Discover > News
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The legacy graphics-heavy web site has been replaced by one based on Bootstrap which is both easier to maintain and suitable for phones and tablets as well as PCs.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
T1.5.1-1850-g49b28e816Merge pull request #1089 from SteelFill/multi_track_profiles
Fix Superelevation on Rigid Frame Rolling Stock Againd750bd18Correct improper use of settings menu superelevation where simulator superelevation should be used
T1.5.1-1848-g58ff988edMerge pull request #1074 from Roeterdink/Gradient
Gradient for AI trains in timetablese9a66c16Gradient - commit 2024-16-12
T1.5.1-1846-g8b64986dfMerge pull request #1076 from Roeterdink/AllowDepartEarly
Allows request stop, depart early, passing time3bbd5376Update ProcessTimetable.cs
Correction for Passing Time processingd1ff8fdfRemoved changes in UserCommand, InputSettings and AITrain which caused merge errors.57a470caReposition changes to avoid merge conflicts45201707Include Passing Time6cfcfe982025-01-2035493ca62025-01-17 A3132cc2d2025-01-1435ed34e72024-12-31a1a721032024-12-30 Ace50a5802024-12-29 A6dce5ddf2024-12-28 Dc23d0c3e2024-12-28 C22fc10782024-12-28 B7df9fd6bCommit 2024-12-27 Ace7b530fAllowDepartEarly_RequestStop 2024-12-27 Ac08b2a86Allow depart early - commit 1
T1.5.1-1829-g5cb0ed0a4Merge pull request #1067 from cesarBLG/controller-delays
Traction and dynamic brake retardationb471b7caFix dynamic brake controller not updated1a627219Yet another location9e41cbb7Fix two other usages of saved and current valuesea06d465Correct display of throttle and dynamic brake with delays5bf46770Increase the number of usable STF units to 64f3854226Restore confirmation messages13ab98baUse correct rate units for parser8b5c27f2Fix incorrect usage of target force instead of max force455e0114Fix ignored ramp when changing from dynamic brake to throttle277dacdeMerge branch 'master' into controller-delaysb7b097bbRemove filtered force as it is no longer necessarya10de3a9Fix bugs introduced during post-review changes2353e0fdTake into account maximum power from diesel engine2a36208eRefactoring and comments154f8836Remove assumptions of zero throttle means zero force5aa41906Update power ramp to take into account speed changesb06837d9Add ramp times for power777efaf4Include documentationbb815cdcRamp up and down for tractive force45c6a23bDelay before enforcing changes in controller
T1.5.1-1808-gf2bc634a3Merge pull request #892 from Roeterdink/OPP_SIG_ID_TRAINPATH
Signal Function OPP_SIG_ID_TRAINPATH1f5ba4c8Signal Function OPP_SIG_ID_TRAINPATH
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