Discover > News

Mar 2026 - glTF and PBR

glTF support added for our 'early adopters' and content creators.

Apr 2025 - Demo Model 1 route updated

Demo Model 1 route now features a 3D cab created by Geoff Rowlands.

Oct 2024 - Elvas Tower ownership

Elvas Tower changed owner - a critical transition has been smoothly achieved.

Jul 2023 - New route from Train Simulations

Train Simulations publishes new Southern Pacific Shasta route.

Jan 2023 - Portugal '79

Portugal '79 has been published. This provides 1775km of broad gauge track, with full detail on 91km between Entroncamento and Alfarelos.

Jan 2023 - HSB Simulator

New commercial route HSB Simulator published. This contains 87 miles of the Harz narrow-gauge railway, the longest narrow-gauge route network in Europe.

Nov 2022 - Version 1.5.1

Open Rails 1.5.1 released to fix 3 bugs in v1.5.

Nov 2022 - Version 1.5

Open Rails 1.5 released.

Jul 2022

Three new UK routes are now available for immediate download here.

Oct 2021

Version 1.4 is now available for immediate download here.

Nov 2020

Wagons can now be braked individually as on the oldest railways. This can be experienced in 2 scenarios - Stephenson's Rocket at Rainhill Trials and Langley Vale Timber Tramway.

Apr 2020

After more than a year of work the free, restored and improved Siskiyou Route is once more available.

Apr 2019

ENG files published with accurate physics for 176 USA diesel locos.

Dec 2018

Open Rails 1.3.1 released Download it here.

Mar 2018

Geoff Rowlands found a way to model 3D controls so they can be grabbed by the handle as in this video.

Jan 2017 - Version 1.2

Open Rails 1.2 released.

Mar 2016 - Version 1.1

Open Rails 1.1 released.

Dec 2015 - More Access to Elvas Tower

The Elvas Tower forum plays a major role in developing Open Rails but has been closed to non-members following a dispute. We can now report that some of the Open Rails sub-forums are open again.

Jun 2015 - Great Zig Zag Railway

Peter Newell has just released (June 2105) the Great Zig Zag Railway, a steam route for Open Rails v1.0 (this 120MB download requires no other files).

May 2015 - Version 1.0

Open Rails 1.0 released! Download it here.

Apr 2015 - Demo Model 1

Open Rails first demonstration route Demo Model 1 has been published.

Dec 2014 - 3D Cabs

Dekosoft Trains has added locos exclusively for Open Rails to its range. These are GP30 diesels taking advantage of our 3D cab feature.

Jul 2014 - Web Site

The legacy graphics-heavy web site has been replaced by one based on Bootstrap which is both easier to maintain and suitable for phones and tablets as well as PCs.

You can still see an archive of the old site.

Apr 2014 - Installer

An installer is now available, so Open Rails and its pre-requisites such as XNA can be delivered in a single download.

Apr 2014 - Smoother, More Detailed Graphics

Open Rails currently uses DirectX 9 and, although this is not the latest version of DirectX, hidden away inside is a method for reducing the number of "draw calls" which the CPU makes to the GPU. Fewer calls mean higher frame rates, smoother motion and the capacity to handle more detail.

The technique is called "hardware instancing" and allows identical objects (e.g. trees in a forest) to be combined into a single draw call. The work is transferred to the GPU which copies them as many times as necessary and usually has spare capacity.

You can expect some increases in frame rate, especially on routes with many identical objects. To turn this on, tick the checkbox for
Options > Experimental > Use model instancing.

Mar 2014 - Additional Languages

Open Rails becomes available in additional languages, initially eight including Chinese.

Mar 2014 - Work Starts on Timetables

A schedule of trains (or timetable) is nearly impossible to arrange in Microsoft Train Simulator as AI trains don't adhere to booked station stops. In Open Rails, the situation is better but an activity with a player train and AI traffic is still very different from a timetable.

Work has now begun on a timetable element which is an alternative to the usual activity. The timetable will contain all the details needed for each scheduled train - path, consist, booked stops etc.. Conventional activities will continue as before.

Also there is no longer any distinction between player train or AI train - any train in the timetable can be selected as the player train, the others are operated by a remote player or by the simulator.

Feb 2014

Fog is developed from just softening the horizon into a realistic effect which users can fully control.

Recent Code Changes

• T1.6.1-467-gffac8db15 Merge pull request #1245 from SteelFill/multi_sounds
  Thanks Peter, merging Allow Defining Multiple SMS Files Simultaneously
  • 217c5973 Support multiple sound sources in world sound tiles
  • 9373dd25 Add handling for multiple SMS files in trains
• T1.6.1-464-gbd0c21d12 Merge pull request #1221 from SteelFill/engines_tweaks
  Thanks Peter, merging New Sounds for Diesel Locomotives (+ Refactor of Sound Debug Window)
  • 5a918c6b Merge branch 'master' into engines_tweaks
  • 74a8e79b Merge engine RPM changes, minor refinement to sound debug window
  • 0d08ee7f Merge latest master build, minor cleanup
  • b0664efa Calculate wheel speed for wagons
  • 2f8634a0 Use axle drive force for sounds to reduce jitters
  • 6ccef21b Undo changes to DieselEngine.cs, now captured in a different PR
  • c3a6972b Add scrollbar to the sound debug variables list
  • 8c646cb2 Unify implementation of variable curves and variable triggers, add units of measure support to sound variables
  • c3ac9460 Fix potential NaN in engine power
  • 454693e6 Sound debug window documentation update, tweaks to handling sound streams in debug window
  • ec12bc11 Also initialize sound variables on copied locomotives
  • 03e3b087 Also show track sound sources in sound debug
  • f064f9f8 Better balancing of engine load between multiple engines
  • 910b20c3 Support multiple diesel engines in the audio system and add related new audio variables

See more code changes