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

• T1.5.1-2221-g2239fd1af Merge pull request #1193 from peternewell/bug-boiler-water-level
  Correct a bug introduced in PR #1082
  • 7997f0c1 Correct a bug introduced in PR #1082
• T1.5.1-2219-gf6516f06c Merge pull request #1175 from rwf-rr/data-logger-interval
  Make Data Logger interval configurable
  • 7c7d7347 Update manual. Explain interval zero.
  • d28315e6 Add updated image of Data Logger Options to manual.
    There is no detailed description of the data logger options in the
    manual. Thus the manual does not require any further changes.
  • b28e5729 Add confirmation messages that data logger was started/stopped.
  • 4021fbf7 Remove initialization of next log time.
    It is not needed, as the interval is added to the real time, not the
    last log time.
  • 7f0fdc0b Make Data Logger interval configurable.
• T1.5.1-2213-g3c5e2d0ad Merge pull request #1192 from openrails/release/1.6
  Merge pull request #1191 from twpol/feature/add-pr-1177-1184
  • d16e670d Merge pull request #1191 from twpol/feature/add-pr-1177-1184
    Life #1177 and #1184 into 1.6.1 release
• T1.5.1-2209-g3a5553500 Merge pull request #1184 from cjakeman/fix/avoid-type-initialization-exception
  Fix/avoid type initialization exception - 2nd try
  • f5c7a507 Fix by catching all types of exception
  • d8735006 Revert "Fix: Avoid fatal type-initialization exception at start-up"
    This reverts commit f1881285eee9e488cb297ea67e5cfe90d9955fe5.

See more code changes

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

16 January 2026, 107MB

• 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.