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Welcome to the rules of Straight Rail carom billiards.
It is said to be a good game to play when one wishes to learn precise shot control. One billiard forum member suggests that by playing Straight Rail Billiards, one can learn to perfect their soft shots and safety play for other billiard games. I have tried to communicate the generalities of Straight Rail as best as possible, however, because of the limited information available on the game, and the lack of exposure that our editors have to the game, the information may be incomplete. Please contact us if you have any more information about this game. We'd love to learn more!
Rail is played with two players. Each player has a white ball that will be their cue ball when they are shooting. One player will have the solid white ball, while the other has the spotted white ball. One player will thus be "white" and the other player, "spot." Rail is played with a third ball which is normally the red ball.
Each time your cue ball makes contact with the red ball and with the other white ball on the same shot, you score a "count." The first player to reach a predetermined number of counts is the winner. The goal is to "gather" the balls and bring them close together, and preferably drive them in to a corner.
There is apparently a way for a player to cheat in the game of "Rail," as was found online. As noted before, because of the limited information available on this game, this information should be taken as informal. There may be additional, official rules that prevent such an action. The cheat can be preformed by "Crotching the balls," that is, by getting the two object balls frozen together in one of the corners of the table. The shooting player can then shoot their cue ball off the two object balls repeatedly, without moving them. This will allow the shooter to accumulate the predetermined number of counts very quickly. This apparently occurred in 1879 when Jacob Schaefer Senior scored 690 points in a single inning by employing this strategy. One would say that may have been boring to watch, but 690 separate strokes without a miss is a feat in itself. This particular technique is often called the "rail nurse" as the player is "nursing" the rail with such shots.
Position play is extremely important. This is a game that is usually won by "not missing" rather than by making "great shots." This can be accomplished by setting up, and playing only easy shots. An "easy shot" would be one where all three balls are very close together. In situations where this is not directly possible, you can shoot the cue ball away from the other two, with the aim to bring it back.
Straight Rail Billiards is generally played on 5 foot by 10 foot table. (A full-sized pool table is 4.5 feet by 9 feet.) Straight Rail Billiard tables are often heated to about eight to ten degrees above normal room temperature. This procedure helps to keep moisture out of the cloth to aid the balls in spinning, and in rolling and rebounding in a consistent manner. The cloth on this type of table is finer than that of a traditional pool table, and allows for the balls to roll much further.
It has been said that at one time, one of the cue balls contained a small black dot on it to aid the players with differentiation. This ball was fittingly called the "black ball." In today's games, one cue ball is yellow, and the other white. The balls are generally larger than those used in playing traditional pocket billiards.
The cue sticks used in Straight Rail Billiards tend to be shorter, stiffer, and smaller in circumference than pocket billiard cues. For example, billiard expert Brian Mordt suggests using a "billiard" cue and not a "pool" cue for Straight Rail Billiards. There are major differences in how these cues perform. They are each designed in such a way that is specific to the game being played. He recommends that for 3 cushion and straight rail billiards one uses Helmstetter carom cues. The are priced reasonably and play well.
Unfortunately, information on this game is rather limited. In fact, there is very little material available on Straight Rail in English. If you know of any specifics relating to Straight Rail Billiards other than what is listed here, Please contact us. We'd love to learn more!
The straight rail billiard rules article was posted on 6/28/2006 11:48:00 PM and updated on 3/22/2008 9:50:33 AM. The straight rail billiard rules article was edited by Billiards Forum Editor.
The information for the straight rail billiard rules article was sourced from Internet.
Rail, also known as Straight Rail Billiards, is a very old game (Circa 1800's) that is said to be a derivative (American version) of Carambole Billiards, and the forerunner of all American Carom Billiard games. In fact, the rules of play that Straight Rail Billiards is based on are known to date back to the 1700s. Though the history of the name of the game is not known, there was a New York Times article in the March 23, 1881 edition where an early mention of Straight Rail occurs. This issue referred to it as "the straight rail game." The first straight rail match held publicly in the USA occurred in San Francisco in 1855. The Crotching technique was banned in 1862.
The straight rail billiard rules are predominently observed in Europe and North America, although Straight Rail is less popular in North America..
The governing body for straight rail billiard rules is the Union Mondiale de Billard.
Straight Rail Billiard Rules belong to the carom billiards category of cue sports. Carom billiards is a class of cue sport games played on a pocketless carom billiard table.
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I was reading your article on straight-rail billiards. To be honest I'm not sure if it's the same as what I play here in Italy, but we call I'd Three Rail Billiards. The differences are as follows.
Again, I'm not really sure if I'm off base here. Over here this game is really popular. I play 9-ball but I'm the exception to the rule. Anyway, hope this is of some help
Starting position of the balls in straight rail?
Charlie Roche is describing three cushion billiards. Starting position in straight rail is red ball on the foot spot and the yellow and white cues on the two head spots which are about 8 inches apart. Cue ball must hit the red ball first. Crotching isn't cheating but only two counts can be made and this was the reason balklines were added. Nursing the rail is technically different and resulted in more balklines. Actual straight rail doesn't have balklines.
In other words the starting position in straight rail billiards is the same as in 3 cushion?
Yes. There are two different governing bodies however and some nuances are different. For example, our club uses an eight inch separation between the object cue ball and the shooter's cue ball (object cue ball on the head spot and shooter's cue on either side) while the rules published herein use 6 inches. A quibble for all intents.
Thanks for the info. I play 3 cushion in Round Rock , Texas (near Austin) about 20 hours per week. A friend convinced G-Cue billiards to let him put in a heated Verhoeven table. My interest in straight billiards comes from a comment that Raymond Ceulemans made about American players. i.e. the gist of the comment was...Americans will never be able to play 3 cushions because they don't play the small games and learn to control all 3 balls... I'm having trouble getting anyone to play straight billiards around here and certainly my lack of knowledge of the rules won't help. I've you are ever down this way give me a call (512) 835-2042. Thanks again. Rod Gustafson
Rod, Mssr. Ceulemans just gave a demonstration 3 cushion match at my club against another Belgian world champion (name eludes me, quite well known). We have played straight rail for years and only added a 3 cushion tournament this year. Given the difficulty of three cushion I'm surprised you don't get more straight rail players as an intro to 3 cushion. It is also a great skill for Cowboy Pool which is very big among the clubs (private social clubs) in New York. Thanks for the invite.
I've been playing billiards/pool for 49 years. I never heard the term "straight rail billiards" before. The game you sort of describe here is called "red ball" except you have to hit the red ball first in that game. You don't even talk about "3 rail billiards", THE game to play.
where can i buy this table?
Try Blatt's here in NY. They can have a billiards table made by Vitali, a good manufacturer, for the same price, more or less, than a regular table. The heated table is a specialty item generally made in Belgium. You really don't need this option. And Jim, three cushion and straight rail are two different games with most of the same rules, like hitting red first.
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