`).
+   *
+   * Named for the printed text, and kept that way deliberately — renaming it would lose the link to
+   * the card face — but the name has already misled once: `mainlineDescription` grew a sentence
+   * telling players cars could be sorted here, which reached the board and the generated card
+   * reference before it was caught on 2026-09-20.
+   */
   sortsCars: boolean;
   /** Named entry points printed on the card; some are unlocked by modifier cards. */
   entryPoints: readonly string[];
@@ -805,7 +818,25 @@ export function mainlineDescription(kind: MainlineKind, gradeUp: Direction = 'ea
     parts.push('One train at a time — anything following has to wait for it to clear.');
   }
 
-  if (p.sortsCars) parts.push('Cars may be sorted into any new order here.');
+  /**
+   * WHAT THE INTERCHANGE ACTUALLY DOES, which is not what it prints.
+   *
+   * This said "Cars may be sorted into any new order here." — the printed capability, shown to
+   * players on the board (`view.ts` renders this as a Mainline card's `what`) and printed in the
+   * generated card reference. It is not implemented and never has been: nothing reads `sortsCars`
+   * to permit a sort. Its one live use is identifying the card an Extra may be made up on, because
+   * the Interchange is the Mainline card with a yard (`apply.ts` § resolveExtraStart).
+   *
+   * Found while bringing the reference documents up to date, 2026-09-20. A card that advertises an
+   * action the game will not offer is worse than one that says nothing — a player goes looking for
+   * a button that does not exist and concludes the game is broken.
+   */
+  if (p.sortsCars) {
+    parts.push(
+      'This is the one Mainline card with a yard, so an Extra Train may be made up and started here. ' +
+        'Its printed car-sorting is NOT implemented — a consist is re-ordered at a Small Yard in a district.',
+    );
+  }
   return parts.join(' · ');
 }
 

src/engine/events.ts

@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ export type GameEvent =
    * more than one legal route to `to`, so the history can say which one ran rather than leaving a
    * choice the player made invisible in their own log.
    */
-  | { type: 'trayMoved'; player: PlayerIndex; trayId: TrayId; from: GridCoord; to: GridCoord; movesRemaining: number; facing?: 'n' | 's' | 'e' | 'w'; via?: GridCoord }
+  | { type: 'trayMoved'; player: PlayerIndex; trayId: TrayId; from: GridCoord; to: GridCoord; movesRemaining: number; movesAllowed: number; facing?: 'n' | 's' | 'e' | 'w'; via?: GridCoord }
   | {
       type: 'carsCoupled';
       player: PlayerIndex;
@@ -82,7 +82,39 @@ export type GameEvent =
       recoupled?: { at: GridCoord; stock: RollingStock[] };
     }
   | { type: 'carsDropped'; player: PlayerIndex; trayId: TrayId; at: GridCoord; stock: RollingStock[]; fromNose?: boolean }
-  | { type: 'consistSorted'; player: PlayerIndex; trayId: TrayId; at: GridCoord; before: RollingStock[]; after: RollingStock[] }
+  | {
+      type: 'consistSorted';
+      player: PlayerIndex;
+      trayId: TrayId;
+      at: GridCoord;
+      before: RollingStock[];
+      after: RollingStock[];
+      /**
+       * Where the engine ends up in `after`, counted as an index into it — 0 is the nose.
+       *
+       * The Small Yard used to put the engine back on the front unconditionally, which is what the
+       * v0.4.5 card text says ("reorder its entire consist and put the engine at the nose").
+       * `implications.md` records the design source saying the opposite — "may sort itself into any
+       * order, INCLUDING cars ahead of the engine" — and Jesse settled it that way on 2026-09-17.
+       */
+      engineAt: number;
+    }
+  /**
+   * A player finished their switching turn: what it cost, and where the crew was left.
+   *
+   * The history panel keeps a switching turn's FIRST move and drops the ones in the middle, so the
+   * closing line is where "and it ended up here" has to come from. It cannot be recovered by
+   * revealing the last `trayMoved` after the fact: the log streams to clients as it is written
+   * (`server/session.ts` § linesSince), and nobody knows a move was the last one until the turn is
+   * already over and that line has been sent.
+   */
+  | {
+      type: 'switchingEnded';
+      player: PlayerIndex;
+      movesUsed: number;
+      movesAllowed: number;
+      lastMove?: { trayId: TrayId; to: GridCoord };
+    }
   | { type: 'cardDrawn'; player: PlayerIndex; source: 'homeOffice' | 'department'; slot?: number; cardId: CardId }
   /**
    * §6.2 — the Home Office deck ran out, so the Salvage Yard and all three Department decks were
@@ -195,8 +227,36 @@ export type GameEvent =
       at: ExtraStart;
       direction: Direction;
     }
-  | { type: 'carPlacedOnTrain'; player: PlayerIndex; trayId: TrayId; stock: RollingStock }
-  | { type: 'carPassed'; player: PlayerIndex; trayId: TrayId }
+  | { type: 'carPlacedOnTrain'; player: PlayerIndex; trayId: TrayId; stock: RollingStock; trainNumber: number | null; isExtra: boolean }
+  | { type: 'carPassed'; player: PlayerIndex; trayId: TrayId; trainNumber: number | null; isExtra: boolean }
+  /**
+   * A train was made up and the round could give it NOTHING THE CARD CALLS FOR — the Division Yard
+   * holds no car of a category it still wants (§7, §8.2 "may depart with fewer").
+   *
+   * ITS OWN EVENT BECAUSE THE SILENCE WAS THE BUG (playtest, 2026-09-16: "train 5, the sparrow, has
+   * no coaches, which seems strange"). `trainNeedingCars` returns null in exactly this case, so the
+   * phase never stops, nobody is asked for a car, and the only trace was a MADE UP line promising
+   * "now taking cars" with nothing after it. The train then ran the whole Division empty.
+   *
+   * CARRIES WHY, not just that. The shortage is a standing condition rather than a moment — §2.2
+   * returns the Classification Yard only when the Division Yard runs bare — so the counts that
+   * explain it have to travel with the event: what is still wanted, how many such cars are waiting
+   * in Classification, and how far the Division Yard is from empty.
+   */
+  | {
+      type: 'makeUpShort';
+      trainNumber: number;
+      isExtra: boolean;
+      /** How many cars it got, out of what the card calls for. */
+      placed: number;
+      wanted: number;
+      /** The categories the card still wants and the Division Yard cannot supply. */
+      missing: ('freight' | 'coach' | 'caboose')[];
+      /** Cars of those categories sitting in the Classification Yard. */
+      waiting: number;
+      /** §2.2 — Classification comes back only when this reaches zero. */
+      divisionYardHolds: number;
+    }
   | { type: 'dispatchBonusUsed'; key: string; bonus: number; trainNumber: number; againstTrain: number }
   | { type: 'clearanceRequested'; trainId: TrayId; occupiedBy: TrayId }
   | { type: 'clearanceGiven'; trainId: TrayId; allow: boolean }

src/engine/intents.ts

@@ -47,7 +47,19 @@ export type Intent =
    * order, including cars in front of the engine". This is the designed answer to §A.3's
    * come-off-in-seated-order constraint, which is what makes facing-point work possible.
    */
-  | { type: 'switch.sortConsist'; trayId: TrayId; order: number[] }
+  /**
+   * §Enhancements, Small Yard — one Move to re-make a train standing on the yard.
+   *
+   * `order` is a permutation of the current consist, nose first. `engineAt` is where the LOCOMOTIVE
+   * ends up in it: 0 puts it back on the front, which is what the v0.4.5 card text describes and
+   * what this action did unconditionally until 2026-09-17. `implications.md` records the design
+   * source saying a train here "may sort itself into any order, including cars ahead of the engine",
+   * and Jesse ruled that way — so it is a number now, and a train left nose-loaded is one §8.2 will
+   * not let out of the Office until it is sorted again.
+   *
+   * Optional, defaulting to 0, so every save written before this replays exactly as it did.
+   */
+  | { type: 'switch.sortConsist'; trayId: TrayId; order: number[]; engineAt?: number }
   | { type: 'switch.end' }
   // -- draw (§6.2)
   | { type: 'draw.fromHomeOffice' }

