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 > Update

Open Rails will check for updates at most once a day. If an update is found, then you can install the update just by clicking on the link in the top, right corner:

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 Friday) 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

• T1.5.1-1959-g196d83e86 Merge pull request #1135 from rwf-rr/fix-for-pr-1045
  Fix bug in PR 1045: load any activity from JSON.
  • bba93d30 Fix bug in PR 1045: load any activity from JSON.
    The limit to explore-in-activity-mode was due to a misunderstanding from
    the discussion of PR 1045.
    Always load all the start data from the JSON. If it is an activity, the
    extra data (eg. Weather) will be ignored, as the data from the activity
    prevails. If it is explore (both) and data is missing, defaults will be
    used.
• T1.5.1-1957-gc09ebebcf Merge pull request #1134 from openrails/release/1.6
  Merge pull request #1123 from cesarBLG/null-active-locomotive
  • 4ff58ace Merge pull request #1131 from twpol/feature/sbr-compressed-position
    fix: Skip byte position from compressed files as it is not supported
  • e3ff6a86 Merge pull request #1129 from cjakeman/translate-update-es
    adds missing es.po files
  • e1683b87 Merge pull request #1125 from twpol/feature/add-pr-1096
    Lift #1096 into 1.6 release
  • 7badb105 Merge pull request #1123 from cesarBLG/null-active-locomotive
    Handle null control active locomotive

See more code changes

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

11 July 2025, 106MB

• 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.