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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The legacy graphics-heavy web site has been replaced by one based on Bootstrap which is both easier to maintain and suitable for phones and tablets as well as PCs.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

• T1.5.1-2139-g21d9ada29 Merge pull request #1167 from rwf-rr/bugfix-runactivity-slow-exit
  Fix: RunActivity slow to terminate because of long sleep in Host Process
  • d5c0d641 Use interruptable sleep.
    Was suggested in PR review. Avoids the extra counter.
  • 115325f9 Fix typo in variable name.
  • 2c028a4c Reduce sleep to respond to terminate more quickly.
• T1.5.1-2135-g8951c4e76 Merge pull request #1177 from cjakeman/fix/avoid-type-initialization-exception
  Fix: Avoid fatal type-initialization exception at start-up
  • f1881285 Fix: Avoid fatal type-initialization exception at start-up
• T1.5.1-2133-g9962874dd Merge pull request #1130 from mbm-OR/bugfix/Fix-F9-CarId-bug
  Fix F9 points to an incorrect car ID.
  • d517b5b6 Attempts to fix failures during build.
  • 6b0f1dae Merge branch 'master' into bugfix/Fix-F9-CarId-bug
  • ad19b305 Restored colour of the large handbrake pictures
  • 0f4342d3 Merge branch 'master' into bugfix/Fix-F9-CarId-bug
  • 4a0a6575 Fix the lack of sync between camera 2/3 and F9.
  • 30bcba48 Merge branch 'master' into bugfix/Fix-F9-CarId-bug
  • 38aa3fdb Update the TrainOperationsMap32.png file.
  • 8ae6bb7a Fix the issue with the behaviour of Camera 2 after closing F9.
  • abe7c8ad Fix the issue with the behaviour of Camera 3 after closing F9.
  • fb8a24dc Fix F9 window turns black, selecting the last car of a large train.
  • 736c3f51 Fix bug when switching from cab camera to camera 2.
  • 251a6774 Fix F9 points to an incorrect car ID.
• T1.5.1-2120-g1c0dfc6fa Merge pull request #1174 from openrails/release/1.6
  Merge pull request #1172 from twpol/feature/add-pr-1163
  • 23281b95 Merge pull request #1173 from twpol/feature/add-pr-1164
    Lift #1164 into 1.6.1 release
  • 6a78178f Merge pull request #1172 from twpol/feature/add-pr-1163
    Lift #1163 into 1.6.1 release
• T1.5.1-2115-gf00dec792 Merge pull request #1171 from sweiland-openrails/no_internet_no_manually_installed
  no internet connection is available, not possible to open the Menu Content Form
  • 50efb5bc Error message changed to "Failed to access the content repository (check Internet connection); automatic download not available. Error: {0}" As sugested by Roger (rwf-rr)
  • 8fd2066c When no internet connection is available, trying to start the Menu Content form gives an error message.
• T1.5.1-2112-gc78746b34 Merge pull request #1170 from rwf-rr/bugfix-command-log-time-zero
  Fix Command Log Time for Commands that had it at 0 (zero).
  • 83a049e7 Fix Command Log Time for commands that had it at 0 (zero).
    Bug #2128993.
    This may not be a complete fix. I fixed the commands that I have found
    to have the wrong time.
• T1.5.1-2110-g84be72cd5 Merge pull request #1157 from cesarBLG/dynamic-brake-authorization
  Dynamic brake authorization by TCS
  • 39cd994e Dynamic brake cut for default TCS
  • 805221ee Fix condition to activate blending
  • 71283ab1 Dynamic brake authorization by TCS
• T1.5.1-2106-g62070ada6 Merge pull request #1156 from cesarBLG/control-operations-enable
  Fix incorrectly disabled options in train operations window
  • f46d5f27 Invert angle cock warnings for end cars
  • c1f443e5 Do not use localized strings for core operations
  • bddc6e72 Fix bug
  • 78fd9572 Do not check DPU status for MU wire
  • c5f1627c Fix incorrectly disabled options in train operations window
• T1.5.1-2100-g31e3fe251 Merge pull request #1168 from rwf-rr/bugfix-exception-exit-mapwindow-open
  Fix exception when exiting with MapForm or SoundDebugForm open.
  • 6e2942ff Fix exception when exiting with MapForm or SoundDebugForm open.
    Bug #2127145.

See more code changes