r/18XX

I played 1830 twice in real life, and a couple of times on DOS, but I'd like to dive deeper into the genre. I've heard good things about the platform 18xx.games, but here's what's worrying me.

As I understand it, the games go much faster than in real life, but I guess they are still 2+ hours? With my job and family life, I can't really find the time to play online for several hours straight, so this rules out live games. So, for those that tried it, what are the async games like?

I played a lot of async Through the Ages on the mobile app, but I feel like this was less intimidating. For one, the app lets you specify a response time. If people take too much time to play their turn, they get booted out and replaced by an AI opponent. It's not ideal, but it beats having an unfinished game just sitting there. My main worry with 18xx.games is playing with people that just start ghosting the game or take an unreasonable amount of time to play. Does that happen? I also worry that *I* might be that person. Would my rate of play be too slow for other people? I wouldn't want to be the guy that makes the game unbearable for others.

Plus, continuing my comparison to Through the Ages, players in TtA get around 20 or so turns, it's pretty manageable. In 18xx, with private auctions, Stock rounds and Operating rounds, I fear that a single game could take me several months. I'm not sure I can guarantee my fellow players the same availability on such a long period of time.

TL;DR: I want to try 18xx.games, but I worry that it wouldn't work for me (the games taking too long for me, or me taking too long for others). I'm looking for hands-on impressions, especially for asynchronous play.