src/engine/legal.ts

@@ -91,17 +91,79 @@ function switchCandidates(s: GameState, player: PlayerIndex): Intent[] {
       // that shoved a cut, and therefore the only way an engine buried mid-train reaches an end.
       out.push({ type: 'switch.dropCars', trayId, count: n, fromNose: true });
     }
-    // Small Yard: enumerating every permutation would explode, so offer the useful ones —
-    // bringing each car to the droppable end, plus a full reversal. `check` validates any order,
-    // so a UI may submit an arbitrary permutation.
+    /**
+     * Small Yard: enumerating every permutation would explode, so offer the useful ones — bringing
+     * each car to the droppable end, plus a full reversal. `check` validates any order, so a UI may
+     * submit an arbitrary permutation.
+     *
+     * NOTHING THAT RE-ORDERS NOTHING. Bringing the LAST car to the end is the identity, and a
+     * two-car train's reversal repeats its only real option — so the menu carried a move that spent
+     * one of six Moves to leave the train exactly as it was, beside a duplicate of the move next to
+     * it. Both were invisible while the labels were index lists (playtest, 2026-09-17); both are
+     * plainly wrong once the label reads as a train. Filtered by the ORDER rather than by the case
+     * that produced it, so a new generator cannot reintroduce either.
+     */
     const n = tray.consist.length;
+    const identity = [...Array(n).keys()];
     if (n > 1) {
+      const orders: number[][] = [];
       for (let k = 0; k < n; k++) {
-        const order = [...Array(n).keys()].filter((x) => x !== k);
+        const order = identity.filter((x) => x !== k);
         order.push(k);
-        out.push({ type: 'switch.sortConsist', trayId, order });
+        orders.push(order);
+      }
+      orders.push([...identity].reverse());
+      // Nothing that re-orders nothing: the current train is the one thing on offer that costs a
+      // Move and changes the board not at all. Keyed by (order, engine position) together, since
+      // since 2026-09-17 the same car order at a different engine position is a different train.
+      const seen = new Set<string>([`${identity.join(',')}|${tray.engineAt}`]);
+      const offer = (order: number[], engineAt: number): void => {
+        const key = `${order.join(',')}|${engineAt}`;
+        if (seen.has(key)) return;
+        seen.add(key);
+        out.push({ type: 'switch.sortConsist', trayId, order, engineAt });
+      };
+      // The car orders, each leaving the engine on the nose — the Small Yard's ordinary use.
+      for (const order of orders) offer(order, 0);
+      /**
+       * A MADE-UP ORDER IS ALWAYS AMONG THESE, which is worth saying because it looks as though it
+       * might not be (Jesse, 2026-09-17: "trains with a caboose have to offer the caboose at the
+       * back").
+       *
+       * A yard sort serves two errands — pulling one car out to an end so it can be spotted, and
+       * putting the train back together to leave — and the orders above are written for the first.
+       * They cover the second as a by-product: "bring car k to the tail" is enumerated for EVERY car,
+       * so bringing the CABOOSE to the tail is always one of them, and with the engine on the nose
+       * that is a train §8.2 will let out of the Office.
+       *
+       * An explicit "make it up to leave" option was written here and deleted: it produced exactly
+       * the k-is-the-caboose order and was dropped by the dedupe every time. The one case where no
+       * made-up order appears is a train that is ALREADY made up, where such an option would be the
+       * identity — and the labels say which is which, so a player can see that every offer would
+       * break a train that is currently fit to run.
+       */
+    }
+    /**
+     * WHERE THE ENGINE GOES, as its own short list rather than multiplied through the one above
+     * (Jesse's call, 2026-09-17: "a separate engine control").
+     *
+     * Offering every car order at every engine position is the honest enumeration and it is
+     * unreadable: a four-car consist would go from four options to twenty, which is the labelling
+     * problem that prompted all of this. So the engine positions are offered against the consist AS
+     * IT STANDS — pick an order, or pick where the engine sits, each one Move. A player who wants
+     * both spends two, which is the same price the yard charges for any second sort.
+     *
+     * OFFERED FOR A ONE-CAR TRAIN TOO, unlike the car orders: a single car ahead of the engine or
+     * behind it is exactly the difference between shoving it into a facing industry and pulling it.
+     */
+    if (n >= 1) {
+      const seenEngine = new Set<string>([`${identity.join(',')}|${tray.engineAt}`]);
+      for (let k = 0; k <= n; k++) {
+        const key = `${identity.join(',')}|${k}`;
+        if (seenEngine.has(key)) continue;
+        seenEngine.add(key);
+        out.push({ type: 'switch.sortConsist', trayId, order: identity, engineAt: k });
       }
-      out.push({ type: 'switch.sortConsist', trayId, order: [...Array(n).keys()].reverse() });
     }
   }
   // Flying Switch — roll a cut into an ADJACENT industry without the engine entering it.

src/engine/state.ts

@@ -875,6 +875,25 @@ export type FinalReport = {
 export type TurnState = {
   option: 'switch' | 'draw' | 'freightAgent' | null;
   movesRemaining: number;
+  /**
+   * What `movesRemaining` started at this Stage — six, or five under Reduced Visibility at night.
+   *
+   * CARRIED RATHER THAN ASSUMED. Every reader of `movesRemaining` that wanted to say "3 of 6" had
+   * hardcoded the 6, which is simply wrong on a night Stage, and the only other way to recover it is
+   * to re-derive `movesForStage` outside the phase driver that owns it. It also makes "is this the
+   * FIRST move of the turn?" a comparison rather than a guess, which is what the history panel needs
+   * to keep the opening move of a switching turn and drop the ones in the middle.
+   */
+  movesAllowed: number;
+  /**
+   * The last square this player's crew moved to this Stage, and which crew it was.
+   *
+   * Switching ends with a summary line, and "where did the train end up" is the half of it a player
+   * actually wants. It cannot be recovered from the log: the line naming the last move is written
+   * before anyone knows it was the last, and the log streams to clients as it is written, so a line
+   * already sent cannot be revised afterwards.
+   */
+  lastMove?: { trayId: TrayId; to: GridCoord };
   drawnThisTurn: boolean;
   freightAgentUsed: boolean;
   /**
@@ -1057,6 +1076,7 @@ export function freshTurn(moves: number): TurnState {
   return {
     option: null,
     movesRemaining: moves,
+    movesAllowed: moves,
     drawnThisTurn: false,
     freightAgentUsed: false,
     freightWorked: {},

src/engine/track.ts

@@ -684,10 +684,19 @@ export function carriesThroughTrack(card: TrackCard): boolean {
  * buildable column and break §11.3's promise that both Secondary rows, and the nine-spot Modifier
  * neighbourhood, are usable from the first Stage.
  *
- * MODIFIERS ARE NOT SUBJECT TO THIS, and are not track: §9 places one on any of the nine spots
- * around a Facility, and a Facility standing at the limit has three of its nine outside them.
- * Jesse's call. `check` bars them from the Running Track ROW instead, which is the ground the main
- * grows onto.
+ * MODIFIERS ARE SUBJECT TO THIS TOO, since 2026-09-17 — REVERSING an earlier call of Jesse's that
+ * exempted them. The exemption reasoned that §9 places a Modifier on any of the nine spots around a
+ * Facility, so a Facility standing at the limit has three of its nine outside them and bounding the
+ * card would make it unplayable exactly where a district ends. Play showed the cost of that the
+ * other way round: a Transmission Lines card went down at (-2,4) with the sign at column 3, which
+ * reads at the table as building outside your own territory, and §8.1 and §10 both reason about
+ * what is inside a player's Limits.
+ *
+ * THE FEARED CASE DID NOT ARISE, and was measured on the move that prompted the change rather than
+ * argued: the Power Plant sat at (-1,3) against a sign at 3, and (-2,2) and (-2,3) were both free,
+ * legal and inside. A Facility at the limit keeps six of its nine spots, and the Limits move outward
+ * as the Running Track grows (§2.1, Gap 4a), so the ground for a Modifier arrives with the district.
+ * `check` bars them from the Running Track ROW as well, which is the ground the main grows onto.
  */
 export function withinLimits(area: OfficeArea, coord: GridCoord): boolean {
   return coord.col >= area.limitsWest.col && coord.col <= area.limitsEast.col;

src/server/http.ts

@@ -85,6 +85,14 @@ const MIME: Record<string, string> = {
   '.json': 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
   '.png': 'image/png',
   '.svg': 'image/svg+xml',
+  /**
+   * The Quickstart guide, published by `build-web.ts` as `quickstart.md`.
+   *
+   * text/plain ON PURPOSE. The fallback below is `application/octet-stream`, which makes a browser
+   * DOWNLOAD the file instead of showing it — so without this line the splash page's "read the
+   * guide" link hands a tester a file to save rather than a page to read.
+   */
+  '.md': 'text/plain; charset=utf-8',
 };
 
 const HEARTBEAT_MS = 20_000;

src/sim/narrate.ts

@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ import { adTrackCount, coordKey, seatOf, turnOf } from '../engine/state.ts';
 import type { GameState, GridCoord, PlayerIndex, RollingStock, SeatIndex, TrayId } from '../engine/state.ts';
 import { areaOf, canAdvanceLoad, canBoard, canDetrain, canStartLoad, facilityCarType, facilityCarTypes, freightRuleSpentHere, isFreight, laborersLeft, movesFor, passengerRefusal, portersLeft } from '../engine/apply.ts';
 import type { GameEvent } from '../engine/events.ts';
+import { badlyMadeUp } from '../engine/advance.ts';
+import type { CrewTray } from '../engine/state.ts';
 
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // Small formatters
@@ -50,6 +52,23 @@ export function carLabel(c: RollingStock, homeSeat?: SeatIndex): string {
   return homeSeat !== undefined && c.origin === homeSeat ? `${label} (loaded here)` : label;
 }
 
+/**
+ * "a loaded boxcar", "an empty tank" — the article the word actually takes.
+ *
+ * The make-up line hard-coded "a" and produced "a empty tank" at the table. Vowel-initial is the
+ * whole rule here: every car word is ordinary English ('empty', 'loaded', and the car types), so
+ * there is no 'an hour' case to special-case and inventing one would be the more fragile choice.
+ */
+export function indefinite(label: string): string {
+  return `${/^[aeiou]/i.test(label) ? 'an' : 'a'} ${label}`;
+}
+
+/** "Train 10" / "Extra X18" — one spelling of a train's name for every line that mentions one. */
+export function trainLabel(trainNumber: number | null, isExtra: boolean): string {
+  if (trainNumber === null) return 'the local crew';
+  return isExtra ? `Extra X${trainNumber}` : `Train ${trainNumber}`;
+}
+
 export function carsLabel(cars: RollingStock[]): string {
   if (cars.length === 0) return 'nothing';
   return cars.map(carLabel).join(', ');
@@ -108,11 +127,22 @@ export type NarrateContext = {
    * events has no roster, and "Player 2" is a truthful fallback rather than a broken one.
    */
   playerName?: (player: PlayerIndex) => string;
+  /**
+   * Names the Facility standing on one of a player's squares, or null where there is none.
+   *
+   * Switching lines used to give the bare coordinate — "Set out a loaded hopper at (-1,1)" — which
+   * is the grid's own notation and means nothing at a table where people are looking at cards. The
+   * industry is the whole point of the move, so it is what the line should say.
+   */
+  facilityAt?: (player: PlayerIndex, at: GridCoord) => string | null;
 };
 
 export function narrate(e: GameEvent, ctx: NarrateContext = {}): Narration {
   const card = (id: string): string => ctx.cardName?.(id) ?? 'a card';
   const train = (id: TrayId): string => ctx.trainName?.(id) ?? String(id);
+  // The industry on a square when there is one, and the coordinate when there is not — a crew works
+  // plain track too, and "at nowhere" would be worse than the notation.
+  const place = (player: PlayerIndex, c: GridCoord): string => ctx.facilityAt?.(player, c) ?? at(c);
 
