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The legacy graphics-heavy web site has been replaced by one based on Bootstrap which is both easier to maintain and suitable for phones and tablets as well as PCs.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
T1.6.1-549-g1a2db439bMerge pull request #1287 from SteelFill/multi_sounds
Thanks Roger, merging Fix Sound Variable Parsing Errord34956c6Make sound variable indexing more resiliant
T1.6.1-547-gcb6d90e19Merge pull request #1272 from SteelFill/wheelslip_protection
Thanks Cesar, merging Wheelslip Refactor5e2cdd23Attempts to reduce Polach instability at low speeds3be3e15dSanding documentation updates0de1f96dMore sanding reorganizationfc8562a6Clean-up3f12d7ddHybrid algorithm for calculating wheel slip thresholdfb6328efNew iterator for wheel slip threshold computation.07f1b849Restore incorrectly removed sanding parameterse29a66fcImprove effectiveness of full slip control system15fd5991General clean-upe7ea60b0Improve efficiency and accuracy of slip threshold calculation1d9738b7Even more sander refactoringb1d70dfcRefactor traction force update for general tidyness and to support individual axle control19e2ea35Correct sander documentation38b91011Relocate IsPecisionHigh, un-trainline WHEELSLIP cab view controlde2f9eccRefactor slip indicatorsc5fae701Fix misspellings of "warning"e1f23fc2Refactor axle integrator substep behavior for improved accuracy and responsiveness9dcc2fd6Clean up code and adjust performance of wheel slip detection2fa68aafProperly initialize sander values53811976Refactor implementation of adhesion precision switch8aed4506Refactor slip control implementation
T1.6.1-525-g17e2cf39aMerge pull request #1288 from SteelFill/engine_rpm
Thanks Cesar, merging Fix Diesel Engine Parsing Error74215edaContinue parsing diesel engine even after encountering unknown token
T1.6.1-523-g90cafd70aMerge pull request #1286 from rwf-rr/fix-multiplayer-flip-null-ref-exception
Fix null pointer exception in multiplayer with long trains.eb0df9acFix null pointer exception in multiplayer with long trains.
The arrays were created with the train size, but the copy was maxed at
20. This left the tail of the array at null.
I don't know how correct or appropriate the limit to maximum 20 cars is.
T1.6.1-521-g43469db43Merge pull request #1285 from rwf-rr/fix-multiplayer-uncouple-cars-vanish
Fix multiplayer bug: cars vanishing on uncouple.297b89f9Fix multiplayer cars vanishing on uncouple.
Addresses issues reported in bug #2171546.
T1.6.1-519-g5e29e7acbMerge pull request #1263 from SteelFill/particle_emitter_fixes
Thanks Carlo, merging Harmless Part of Particle Emitter Overhaulb14a110fAdjust diesel particle behavior276db2aeHandle occasional infinite values produced by particle system99c71ca6Add non-visual changes from particle emitter overhaul
T1.6.1-515-g2db35ddc5Merge pull request #1280 from RB211/fix/wine-wmi
Viewer: do not stop the game when WMI is unavailable90204e79Viewer: catch any exception while reading the adapter memory
As suggested in review: the three catches did the same thing, and the
value is only informational, so one catch of Exception covers them,
as SystemInfo already does.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5a96536f5Viewer: do not stop the game when WMI is unavailable
On .NET 6, System.Management loads wminet_utils.dll from an installed
.NET Framework 4. Under Wine (Proton) there is none, so querying the
video controllers throws PlatformNotSupportedException and the run ends
as the viewer starts. SystemInfo already treats this as a warning;
UpdateAdapterInformation now does too and leaves the adapter memory
unknown.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5
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