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The legacy graphics-heavy web site has been replaced by one based on Bootstrap which is both easier to maintain and suitable for phones and tablets as well as PCs.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
T1.5.1-1600-gee9c56d91Merge pull request #1056 from cesarBLG/brakeman-controller-nullcheck
Check for null BrakemanBrakeController27ebc355Bug fix for https://www.elvastower.com/forums/index.php?/topic/38670-manual-braking-stock-crashing-or/page__view__findpost__p__316666
T1.5.1-1598-gb2a8053e3Merge pull request #1021 from sweiland-openrails/TrainCarOperationsBugfixes
Various traincar operations windows fixes3250deadFix crash when webserver is disabled4fc6a7b1Merge branch 'master' into TrainCarOperationsBugfixes2a593200Fix: When using VaccumSinglePipe, AngleCock should not be available.fc12d909Fix-F9-reversal-issues96a1a595Revert "Fix F9 reversal."
This reverts commit 7dec77277d571dd38fe9e57fecb2003dcc7b0346.55c89973Merge branch 'master' into TrainCarOperationsBugfixeseb1bc78cRevert "Fix: F9 reversal flickering."
This reverts commit 234becd2aac84e1a6cb5249e5a7240119cec01cc.234becd2Fix: F9 reversal flickering.7dec7727Fix F9 reversal.072343b9Merge branch 'master' into TrainCarOperationsBugfixesdb9cc58cRevert "Fix F9 reversal."
This reverts commit e1de2e2316ef68dea312da86a392b223afe640e7.e1de2e23Fix F9 reversal.83d5f999Merge branch 'master' into TrainCarOperationsBugfixes6dd0532fMerge branch 'master' into TrainCarOperationsBugfixes379ad306Revert "Fix F9 reversal."
This reverts commit 992f70ec051dc14fef73f0bd48fea7e79f6398d0.992f70ecFix F9 reversal.5a7ba93bMerge branch 'TrainCarOperationsBugfixes' of https://github.com/sweiland-openrails/openrails into TrainCarOperationsBugfixes157fd3f1- call the update of the TrainCarOprationsWebpage only 4 times per second
- transferred some code from Viewer.cs to TrainCarOperationsWebpage.cs0f744b3bVarious traincar operations windows fixes
T1.5.1-1577-g93e83884eMerge pull request #1054 from peternewell/fix_cyl_cocks
Steam Cylinder Sound Bug68d578ceFix bug with steam locomotive steam cylinder sounds not playing when stationary
T1.5.1-1575-gda4b28b35Merge pull request #1050 from twpol/refactor/train-car-junction-detection
refactor: TrainCar junction detectionff5688f4fix: Correctly handle water trough split over multiple track circuit sections7e949c35fix: Separate switch and crossover detection for flexibilityefae37afrefactor: Consolidate over-water trough check to new scanner6fb9c1bcrefactor: Consolidate over-junction check to new scanner46a2e0abfeat: Add place to check for track under train
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