   switch (e.type) {
     // -- clock
@@ -167,7 +197,11 @@ export function narrate(e: GameEvent, ctx: NarrateContext = {}): Narration {
       return {
         tone: 'plain',
         where: e.to,
-        text: `Moved ${train(e.trayId)} ${at(e.from)} → ${at(e.to)}${e.via ? ` via ${at(e.via)}` : ''} — ${e.movesRemaining} of 6 Moves left. The crew chip on the grid carries the whole train with it.`,
+        // NO TUTORIAL TAIL. "The crew chip on the grid carries the whole train with it" was appended
+        // to EVERY move — six times a turn, and the opener (`localOpsOptionChosen`) already says it
+        // once. It also pushed the useful half of the line out of the caption row, which shows one
+        // step at a time and is the place a player reads a move as it happens.
+        text: `Moved ${train(e.trayId)} ${at(e.from)} → ${place(e.player, e.to)}${e.via ? ` via ${at(e.via)}` : ''} — ${e.movesRemaining} of ${e.movesAllowed} Moves left`,
       };
     case 'carsCoupled': {
       /**
@@ -179,22 +213,59 @@ export function narrate(e: GameEvent, ctx: NarrateContext = {}): Narration {
       const own = e.recoupled?.stock.length ?? 0;
       const found = e.stock.length - own;
       const parts: string[] = [];
-      if (own > 0) parts.push(`picked its own ${carsLabel(e.recoupled!.stock)} back up off ${at(e.recoupled!.at)} on the way out`);
-      if (found > 0) parts.push(`coupled ${carsLabel(e.stock.slice(own))} standing on the line`);
+      // `a loaded tank` for one, a bare list for several — "took loaded tank" reads as a telegram.
+      const some = (cars: RollingStock[]): string =>
+        cars.length === 1 ? indefinite(carLabel(cars[0]!)) : carsLabel(cars);
+      if (own > 0) parts.push(`picked its own ${some(e.recoupled!.stock)} back up off ${at(e.recoupled!.at)} on the way out`);
+      if (found > 0) parts.push(`took ${some(e.stock.slice(own))} standing there`);
       return {
         tone: 'plain',
         where: e.at,
         text:
-          `Coupled ${e.stock.length} car(s) at ${at(e.at)} ${e.toNose ? 'ONTO THE NOSE' : 'behind the train'}` +
+          // "1 car(s)" was the plural of a machine. The count is already implied by the cars named
+          // in `parts`, so the sentence leads with where and which end instead.
+          `Coupled at ${place(e.player, e.at)}, ${e.toNose ? 'ONTO THE NOSE' : 'behind the train'}` +
           ` — ${parts.join(', and ')}`,
       };
     }
-    case 'consistSorted':
+    case 'consistSorted': {
+      /**
+       * WHERE THE ENGINE ENDED UP, and whether the train can still run.
+       *
+       * ASKED OF `badlyMadeUp` RATHER THAN RE-DECIDED HERE, which matters because the obvious guess
+       * is wrong: §8.2 is enforced direction-free, so a train with its WHOLE consist ahead of the
+       * engine is a pushing train and perfectly fit to leave. What it may not be is broken-backed,
+       * with the engine buried among its own cars. A copy of that rule in the narrator would have
+       * told a player their pushing train was stranded when it was not.
+       */
+      const ahead = e.engineAt;
+      const unfit = badlyMadeUp({ consist: e.after, engineAt: e.engineAt } as CrewTray);
+      const where =
+        ahead === 0
+          ? 'so the right car is now on the end and can be spotted'
+          : unfit === null
+            ? `with the whole consist AHEAD of the engine — it runs as a pushing train`
+            : `with ${ahead} car${ahead === 1 ? '' : 's'} ahead of the engine — ${unfit}, so it is held at the Office until it is sorted again (§8.2)`;
       return {
         tone: 'good',
         where: e.at,
-        text: `Used the SMALL YARD — consist re-ordered from [${carsLabel(e.before)}] to [${carsLabel(e.after)}], so the right car is now on the end and can be spotted`,
+        text: `Used the SMALL YARD — consist re-ordered from [${carsLabel(e.before)}] to [${carsLabel(e.after)}], ${where}`,
       };
+    }
+    case 'switchingEnded': {
+      /**
+       * The line that closes a switching turn, and the only one the history keeps from the middle of
+       * it: what it cost, and where the crew was left standing.
+       */
+      const used = `${e.movesUsed} of ${e.movesAllowed} Move${e.movesAllowed === 1 ? '' : 's'} used`;
+      if (e.movesUsed === 0) return { tone: 'quiet', text: 'Finished switching without moving a car' };
+      if (!e.lastMove) return { tone: 'plain', text: `Finished switching — ${used}` };
+      return {
+        tone: 'plain',
+        where: e.lastMove.to,
+        text: `Finished switching — ${used}, leaving ${train(e.lastMove.trayId)} at ${place(e.player, e.lastMove.to)}`,
+      };
+    }
     case 'carsDropped':
       // WHICH END. A cut comes off an outer end (§A.3) and the end decides everything that follows:
       // the train may pull away from cars set out behind it and must couple back up to cars set out
@@ -203,7 +274,7 @@ export function narrate(e: GameEvent, ctx: NarrateContext = {}): Narration {
         tone: 'plain',
         where: e.at,
         text:
-          `Set out ${carsLabel(e.stock)} at ${at(e.at)}, off the ${e.fromNose ? 'NOSE — ahead of the engine, so pulling forward will couple them again' : 'TAIL — behind the engine, so it may pull away and leave them'}`,
+          `Set out ${carsLabel(e.stock)} at ${place(e.player, e.at)}, off the ${e.fromNose ? 'NOSE — ahead of the engine, so pulling forward will couple them again' : 'TAIL — behind the engine, so it may pull away and leave them'}`,
       };
 
     // -- cards
@@ -427,9 +498,39 @@ export function narrate(e: GameEvent, ctx: NarrateContext = {}): Narration {
       };
     }
     case 'carPlacedOnTrain':
-      return { tone: 'plain', text: `Added a ${carLabel(e.stock)} to the train being made up` };
+      // NAMES THE TRAIN. "the train being made up" was true and useless: a player looking back for
+      // what happened to train 10 found four lines that never said 10 (playtest, 2026-09-16).
+      return {
+        tone: 'plain',
+        text: `Added ${indefinite(carLabel(e.stock))} to ${trainLabel(e.trainNumber, e.isExtra)}`,
+      };
     case 'carPassed':
-      return { tone: 'quiet', text: 'Passed — no suitable car in the Division Yard' };
+      return {
+        tone: 'quiet',
+        text: `Passed on ${trainLabel(e.trainNumber, e.isExtra)} — no suitable car in the Division Yard`,
+      };
+    case 'makeUpShort': {
+      // What it wanted, in the words the card uses, so the line can be checked against the card.
+      const names: Record<'freight' | 'coach' | 'caboose', string> = {
+        freight: 'freight car',
+        coach: 'coach',
+        caboose: 'caboose',
+      };
+      const wants = e.missing.map((m) => names[m]).join(' or ');
+      const got = e.placed === 0 ? 'NO CARS AT ALL' : `only ${e.placed} of the ${e.wanted} its card calls for`;
+      // §2.2 is the whole explanation and it is not guessable from the board: the cars are visible
+      // in the Classification Yard, and why they will not come back is not.
+      const why =
+        e.waiting > 0
+          ? ` ${e.waiting} sit in the Classification Yard, which comes back only when the Division Yard is bare — and it still holds ${e.divisionYardHolds} cars.`
+          : ' There are none in the Classification Yard either.';
+      return {
+        tone: 'bad',
+        text:
+          `${trainLabel(e.trainNumber, e.isExtra).toUpperCase()} WAS MADE UP WITH ${got} — the ` +
+          `Division Yard holds no ${wants} it can take, so nobody was asked for one.${why}`,
+      };
+    }
     case 'dispatchBonusUsed':
       return {
         tone: 'good',

src/sim/view.ts

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
  * drift into two different pictures of the same board.
  */
 
-import { isExpedited, regionOfTransit } from '../engine/advance.ts';
+import { badlyMadeUp, isExpedited, regionOfTransit } from '../engine/advance.ts';
 import {
   areaAtSeat,
   areaOf,
@@ -1036,8 +1036,65 @@ export function describeIntent(s: GameState, i: Intent): string {
       const end = i.fromNose ? 'off the front' : 'off the back';
       return `set out ${carsLabel(cut)} ${end}`;
     }
-    case 'switch.sortConsist':
-      return `re-order consist [${i.order.join(',')}]`;
+    case 'switch.sortConsist': {
+      /**
+       * THE TRAIN IT WOULD MAKE, DRAWN THE WAY THE BOARD DRAWS IT.
+       *
+       * This read `re-order consist [1,2,3,0]` — the engine's own array indices offered to a person
+       * — and the option Jesse wanted was the first of five and unidentifiable (playtest,
+       * 2026-09-17). Naming the cars fixed that and left a second ambiguity he caught immediately:
+       * a list "front to back" means nothing at a table looking at a map, because which end is the
+       * front depends on which way the train is pointed.
+       *
+       * SO IT IS LAID OUT WEST TO EAST, exactly as `board-svg.ts` lays the crew strip: the consist
+       * is stored nose first, and a train facing EAST is reversed so its nose lands at the east end
+       * where it actually is. The engine is the same ◀ / ▶ arrow the board uses, seated where it
+       * will be, so "ahead of the engine" and "behind the engine" are read off the picture rather
+       * than asserted in words — and the button and the board cannot disagree.
+       */
+      const sorting = s.trays.get(i.trayId);
+      if (!sorting) return `re-order consist [${i.order.join(',')}]`;
+      const after = i.order.map((n) => sorting.consist[n]!).filter((c) => c !== undefined);
+      const engineAt = i.engineAt ?? 0;
+      const facing = railFacingOf(sorting);
+
+      const items = after.map((c) => carLabel(c));
+      items.splice(engineAt, 0, facing === 'w' ? '◀ ENGINE' : 'ENGINE ▶');
+      // West on the left, like the map and like the crew strip on the board.
+      const strip = (facing === 'e' ? [...items].reverse() : items).join(' · ');
+
+      /**
+       * WHAT IT WOULD MEAN, from §8.2's own predicate rather than a copy of it: a train with its
+       * whole consist ahead of the engine is a PUSHING train and fit to run, a buried engine is not,
+       * and a caboose has to ride at the end away from the engine. Numbered trains only — a local
+       * crew has no card and never departs, so a departure verdict on one is noise.
+       */
+      const unfit =
+        sorting.trainNumber === null
+          ? null
+          : badlyMadeUp({ ...sorting, consist: after, engineAt });
+      // `badlyMadeUp` leads with "not made up — ", which reads as a stutter in front of HELD. The
+      // reason after it is the part worth showing, so the prefix comes off.
+      const because = unfit?.replace(/^not made up — /, '') ?? '';
+      const verdict =
+        sorting.trainNumber === null
+          ? ''
+          : unfit === null
+            ? ' · MADE UP, ready to leave'
+            : ` · HELD at the Office: ${because}`;
+
+      // A sort that only moves the engine says which errand it is running, rather than reprinting a
+      // car order that has not changed.
+      const sameOrder = i.order.every((n, at) => n === at);
+      const lead = sameOrder
+        ? engineAt === 0
+          ? 'pull the engine back to the front'
+          : engineAt === after.length
+            ? 'put the whole consist ahead of the engine'
+            : `move the engine behind ${engineAt} car${engineAt === 1 ? '' : 's'}`
+        : 're-order';
+      return `${lead} — west to east: ${strip}${verdict}`;
+    }
     case 'freightAgent.stockOutbound': {
       /**
        * "stock a coach at (0, 0)" reads as putting a CAR on the track, and was reported as exactly

