Download > Versions

Three Versions of Open Rails

Three versions of Open Rails are readily available to users, as shown below:

For first-time users, we recommend the Stable Version which comes with an installer.

Updater

Whichever version you choose, Open Rails has a mechanism to notify you of new versions and to update Open Rails for you. You will find the settings for this mechanism in Menu > Options > System

Open Rails will check for updates at most once a day. When it finds one, it raises a red flag in the Notifications icon.

Use the "What's new" button to find out more about an update or the "Install" button to launch the automatic update process:

Testing Version

If you follow the Open Rails project on the forums, then you will hear about bug-fixes and new features. These are included in the Unstable Version for developers and testers to try out. Once they have been checked and approved, they are published (on most Fridays) as the latest Testing Version. Any user can easily update to the current weekly Testing Version and benefit from these improvements.

For reference all the Testing Versions (executable and source) can be found in our archive.

Recent Code Changes

• T1.6.1-339-g15f31059a Merge pull request #1197 from peternewell/Riggenbach
  Implementation of Riggenbach brake
  • 8223a53c Remove parameter automatically added by Visual Studio
  • e6494959 Add steam cylinder wire drawing correction factor
  • 8d2fc27b Adjust train driving information window for counter pressure
  • c5f02bdf Code correction as suggested
  • a5a1c1f5 Add documentation.
  • 5ce21781 Adjust steam exhaust to "realistic" values.
  • 6ee1deed Add water usage function
  • b00f1e45 Add steam effects and sound triggers for brake operation
  • 66040b08 Initial implementation of Riggenbach brake
• T1.6.1-329-g1ebc16b3e Merge pull request #1195 from twpol/feature/localise-telemetry-options
  fix: Allow telemetry form to be completely localised
  • 2b138528 chore: Update all locale templates and pseudo-localisation
  • ea52c7aa fix: Allow telemetry form to be completely localised
• T1.6.1-326-g2efea1b80 Merge pull request #1196 from twpol/feature/release-pull-request-title
  chore: Update release pull request to have better title
  • bdc86f6f chore: Update release pull request to have better title

See more code changes

The current Testing Version can also be downloaded as a Zip archive:

06 March 2026, 105MB

• Installation Guide (English)

The documents included in the Testing Versions downloads can be found on-line at:

• Architecture Diagram V1.pdf
• Contenct checker.pdf
• How to Provide Track Profiles for Open Rails Dynamic Track.pdf
• Installation Guide En.pdf
• Localization Manual.pdf
• Manual.pdf
• ORTS Trackviewer manual.pdf
• Processor Flow Chart.pdf
• timetable-editor_de.pdf
• timetable-editor_en.pdf

Note: Multiple versions of Open Rails will not interfere if they are saved to different folders.

Unstable Version

To support development, the latest unstable version is also available, which is updated whenever a developer publishes a change. The unstable versions are more likely to contain serious bugs and are only recommended for users wishing to help with Open Rails development.

The Manual for the Unstable version is not included in the download, but is available on-line.

For reference all the Unstable Versions (executable and source) can be found in our Unstable archive.

Improvements

Improvements to Open Rails are drawn from several public sources as shown here:

We try to make sure that these changes all work and fit together by reviews as marked in orange in the diagram.