tastymonkey: I see that saving is not working on Linux. Does it work on Windows? I want the game but I need saving to work as I want to play this game with my young son.
I have bought and installed both versions (train valley and train valley 2) on windows 7 64 bit and can confirm that the game will save the scenarios/maps you have completed and the score achieved (including the number of optional scenario/mission parameters completed).
There is no save game function within a scenario/map while you are playing but it takes only between a few minutes to a little bit more than 15 minutes (for the first few scenarios/maps I have played until now) to finish them, and if you quit the game and start it again, it will remember which scenarios/maps you have already completed and the score/number of optional mission parameters achieved.
I hope this helps and guess it may be a lot of fun for both younger and older players :-)!