src/web/game.ts

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ import type { GameEvent } from '../engine/events.ts';
 import type { Intent } from '../engine/intents.ts';
 import { legalActions } from '../engine/legal.ts';
 import { createGame } from '../engine/setup.ts';
-import type { CardId, GameConfig, GameState, PlayerIndex } from '../engine/state.ts';
+import type { CardId, GameConfig, GameState, GridCoord, PlayerIndex } from '../engine/state.ts';
 import { overHandLimit as overHandLimitOf } from '../engine/state.ts';
 import { playerAtSeat } from '../engine/state.ts';
 import { cuesFor, narrate } from '../sim/narrate.ts';
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ import {
   LEGACY_HOUSE_RULES,
   collectiveRevenueFloor,
   houseRules,
+  industryProfile,
   mainlineProfile,
   trainProfile,
 } from '../engine/content.ts';
@@ -1269,6 +1270,81 @@ function uncapitalise(text: string): string {
   return /^[A-Z][a-z]/.test(text) ? text.charAt(0).toLowerCase() + text.slice(1) : text;
 }
 
+/**
+ * The Facility on one of a player's squares, or null — for naming the place a switching line is
+ * about. Shared by the narrator and the filter below, so both agree on what counts as an industry.
+ */
+function facilityOn(game: Game, player: PlayerIndex, at: GridCoord): string | null {
+  const card = areaOf(game.state, player).grid.get(`${at.row},${at.col}`);
+  const f = card?.facility;
+  // The name printed on the card, not the internal key: `industryProfile` is the one place that
+  // knows "grocersWarehouse" reads as "Grocer's Warehouse".
+  if (f) return f.subtype === 'office' ? 'the Office' : `the ${industryProfile(f.subtype).name}`;
+  /**
+   * A SMALL YARD IS A PLACE TOO, though it is an enhancement on a plain card rather than a Facility.
+   *
+   * It is the one square in a district a crew goes to ON PURPOSE without working an industry — the
+   * whole point of the trip is to arrive there and re-make the train — so "leaving Train 10 at
+   * (-1,1)" was the one line most in need of a name. Only this enhancement: the others change what a
+   * square DOES without being somewhere a player aims a crew at.
+   */
+  return card?.enhancements.includes('smallYard') ? 'the Small Yard' : null;
+}
+
+/**
+ * HOW MUCH SWITCHING REACHES THE HISTORY PANEL (Jesse, 2026-09-17).
+ *
+ * All of it did. A six-Move turn wrote a line per move — "Moved Train 10 (0,3) → (-1,-3) — 4 of 6
+ * Moves left" — plus one per mandatory coupling, so two players shunting filled the panel with
+ * coordinates and pushed everything else off the top. His ruling, asked as a question from the
+ * table: a line saying somebody switched, the cars they set out at or picked up from an INDUSTRY,
+ * and the Small Yard sort. Not every move, and not every coupling.
+ *
+ * WHAT STAYS, and why each one earns its line: `localOpsOptionChosen` already says who is switching
+ * and is left alone; work at an industry is the point of switching and changes what can be loaded
+ * next; and `consistSorted` spends a Move and changes what the train can do. A plain move along
+ * one's own track changes nothing anybody needs to read back.
+ *
+ * THE LINE IS STILL WRITTEN, MARKED `trace`, AND THAT IS NOT A DETAIL. Dropping these events on the
+ * floor was the first attempt and the suite caught it: `dwellForStep` gives a step NO dwell when it
+ * produced no narration, so a switching move with no line became a silent step and the board stopped
+ * replaying switching altogether — it would have snapped through the very thing v0.8.0 was built to
+ * let the table watch. The line still rides with its display step and still captions the board as
+ * the move goes up; only the history panel skips it.
+ *
+ * THE REPLAY VIEWER IS UNAFFECTED for the same reason, and it renders through `narrate` directly.
+ */
+function inHistory(game: Game, e: GameEvent): boolean {
+  const industry = (player: PlayerIndex, ...coords: GridCoord[]): boolean =>
+    coords.some((c) => facilityOn(game, player, c) !== null);
+  switch (e.type) {
+    /**
+     * THE FIRST MOVE OF A TURN IS KEPT (Jesse, 2026-09-17: "also keep the first and last move").
+     *
+     * It says a crew set off and from where, which is the half of "somebody switched" that the
+     * opener does not carry. The LAST move cannot be kept the same way — nothing knows a move was
+     * the last until the turn is over, and by then the line has already been written and streamed to
+     * every client (`server/session.ts` § linesSince), so it cannot be revised. `switchingEnded`
+     * carries it instead, as the line that closes the turn.
+     *
+     * Recognised by the MOVE COUNT rather than by tracking state: the first move of a turn is the
+     * one that leaves `movesAllowed - 1` behind it, which the event now carries so this holds on a
+     * five-Move night Stage too.
+     */
+    case 'trayMoved':
+      return e.movesRemaining === e.movesAllowed - 1;
+    // Coupling is mandatory when a crew runs over cars (§A.4), so most of these happen to a player
+    // rather than being chosen. The ones worth reading are where cars left or joined an industry —
+    // `from` names the cards the cars were actually lifted off, which is where they had been spotted.
+    case 'carsCoupled':
+      return industry(e.player, e.at, ...e.from);
+    case 'carsDropped':
+      return industry(e.player, e.at);
+    default:
+      return true;
+  }
+}
+
 function record(game: Game, events: GameEvent[], actor: PlayerIndex | null = null): void {
   const who = actor === null ? null : (game.state.players[actor]?.name ?? null);
   for (const e of events) {
@@ -1277,6 +1353,7 @@ function record(game: Game, events: GameEvent[], actor: PlayerIndex | null = nul
     const n = narrate(e, {
       cardName: (id) => cardName(game.state, id),
       trainName: (id) => trainName(game.state, id),
+      facilityAt: (player, at) => facilityOn(game, player, at),
       // Whose district a train reached is not the actor — the Mainline Phase has none — so the
       // narration resolves the name itself rather than being prefixed with one by the code below.
       // NO NUMBER IN THE FALLBACK. This is a PLAYER index, and a player is not a seat — seats rotate
@@ -1320,7 +1397,9 @@ function record(game: Game, events: GameEvent[], actor: PlayerIndex | null = nul
       : mine
         ? `Player ${who} ${uncapitalise(said)}`
         : said;
-    game.log.push({ text, tone: mine || ruling ? 'act' : n.tone });
+    // `trace` is a tone the history panel does not draw — see `inHistory`. The line exists so the
+    // step that caused it has narration to caption the board with, and a dwell to be watched for.
+    game.log.push({ text, tone: inHistory(game, e) ? (mine || ruling ? 'act' : n.tone) : 'trace' });
 
   }
   game.cues.push(...cuesFor(events));

src/web/index.html

@@ -27,6 +27,11 @@ h1{font-size:32px;margin:0 0 2px;letter-spacing:.02em}
 a.door:hover{border-color:#4d6fa8;background:#1f2733;transform:translateY(-1px)}
 .door h2{font-size:17px;margin:0 0 5px;color:#9fb6d8}
 .door p{margin:0;color:var(--dim);font-size:13px;line-height:1.5}
+/* Not a fourth door: reading the guide is not a way to play, and giving it equal weight in the
+   grid would say it is. A line under the doors, where somebody who does not know what to click
+   will already be looking. */
+.newhere{margin:16px 2px 0;color:var(--dim);font-size:13px;line-height:1.55}
+.newhere a{color:#9fb6d8}
 .door .go{display:inline-block;margin-top:11px;font-size:12px;color:#5aa9e6}
 .door.disabled .go{color:var(--dim)}
 a.door.disabled{pointer-events:none}
@@ -96,6 +101,11 @@ footer{margin-top:26px;color:var(--dim);font-size:11px;display:flex;gap:18px;fle
     </a>
   </div>
 
+  <p class="newhere">New to Station Master?
+    <a href="./quickstart.md">Read the Quickstart guide</a> &mdash; what the game is, how you win,
+    how a Stage runs, what is on the screen, and a first twenty minutes. About twenty minutes to
+    read, and it will save you an hour of guessing.</p>
+
   <div class="rule"></div>
 
   <footer>

src/web/main.ts

@@ -1807,7 +1807,17 @@ function render(): void {
    * steps still queued are withheld, and each appears as its step goes up.
    */
   const heldBack = stepQueue.pendingLines();
-  const allLines = heldBack > 0 ? session.lines().slice(0, -heldBack) : session.lines();
+  /**
+   * HELD BACK FIRST, THEN THE TRACE LINES DROPPED — the order matters.
+   *
+   * `pendingLines` counts lines in the log, including the `trace` ones a switching move writes for
+   * its caption (`web/game.ts` § inHistory), so the tail has to be cut off the RAW list or the
+   * arithmetic slips and the panel runs ahead of the board. Filtering afterwards only decides what
+   * is drawn.
+   */
+  const allLines = (heldBack > 0 ? session.lines().slice(0, -heldBack) : session.lines()).filter(
+    (l) => l.tone !== 'trace',
+  );
   /**
    * NINETY LINES, IN THE SAME BOX (Jesse, 2026-09-16: "increase to 90, keep the box the same size").
    *
@@ -1955,12 +1965,35 @@ function renderYards(f: Frame): void {
   $('divtot').textContent = `${yards.divisionTotal} cars`;
   $('clstot').textContent = `${yards.classificationTotal} cars`;
 
