2038 is a board game with the game mechanics of an 18XX railroad game, but with an asteroid mining theme.
In this game, the "Trains" of an 18XX game are called space ships. At each technology level, there are two types of ships -- either a fast, small cargo ship (Large range, cannot mine much), or a slow, large cargo ship (less range, more space). Routes are not fixed -- instead, destinations (minable asteroids) are used; valuable ones are claimable. The actual content of each hex is randomly determined; the map is NOT constant from game to game.
The early game uses single pilots ("minor corporations") running one or two ships; as the game progresses, they can either turn into one of the major corporations, or join a league of previously-independent pilots.
Like some 18XX games, minor corporations combine into a major corporation for the late game. Unlike those, this is not forced - a pilot that manages to find and claim some good rocks can turn that into a full independent company, without being forced to merge.