> I would love to play a modern version of this.

Steam and GoG have a version of Railroad Tycoon 2 which works well on modern machines:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/7620/Railroad_Tycoon_II_P...

https://www.gog.com/en/game/railroad_tycoon_2

Not quite as old-school as the first version, but IMHO gameplay-wise "just right".