-  // The one thing worth calling out: the yard about to turn over.
+  /**
+   * The one thing worth calling out: the yard about to turn over — or the one that never will.
+   *
+   * THE COACH CASE IS ITS OWN WARNING (Jesse's ruling, 2026-09-17: say it loudly, change no rule).
+   * Coaches travel one way. §9.2 boarding discards the emptied coach into the CLASSIFICATION Yard
+   * and detraining draws a fresh empty out of the Division Yard, and §2.2 sends Classification back
+   * only when the Division Yard runs bare. Measured over one three-Day game: sixteen coaches at
+   * setup, none left by Day 2 Stage 8, fifteen piled in Classification, and the Division Yard
+   * holding steady at 46-47 freight cars — so the refill will not fire before the game ends.
+   *
+   * Every consequence of that is silent on the board. A Depot simply offers no passenger action, and
+   * the Sparrow — three coaches and nothing else — is made up empty and runs the whole Division that
+   * way. The cars are in plain sight in Classification; what cannot be seen is that they are not
+   * coming back. So the panel says it where the pile is.
+   */
+  const held = (row: { type: string; loaded: number; empty: number }[], type: string): number => {
+    const r = row.find((c) => c.type === type);
+    return r ? r.loaded + r.empty : 0;
+  };
   const bare = yards.divisionTotal === 0;
+  const coachesStranded = !bare && held(yards.division, 'coach') === 0 && held(yards.classification, 'coach') > 0;
   $('divyard').classList.toggle('bare', bare);
   $('yardnote').textContent = bare
     ? `The Division Yard is bare — the ${yards.classificationTotal} cars in Classification return to it now.`
-    : 'loaded / empty. Classification returns to the Division Yard only when the Division Yard is bare.';
+    : coachesStranded
+      ? `NO COACHES in the Division Yard — all ${held(yards.classification, 'coach')} are in Classification, ` +
+        `which comes back only when the Division Yard is bare, and it still holds ${yards.divisionTotal} cars. ` +
+        'Until then no passengers can board or detrain, and a train whose card calls for coaches is made up empty.'
+      : 'loaded / empty. Classification returns to the Division Yard only when the Division Yard is bare.';
 }
 
 function renderDistrict(f: Frame): void {
@@ -2408,11 +2441,34 @@ function renderActions(
    * title of the ONE group `menu.makeUp` actually covers leaves every other "Making up …" group,
    * however it is titled, on screen where a player can act on it.
    */
+  /**
+   * WHAT A ROLE IS FOR, said where the role is chosen (playtest, 2026-09-17).
+   *
+   * Tom had a train standing at his Depot with a loaded coach on it, picked the Freight Agent to
+   * unload the passengers, and found nothing that would do it — "didn't have any opportunity to
+   * unload passengers". Both halves of that were working correctly and neither was visible: the
+   * Freight Agent stocks a box and never touches a train, and detraining is a PORTER's action in
+   * the Cargo phase. Why it was impossible as well (§9.2 wants an empty coach from the Division
+   * Yard) was already in the Blocked panel, off to the side — but a player who has chosen the
+   * wrong role is not reading a panel about the right one.
+   *
+   * A SENTENCE, NOT A HOVER. The tip on the heading would have answered him only if he already
+   * suspected he was in the wrong place, which is precisely what he did not.
+   */
+  const ROLE_SCOPE: Record<string, string> = {
+    'freightAgent.':
+      'The Freight Agent stocks the green Loading box from the Division Yard, and frees a jam. ' +
+      'Passengers board and detrain in the Cargo phase, with a Porter — not here.',
+    'porter.': 'A Porter works passengers between a platform and a coach standing at your Office.',
+    'laborer.': 'A Laborer moves one load one step along MEN → AT → WORK, and loads or unloads a spotted car.',
+  };
+
   html += menu.direct
     .filter((g) => !/^(Play|Discard) a card from my hand$/.test(g.title) && g.title !== menu.makeUp?.title)
     .map(
       (g) =>
         `<div class="grp"><h3>${esc(g.title)}</h3>` +
+        (ROLE_SCOPE[g.kind] ? `<p class="dim scope">${esc(ROLE_SCOPE[g.kind]!)}</p>` : '') +
         g.actions
           .map((a) => {
             // §6.2 — a drawn card has to be played or discarded before the turn can end. Keyed on

src/web/play.html

@@ -213,6 +213,9 @@ button.act.crew.on{border-color:var(--now);background:rgba(185,140,240,.18);colo
 /* actions */
 #actions{max-height:none}
 .grp{margin-bottom:6px}
+/* What a role is for, under its heading — a sentence a player reads once and stops re-asking. Sized
+   below the buttons so it explains without competing with the thing being chosen. */
+.grp .scope{margin:2px 0 4px;font-size:11.5px;line-height:1.35}
 /* THESE ARE THE THINGS YOU CAN DO. An action carried the same grey border as every other panel
    on the page, so the one region that is clickable did not look it. Amber border and a lit face,
    used nowhere else, so "this is a move" is answered before the label is read. */

test/advance.test.ts

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 import { describe, it } from 'node:test';
 import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
 
-import { advance, pump } from '../src/engine/advance.ts';
+import { advance, badlyMadeUp, pump } from '../src/engine/advance.ts';
 import { applyIntent, areaOf, check, isBeingMadeUp } from '../src/engine/apply.ts';
 import { EXPEDITE_FAULT_PENALTY, HAND_LIMIT, MAX_CONSIST, STAGES_PER_DAY, TOTAL_ROLLING_STOCK } from '../src/engine/content.ts';
 import { legalActions } from '../src/engine/legal.ts';
@@ -1582,3 +1582,121 @@ describe('§8.1 counts only trains AHEAD of the one departing (Gitea#26)', () =>
     );
   });
 });
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * §7's make-up round is silent about what it could NOT do, and that silence was reported from a
+ * table (2026-09-16): "train 5, the sparrow, has no coaches, which seems strange."
+ *
+ * The Sparrow's card calls for three coaches and nothing else. Every coach in that game had ended
+ * up in the Classification Yard, which §2.2 returns only when the Division Yard runs bare — and the
+ * Division Yard still held 46 freight cars, so it never would. `trainNeedingCars` therefore answered
+ * "nothing to ask for" exactly as it answers "everything is full", the phase moved on, and the train
+ * ran the length of the Division empty with no line anywhere saying why.
+ */
+describe('a train the Division Yard cannot supply says so', () => {
+  /** Puts one train in the yard-filling state, with a yard holding only `types`. */
+  const readyToFill = (yard: { type: string; loaded: boolean }[]) => {
+    const s = game();
+    // Stage 1's train is 1/2, the Crack Limited — coaches only, which is the shape that goes short.
+    s.timetable = Array(STAGES_PER_DAY).fill(null);
+    s.timetable[0] = 1;
+    s.yards.divisionYard = yard as never;
+    s.yards.classificationYard = [{ type: 'coach', loaded: false }] as never;
+    s.clock.stage = 1;
+    s.clock.phase = 'newTrain';
+    return s;
+  };
+
+  it('reports the shortfall, with the cars, the waiting pile and why it will not come back', () => {
+    // A yard of pure freight: nothing the Crack Limited will take.
+    const s = readyToFill([
+      { type: 'boxcar', loaded: true },
+      { type: 'hopper', loaded: false },
+    ]);
+    const { events } = advance(s);
+    const short = events.find((e) => e.type === 'makeUpShort');
+    assert.ok(short, 'a train that could be given nothing reported nothing');
+    assert.equal(short.type === 'makeUpShort' && short.placed, 0);
+    assert.ok(
+      short.type === 'makeUpShort' && short.missing.includes('coach'),
+      'the report did not name the category the yard could not supply',
+    );
+    assert.ok(
+      short.type === 'makeUpShort' && short.waiting === 1,
+      'the report did not count the cars waiting in the Classification Yard',
+    );
+    assert.ok(
+      short.type === 'makeUpShort' && short.divisionYardHolds === 2,
+      'the report did not say how far the Division Yard is from bare, which is what §2.2 turns on',
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('says nothing when the round can still be asked for a car', () => {
+    // The same train, with coaches available: the phase must STOP for them rather than report.
+    const s = readyToFill([
+      { type: 'coach', loaded: true },
+      { type: 'coach', loaded: true },
+    ]);
+    const { events, needsInput } = advance(s);
+    assert.equal(needsInput, true, 'the phase should be waiting for a car to be placed');
+    assert.equal(
+      events.some((e) => e.type === 'makeUpShort'),
+      false,
+      'a train that can still be filled was reported short',
+    );
+  });
+});
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * §8.2 and the Small Yard's nose sort, together — Jesse's ruling of 2026-09-17 was "any train may
+ * sort to the nose, and it is held if it cannot depart".
+ *
+ * The holding half already existed and needed no new code, which is worth pinning precisely because
+ * it is easy to assume otherwise: `badlyMadeUp` is deliberately DIRECTION-FREE, so a train with its
+ * whole consist ahead of the engine is a PUSHING train and fit to run. What §8.2 refuses is a
+ * broken-backed train — the engine buried among its own cars — and a caboose anywhere but the end
+ * away from the engine.
+ */
+describe('a train sorted to the nose is judged by §8.2, not by where the engine is', () => {
+  const tray = (consist: { type: string; loaded: boolean }[], engineAt: number) =>
+    ({ consist, engineAt }) as unknown as CrewTray;
+
+  it('lets a pushing train run — the whole consist ahead of the engine is made up', () => {
+    const pushing = tray([{ type: 'caboose', loaded: true }, { type: 'boxcar', loaded: true }], 2);
+    assert.equal(
+      badlyMadeUp(pushing),
+      null,
+      'a pushing train was refused; §8.2 is enforced direction-free on purpose',
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('holds a train whose engine is buried among its own cars', () => {
+    const buried = tray(
+      [{ type: 'boxcar', loaded: true }, { type: 'hopper', loaded: true }, { type: 'caboose', loaded: true }],
+      1,
+    );
+    const why = badlyMadeUp(buried);
+    assert.ok(why !== null, 'a broken-backed train was allowed to leave the Office');
+    assert.match(why, /engine is buried/, `the hold did not say why: ${why}`);
+  });
+
+  it('holds a train whose caboose is not at the end away from the engine', () => {
+    // Exactly the arrangement asked for at the table: caboose second from the rear.
+    const wanted = tray(
+      [
+        { type: 'hopper', loaded: true },
+        { type: 'tank', loaded: false },
+        { type: 'caboose', loaded: true },
+        { type: 'boxcar', loaded: true },
+      ],
+      0,
+    );
+    const why = badlyMadeUp(wanted);
+    assert.ok(why !== null, 'a train with its caboose mid-consist was allowed to leave');
+    assert.match(why, /caboose must be at the rear/, `the hold did not say why: ${why}`);
+  });
+});

test/apply.test.ts

@@ -1361,6 +1361,10 @@ describe('the Limits bound the district, and the nine spots reach round a Facili
     const under = district(s);
     buildFacility(s, 'packingSheds', under);
     const cardId = modifierOf(s, 'iceHouse');
+    // `district` leaves the host ON the sign's column, which since 2026-09-17 puts its three eastern
+    // spots outside the Limits. The question here is whether DIAGONALS are offered at all, so the
+    // sign goes out one more column and the host keeps all nine.
+    areaOf(s, 0).limitsEast = at(areaOf(s, 0).runningRow, under.col + 1);
 
     const offered = legalActions(s, 0)
       .filter((i) => i.type === 'card.play' && i.cardId === cardId && i.placement !== undefined)
@@ -1375,13 +1379,18 @@ describe('the Limits bound the district, and the nine spots reach round a Facili
     assert.equal(check(s, 0, { type: 'card.play', cardId, placement: southEast }), null);
   });
 
-  it('lets a Modifier hang outside the Limits, but never in the Running Track row', () => {
+  it('keeps a Modifier inside the Limits, and out of the Running Track row', () => {
     /**
-     * Jesse's call, both halves. A Modifier is not track (§9), so a host standing at the limit keeps
-     * all nine of its spots — refusing the outer three would make the card unplayable exactly where
-     * the district ends. The Running Track ROW is the exception: inside the Limits that row is
-     * always full, so this bites only beyond the sign, and that is the ground the main grows onto —
-     * a Modifier parked there would block the player's own sign from moving outward (§2.1).
+     * Jesse's call, both halves — and the FIRST half reversed on 2026-09-17 after a Day 3 playtest
+     * put Transmission Lines at (-2,4) with the sign at column 3. It used to read the other way: a
+     * Modifier is not track (§9), so a host at the limit kept all nine of its spots, because
+     * refusing the outer three looked like it would make the card unplayable where the district
+     * ends. What decided it was the board — a card standing outside your own sign, in territory
+     * §8.1 and §10 reason about — and a count of what is actually lost: six of the nine spots
+     * survive, and the sign moves outward as the Running Track grows (§2.1, Gap 4a).
+     *
+     * The Running Track ROW stays barred for its own reason: it is the ground the main grows onto,
+     * and a Modifier parked there would block the player's own sign from moving outward.
      */
     const s = game();
     const under = district(s);
@@ -1390,9 +1399,16 @@ describe('the Limits bound the district, and the nine spots reach round a Facili
     const area = areaOf(s, 0);
 
     assert.equal(
-      check(s, 0, { type: 'card.play', cardId, placement: at(under.row, under.col + 1) }),
+      check(s, 0, { type: 'card.play', cardId, placement: at(under.row, area.limitsEast.col + 1) }),
+      'OUTSIDE_LIMITS',
+      'a Modifier was allowed to stand outside the district it belongs to',
+    );
+    // The spot inside the sign, beside the same host, is the one a player actually has — free,
+    // adjacent, and on the sign's own column, which `withinLimits` includes.
+    assert.equal(
+      check(s, 0, { type: 'card.play', cardId, placement: at(under.row - 1, under.col) }),
       null,
-      'a Modifier beside a host at the limit was refused the spot outside it',
+      'a Modifier was refused a free, connected spot inside the Limits',
     );
     assert.equal(
       check(s, 0, { type: 'card.play', cardId, placement: at(area.runningRow, under.col + 1) }),
@@ -1425,6 +1441,11 @@ describe("a Modifier grants only what its host's flow can use", () => {
     const area = areaOf(s, 0);
     const at = { row: -1, col: 4 };
     area.grid.set(coordKey(at), withFacility(kind, out, into) as never);
+    // This test is about what a Modifier GRANTS, not about where it may stand, and it arranges a
+    // host well east of the opening sign. Modifiers have been bounded by the Limits since
+    // 2026-09-17, so the district has to reach the square the fixture uses or every case here would
+    // fail as OUTSIDE_LIMITS and prove nothing about flow.
+    area.limitsEast = { row: area.runningRow, col: at.col + 2 };
     applyIntent(s, 0, { type: 'localOps.choose', option: 'draw' });
 
     const card = [...s.cards.entries()].find(
@@ -1881,7 +1902,7 @@ describe('the engine is drawn pointing east or west, whatever track it is standi
    * So `facing` stays a PORT (movement needs one) and `railFacingOf` is what the board draws.
    */
   const moved = (id: string, facing: 'n' | 's' | 'e' | 'w') =>
-    ({ type: 'trayMoved', player: 0, trayId: id, from: at(0, 0), to: at(0, 0), movesRemaining: 3, facing }) as const;
+    ({ type: 'trayMoved', player: 0, trayId: id, from: at(0, 0), to: at(0, 0), movesRemaining: 3, movesAllowed: 6, facing }) as const;
 
   it('carries the east-west sense across north-south track', () => {
     const s = game();

test/cut-ordering.test.ts

@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ import { describe, it } from 'node:test';
 import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
 
 import { applyIntent, areaOf, check } from '../src/engine/apply.ts';
+import { legalActions } from '../src/engine/legal.ts';
+import { describeIntent } from '../src/sim/view.ts';
+import { badlyMadeUp } from '../src/engine/advance.ts';
 import { createGame } from '../src/engine/setup.ts';
 import type { CrewTray, GameConfig, GameState, GridCoord, RollingStock, TrackArc, TrackCard } from '../src/engine/state.ts';
 import { carsOn, coordKey, turnOf } from '../src/engine/state.ts';
@@ -461,3 +464,161 @@ describe('a 45° leg is part of the west-to-east row, not outside it (Gitea#17)'
     assert.deepEqual(standingAt(s, at(1, 0)), [], 'the cars should have come off the card');
   });
 });
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * The Small Yard's re-order menu, reported from Day 3 of the 2026-09-17 playtest.
+ *
+ * Jesse had train 10 on his Small Yard — nose first, `[loaded boxcar, loaded hopper, empty tank,
+ * caboose]` — wanted the boxcar on the tail, and could not tell which button did it: every option
+ * read `re-order consist [1,2,3,0]`, the engine's own array indices offered to a person. The move he
+ * wanted was the FIRST of the five. One of the other four re-ordered nothing at all and would still
+ * have spent one of his six Moves.
+ */
+describe('the Small Yard says what each re-order would build', () => {
+  const smallYard = (standing: RollingStock[] = []): TrackCard => ({
+    ...straight(standing),
+    enhancements: ['smallYard'],
+  });
+
+  /** Train 10's consist as it actually stood, on a card carrying a Small Yard. */
+  const onTheYard = (): { s: GameState; trayId: string } => {
+    const s = game();
+    row(s, 3);
+    addCard(s, at(1, 1), smallYard());
+    const trayId = placeTray(s, at(1, 1), [car('boxcar', true), car('hopper', true), car('tank'), car('caboose', true)], 'e');
+    switching(s);
+    return { s, trayId };
+  };
+
+  it('never offers a sort that changes nothing', () => {
+    /**
+     * THE PAIR IS WHAT COUNTS, since the engine position became part of a sort (2026-09-17). The
+     * identity car order is now a perfectly good option when it moves the ENGINE — that is the whole
+     * of the separate engine control — so what must never be offered is the pair that reproduces the
+     * train already standing there, and no pair may appear twice.
+     */
+    const { s, trayId } = onTheYard();
+    const tray = s.trays.get(trayId)!;
+    const offered = legalActions(s, 0)
+      .filter((i) => i.type === 'switch.sortConsist')
+      .map((i) => {
+        const sort = i as { order: number[]; engineAt?: number };
+        return `${sort.order.join(',')}|${sort.engineAt ?? 0}`;
+      });
+    assert.ok(offered.length > 0, 'no sort was offered at all, so this proved nothing');
+    const unchanged = `${[...tray.consist.keys()].join(',')}|${tray.engineAt}`;
+    assert.ok(
+      !offered.includes(unchanged),
+      'the menu offered the train as it already stands — a Move spent to change nothing',
+    );
+    assert.equal(new Set(offered).size, offered.length, 'the menu offered the same sort twice');
+  });
+
+  it('offers the engine every position, including ahead of its own cars', () => {
+    // Jesse's ruling, 2026-09-17, following `implications.md` against the v0.4.5 card text: a train
+    // in a Small Yard "may sort itself into any order, INCLUDING cars ahead of the engine".
+    const { s, trayId } = onTheYard();
+    const n = s.trays.get(trayId)!.consist.length;
+    const positions = legalActions(s, 0)
+      .filter((i) => i.type === 'switch.sortConsist')
+      .map((i) => (i as { engineAt?: number }).engineAt ?? 0);
+    for (let k = 1; k <= n; k++) {
+      assert.ok(positions.includes(k), `the engine was never offered position ${k} of ${n}`);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it('always offers a made-up order to a train that is not in one', () => {
+    /**
+     * Jesse, 2026-09-17: "trains with a caboose have to offer the caboose at the back… sorting all
+     * the cars back in, ready to leave the station."
+     *
+     * A train with its caboose mid-consist is one §8.2 will not let out of the Office, so at least
+     * one offer has to put it right. It comes out of the ordinary curated set — "bring car k to the
+     * tail" is enumerated for every car, and the caboose is one of them.
+     */
+    const s = game();
+    row(s, 3);
+    addCard(s, at(1, 1), smallYard());
+    const trayId = placeTray(s, at(1, 1), [car('boxcar', true), car('caboose', true), car('hopper', true)], 'e');
+    const tray = s.trays.get(trayId)!;
+    tray.trainNumber = 10;
+    switching(s);
+
+    const fit = legalActions(s, 0)
+      .filter((i) => i.type === 'switch.sortConsist')
+      .filter((i) => {
+        const sort = i as { order: number[]; engineAt?: number };
+        const after = sort.order.map((n) => tray.consist[n]!);
+        return badlyMadeUp({ ...tray, consist: after, engineAt: sort.engineAt ?? 0 }) === null;
+      });
+    assert.ok(
+      fit.length > 0,
+      'a train that cannot leave the Office was offered no sort that would make it up',
+    );
+    // And the one that does it says so on the button, rather than leaving it to be discovered.
+    assert.ok(
+      fit.some((i) => describeIntent(s, i).includes('MADE UP, ready to leave')),
+      'the sort that makes the train up does not say so',
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('lays the train out west to east, with the engine where it will be', () => {
+    /**
+     * "You specify above that the order is front to back, but on the screen, if it's eastbound or
+     * westbound, it may look different" — Jesse, 2026-09-17.
+     *
+     * `board-svg.ts` draws the crew strip west on the left, reversing a consist for an east-facing
+     * train so its nose lands at the east end. The button has to read the same way or it describes a
+     * different train from the one on the board.
+     */
+    const s = game();
+    row(s, 3);
+    addCard(s, at(1, 1), smallYard());
+    // Engine points WEST: the consist is stored nose first, so west to east reads engine first.
+    const west = placeTray(s, at(1, 1), [car('boxcar', true), car('hopper', true)], 'w');
+    switching(s);
+    const westLabel = legalActions(s, 0)
+      .filter((i) => i.type === 'switch.sortConsist')
+      .map((i) => describeIntent(s, i))
+      .find((l) => l.startsWith('re-order'));
+    assert.ok(westLabel, 'no re-order was offered for the west-facing train');
+    assert.match(westLabel, /west to east: ◀ ENGINE · /, `a west-facing engine was not drawn leading: ${westLabel}`);
+
+    // The same train pointing EAST puts the engine at the far end of the same sentence.
+    s.trays.get(west)!.railFacing = 'e';
+    s.trays.get(west)!.facing = 'e';
+    const eastLabel = legalActions(s, 0)
+      .filter((i) => i.type === 'switch.sortConsist')
+      .map((i) => describeIntent(s, i))
+      .find((l) => l.startsWith('re-order'));
+    assert.ok(eastLabel, 'no re-order was offered for the east-facing train');
+    assert.match(eastLabel, / · ENGINE ▶($| ·)/, `an east-facing engine was not drawn at the east end: ${eastLabel}`);
+  });
+
+  it('labels each option with the train it would make, not with array indices', () => {
+    const { s } = onTheYard();
+    const labels = legalActions(s, 0)
+      .filter((i) => i.type === 'switch.sortConsist')
+      .map((i) => describeIntent(s, i));
+
+    assert.ok(
+      labels.every((l) => !/\[\d(,\d)*\]/.test(l)),
+      `a re-order option still reads as a permutation: ${labels.find((l) => /\[\d(,\d)*\]/.test(l))}`,
+    );
+    /**
+     * The one Jesse wanted, written the way the board draws it: this crew faces EAST, so the strip
+     * runs west to east and the engine sits at the east end with the boxcar now furthest west.
+     */
+    assert.ok(
+      labels.includes('re-order — west to east: loaded boxcar · caboose · empty tank · loaded hopper · ENGINE ▶'),
+      `the move that puts the boxcar on the tail was not offered in words — got: ${labels.join(' | ')}`,
+    );
+    // And the engine's own positions read as what they do, not as an index.
+    assert.ok(
+      labels.some((l) => l.startsWith('put the whole consist ahead of the engine —')),
+      `the shoving sort was not offered in words — got: ${labels.join(' | ')}`,
+    );
+  });
+});

test/events.test.ts

@@ -47,6 +47,12 @@ const KNOWN_UNREDUCED = [
   'clearanceRequested',
   'dispatchBonusUsed',
   'expediteFault',
+  /**
+   * The New Train Phase's report that it could give a train nothing (playtest, 2026-09-16, the
+   * Sparrow running empty). Emitted by the phase driver after the make-up round has nothing left to
+   * offer, so it describes rather than reduces, like every entry on this list.
+   */
+  'makeUpShort',
   'phaseBegan',
   /**
    * §Q, Red Flags (Gitea#19). The flag comes down inside the phase driver as it stops a train, so
@@ -67,6 +73,12 @@ const KNOWN_UNREDUCED = [
    * riding on `actorChanged` meant the log dropped it as turn bookkeeping.
    */
   'superintendentChanged',
+  /**
+   * The line that closes a switching turn. Emitted by `switch.end` beside the `phaseEnded` that
+   * actually ends the turn, and reduces to nothing itself: it reports what the Moves were spent on
+   * and where the crew was left, both of which the state already holds.
+   */
+  'switchingEnded',
   'trainArrived',
   'trainCompleted',
   'trainDiverted',

test/replay.test.ts

@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ const SAMPLES: GameEvent[] = [
   // the table every third Stage, so its text is worth exercising.
   { type: 'superintendentChanged', player: 1, stage: 6 },
   { type: 'localOpsOptionChosen', player: 0, option: 'switch' },
-  { type: 'trayMoved', player: 0, trayId: 't0', from: { row: 0, col: 0 }, to: { row: 0, col: 1 }, movesRemaining: 5 },
+  { type: 'trayMoved', player: 0, trayId: 't0', from: { row: 0, col: 0 }, to: { row: 0, col: 1 }, movesRemaining: 5, movesAllowed: 6 },
+  { type: 'switchingEnded', player: 0, movesUsed: 3, movesAllowed: 6, lastMove: { trayId: 't0', to: { row: 0, col: 1 } } },
   { type: 'carsCoupled', player: 0, trayId: 't0', at: { row: 0, col: 1 }, stock: [{ type: 'hopper', loaded: false }], from: [{ row: 0, col: 1 }], toNose: true },
   { type: 'carsDropped', player: 0, trayId: 't0', at: { row: 1, col: 0 }, stock: [{ type: 'hopper', loaded: false }] },
   { type: 'cardDrawn', player: 0, source: 'homeOffice', cardId: 'c1' },
@@ -61,8 +62,18 @@ const SAMPLES: GameEvent[] = [
   { type: 'inboundCleared', player: 0, at: { row: 1, col: 0 }, stock: { type: 'hopper', loaded: true } },
   { type: 'facilityUnjammed', player: 0, at: { row: 1, col: 0 }, from: 'menAtWork', stock: { type: 'hopper', loaded: true } },
   { type: 'trainScheduled', player: 0, trainNumber: 4, roll: 7, slot: 6, rngState: 1 },
-  { type: 'carPlacedOnTrain', player: 0, trayId: 't0', stock: { type: 'coach', loaded: false } },
-  { type: 'carPassed', player: 0, trayId: 't0' },
+  { type: 'carPlacedOnTrain', player: 0, trayId: 't0', stock: { type: 'coach', loaded: false }, trainNumber: 10, isExtra: false },
+  { type: 'carPassed', player: 0, trayId: 't0', trainNumber: 10, isExtra: false },
+  {
+    type: 'makeUpShort',
+    trainNumber: 5,
+    isExtra: false,
+    placed: 0,
+    wanted: 3,
+    missing: ['coach'],
+    waiting: 14,
+    divisionYardHolds: 46,
+  },
   { type: 'clearanceRequested', trainId: 't1', occupiedBy: 't0' },
   { type: 'clearanceGiven', trainId: 't1', allow: false },
   { type: 'passengersBoarded', player: 0, at: { row: 0, col: 0 }, trayId: 't0', coachIndex: 0 },

test/watchable.test.ts

@@ -12,9 +12,10 @@
 import { describe, it } from 'node:test';
 import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
 
-import { applyIntent } from '../src/engine/apply.ts';
+import { applyIntent, areaOf } from '../src/engine/apply.ts';
 import { legalActions } from '../src/engine/legal.ts';
 import type { GameConfig, PlayerIndex } from '../src/engine/state.ts';
+import { turnOf } from '../src/engine/state.ts';
 import { fromMultiplayerSave, newGame, newMultiplayerGame, submit } from '../src/web/game.ts';
 import { currentActor } from '../src/web/game.ts';
 import { applyPublicDelta } from '../src/sim/public-delta.ts';
@@ -55,7 +56,18 @@ const config: GameConfig = {
 const SWITCHING_EVENTS = ['trayMoved', 'carsCoupled', 'carsDropped', 'consistSorted'] as const;
 
 /** How each of those four reads in the log, so the assertions can find them by text. */
-const SWITCHING_LINE = /^Player .+ (moved (Train |the local crew)|coupled \d+ car|set out |used the SMALL YARD)/;
+const SWITCHING_LINE = /^Player .+ (moved (Train |the local crew)|coupled at |set out |used the SMALL YARD)/;
+
+/**
+ * The two tones a switching line may carry, and why attribution matters in BOTH.
+ *
+ * Since 2026-09-17 a plain move along your own track is written `trace`: the line still exists, so
+ * its display step has narration to caption the board with and a dwell to be watched for, but the
+ * history panel does not draw it (`web/game.ts` § inHistory). What must never happen either way is
+ * the line failing to say whose crew it was — the caption is read by the whole table while the move
+ * goes up, which is if anything the more public of the two places.
+ */
+const SWITCHING_TONES = ['act', 'trace'];
 
 describe('switching is attributed — TODO #13', () => {
   it('every switching event carries the player who acted', () => {
@@ -124,7 +136,10 @@ describe('switching is attributed — TODO #13', () => {
           `an unattributed switching line survived: ${line.text}`,
         );
         if (SWITCHING_LINE.test(line.text)) {
-          assert.equal(line.tone, 'act', `a switching line must read as somebody's move: ${line.text}`);
+          assert.ok(
+            SWITCHING_TONES.includes(line.tone),
+            `a switching line must read as somebody's move: ${line.text} (tone ${line.tone})`,
+          );
           lines++;
         }
       }
@@ -404,3 +419,151 @@ describe('the log says who acted, once, and in what capacity (Gitea#30, #31)', (
     );
   });
 });
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * HOW MUCH SWITCHING REACHES THE HISTORY PANEL — Jesse's ruling, 2026-09-17, asked as a question
+ * from the table: *"Does switching show up in history at all? Should it? … I don't think I want all
+ * six moves showing up… maybe dropping off or picking up cars in industries should be recorded."*
+ *
+ * It all showed up. A six-Move turn wrote a line per move, every one of them a pair of coordinates,
+ * and two players shunting pushed everything else off the panel. What stays is the line saying
+ * somebody switched, work at an INDUSTRY, and the Small Yard sort.
+ *
+ * THE LINE IS STILL WRITTEN, MARKED `trace`. `dwellForStep` gives a step no dwell when it produced
+ * no narration, so dropping these outright stopped the board replaying switching at all — the first
+ * attempt at this did exactly that and the step-queue suite caught it. The tone is the seam: the
+ * caption still has its text, the panel filters the tone out.
+ */
+describe('the history panel keeps the switching that matters', () => {
+  const play = (seed: number, steps: number) => {
+    const game = newMultiplayerGame(seed, config, ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Carol']);
+    for (let i = 0; i < steps; i++) {
+      const actor = currentActor(game);
+      if (actor === null) break;
+      const options = legalActions(game.state, actor);
+      if (options.length === 0) break;
+      const move = options.find((o) => o.type.startsWith('switch.') && o.type !== 'switch.end');
+      if (!submit(game, move ?? options.find((o) => o.type === 'localOps.choose') ?? options[0]!)) break;
+    }
+    return game;
+  };
+
+  it('keeps the first move of a turn and traces the ones after it', () => {
+    const game = play(1917398, 800);
+    const moves = game.log.filter((l) => / moved (Train|the local crew)/.test(l.text));
+    assert.ok(moves.length > 0, 'no crew move reached the log, so this proved nothing');
+
+    // The opener of a turn is the move that leaves `movesAllowed - 1` behind it, which the line
+    // prints — "5 of 6 Moves left". Those are drawn; everything after them is caption-only.
+    const opening = moves.filter((l) => / 5 of 6 Moves left/.test(l.text));
+    const later = moves.filter((l) => !/ 5 of 6 Moves left/.test(l.text));
+    assert.ok(opening.length > 0, 'no turn opened with a move, so this proved nothing');
+    assert.ok(later.length > 0, 'no turn made a second move, so this proved nothing');
+    assert.ok(
+      opening.every((l) => l.tone !== 'trace'),
+      `the first move of a switching turn was hidden: ${opening.find((l) => l.tone === 'trace')?.text}`,
+    );
+    assert.ok(
+      later.every((l) => l.tone === 'trace'),
+      `a move from the middle of a turn is still drawn: ${later.find((l) => l.tone !== 'trace')?.text}`,
+    );
+    // Every one keeps its text, because that is what captions the board as the move goes up.
+    assert.ok(moves.every((l) => /^Player /.test(l.text)), 'a trace line lost its attribution');
+  });
+
+  it('closes a switching turn with what it cost and where the crew was left', () => {
+    /**
+     * BUILT, NOT PLAYED — the driver above never submits `switch.end`: it finds a move or another
+     * option every time, so 800 turns produced no closed switching turn at all and the assertion
+     * would have been vacuous.
+     */
+    const { game, trayId } = crewOnAnIndustry();
+    assert.ok(submit(game, { type: 'switch.move', trayId, to: { row: 1, col: 2 }, reverse: false }));
+    assert.ok(submit(game, { type: 'switch.end' }), 'the turn would not end');
+
+    const closing = game.log.filter((l) => / finished switching/.test(l.text));
+    assert.equal(closing.length, 1, `expected one closing line, got ${closing.length}`);
+    assert.notEqual(closing[0]!.tone, 'trace', 'the closing summary was hidden from the history');
+    assert.match(
+      closing[0]!.text,
+      /1 of 6 Moves used, leaving .* at /,
+      `the closing line did not say what it cost and where the crew was left: ${closing[0]!.text}`,
+    );
+  });
+
+  /**
+   * A crew standing on a Freight House with a loaded boxcar, and plain track to its east.
+   *
+   * BUILT RATHER THAN PLAYED. The bot prefers moves over couplings, so 2400 driven turns across
+   * three seeds produced not one set-out at an industry, and none of them ever ended a switching
+   * turn — a driver that cannot reach the case cannot test it.
+   */
+  const crewOnAnIndustry = (): { game: ReturnType<typeof newGame>; trayId: string } => {
+    const game = newGame(77);
+    const area = areaOf(game.state, 0);
+    const spot = { row: 1, col: 1 };
+    const track = (over: object = {}) => ({
+      geometry: { kind: 'track', geometry: 'straight' },
+      baseOperationalRail: true,
+      standing: [],
+      standingWest: 0,
+      facility: null,
+      modifiers: [],
+      enhancements: [],
+      ...over,
+    });
+    area.grid.set('1,1', track({
+      geometry: { kind: 'facility', facility: 'freightHouse', axis: 'ew' },
+      facility: {
+        kind: 'freight', subtype: 'freightHouse',
+        allows: { outbound: true, inbound: true },
+        outboundBox: [], inboundBox: [],
+        capacity: { outbound: 1, inbound: 1 },
+        menAtWork: [null, null, null],
+        industryTrack: { cars: [] },
+        laborers: 1, porters: 0, usedThisStage: { laborers: 0, porters: 0 },
+      },
+    }) as never);
+    area.grid.set('1,2', track() as never);
+
+    const trayId = game.state.freeTrays.pop()!;
+    game.state.trays.set(trayId, {
+      id: trayId, trainNumber: null, trainIsExtra: false, engineAt: 0,
+      consist: [{ type: 'boxcar', loaded: true }],
+      direction: 'east', facing: 'e', railFacing: 'e',
+      position: { at: 'grid', seat: 0, coord: spot }, movesUsed: 0,
+    } as never);
+    game.state.clock.phase = 'localOps';
+    game.state.clock.currentActor = 0;
+    turnOf(game.state, 0).option = 'switch';
+    return { game, trayId };
+  };
+
+  it('keeps work at an industry, and drops the same move on plain track', () => {
+    const { game, trayId } = crewOnAnIndustry();
+    const plain = { row: 1, col: 2 };
+    assert.ok(submit(game, { type: 'switch.dropCars', trayId, count: 1 }), 'the set-out was refused');
+    const dropped = game.log.filter((l) => /set out/i.test(l.text));
+    assert.equal(dropped.length, 1, `expected one set-out line, got ${dropped.length}`);
+    assert.notEqual(
+      dropped[0]!.tone,
+      'trace',
+      'work at an industry was hidden from the history — it is the point of switching',
+    );
+    assert.match(
+      dropped[0]!.text,
+      /at the Freight House/,
+      `the line named a coordinate instead of the industry: ${dropped[0]!.text}`,
+    );
+
+    // The same crew moving onto ordinary track is the noise this ruling was about.
+    assert.ok(submit(game, { type: 'switch.move', trayId, to: plain, reverse: false }), 'the move was refused');
+    const moved = game.log.filter((l) => / moved the local crew/.test(l.text));
+    assert.equal(moved.length, 1, `expected one move line, got ${moved.length}`);
+    // The FIRST move of a turn is kept, and this crew's first move is this one — so what is being
+    // checked here is that it names the square by what stands on it rather than by its coordinates.
+    assert.match(moved[0]!.text, /→ the Freight House|→ \(1,2\)/, `unexpected move line: ${moved[0]!.text}`);
+  });
+});

test/web.test.ts

@@ -5480,3 +5480,72 @@ describe('the Superintendent ruling names the train it is ruling on', () => {
     assert.match(title, /Train 4/);
   });
 });
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * §2.2 and §9.2 together strand every coach in the Classification Yard, and the board does not say
+ * so — Jesse's ruling of 2026-09-17 is that the rule stands and the game says it loudly.
+ *
+ * Tested on the FRAME rather than the DOM, because the counts are what the warning is derived from
+ * and they are what could go wrong: the panel asks for a per-type count the Frame already carries.
+ */
+describe('a Division Yard with no coaches is a reportable condition', () => {
+  it('carries per-type counts for both yards, so the panel can tell coaches from cars', () => {
+    const game = newGame(4242);
+    game.state.yards.divisionYard = [{ type: 'boxcar', loaded: true }, { type: 'hopper', loaded: false }] as never;
+    game.state.yards.classificationYard = [
+      { type: 'coach', loaded: false },
+      { type: 'coach', loaded: true },
+    ] as never;
+    const f = view(game);
+
+    const coachesInDivision = f.yards.division.find((c) => c.type === 'coach');
+    assert.equal(coachesInDivision, undefined, 'the fixture put no coach in the Division Yard');
+    assert.notEqual(f.yards.divisionTotal, 0, 'a yard holding freight is not bare, which is the whole point');
+
+    const waiting = f.yards.classification.find((c) => c.type === 'coach');
+    assert.ok(waiting, 'the coaches in Classification were not reported by type');
+    assert.equal(waiting.loaded + waiting.empty, 2, 'the waiting coaches were miscounted');
+  });
+});
+
+// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+/**
+ * The Quickstart is published beside the game, so a tester on the box can reach it.
+ *
+ * WHY THIS IS A TEST. The link on the splash page is a plain href to a file the BUILD copies out of
+ * `docs/`. Nothing else connects the two: rename the document, or move it, and the build quietly
+ * publishes nothing while the splash page keeps offering a link that 404s. Neither `tsc` nor any
+ * other test would notice — the whole failure lives between a file name and a string.
+ */
+describe('the Quickstart guide reaches the site', () => {
+  it('is published into dist and linked from the splash page', () => {
+    const guide = join(dist, 'quickstart.md');
+    assert.ok(existsSync(guide), 'the build did not publish quickstart.md');
+
+    const text = readFileSync(guide, 'utf8');
+    assert.match(text, /^# Station Master — Quickstart/, 'quickstart.md is not the guide');
+    assert.match(
+      text,
+      /Describes the game as built at v/,
+      'the guide does not say which build it describes',
+    );
+
+    const splash = readFileSync(join(dist, 'index.html'), 'utf8');
+    assert.match(splash, /href="\.\/quickstart\.md"/, 'the splash page does not link the guide');
+  });
+
+  it('is served as text rather than handed over as a download', () => {
+    /**
+     * The server's MIME fallback is `application/octet-stream`, which a browser downloads instead of
+     * displaying — so the link would hand a tester a file to save rather than a page to read. The
+     * table is read straight out of the source: asserting on a copy of it would pass while the real
+     * one was wrong.
+     */
+    const http = readFileSync(join(root, 'src/server/http.ts'), 'utf8');
+    const table = http.slice(http.indexOf('const MIME'), http.indexOf('const HEARTBEAT_MS'));
+    assert.match(table, /'\.md':\s*'text\/plain/, 'a .md file would be served as a download');
+  });
+});