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

• T1.6.1-506-g056ba09d3 Merge pull request #1262 from rwf-rr/fix-data-logger-steam-interval
  Fix bugs in data logger: steam interval, steam data.
  • f625907d Fix bugs in data logger: add to log, steam data.
    Data for Steam locomotives is logged at speed intervals. However, new
    lines were always written at time intervals, resulting in empty rows for
    steam loco data.
    Some of the steam locomotive data was logged from the loco object.
    However, the data was never copied from the STeamEngine object (where it
    is maintained.
    SteamPerformanceTimeS was not updated for steam locomotive using the
    simple adhesion model.
• T1.6.1-504-g2e5cd77eb Merge pull request #1264 from rwf-rr/fix-menu-starting-from-selection
  Fix bug where StartingAt could not be changed.
  • 2ac69ed3 Fix bug where StartingAt could not be changed.
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/or/+bug/2141160
    Also minor fix to restore timetable environment from Menu_Selection in
    settings.
• T1.6.1-502-gdce2fdd9a Merge pull request #1265 from Aman1945/feature/cross-platform-path-separators
  Use Path.Combine for train-car plugin path
  • 27515e3b Use Path.Combine for train-car plugin path
    FindTrainCarPlugin built paths by concatenating a hardcoded '\'
    separator, which is not a path separator on non-Windows platforms.
    Path.Combine produces the correct separator on every platform and is
    unchanged on Windows.
    Ref: https://www.elvastower.com/forums/index.php?/topic/39789-macos-port-of-open-rails
    Ref: https://trello.com/c/TrIB2nUc/533-cross-platform-portability-support-for-linux-macos
• T1.6.1-500-gfc78df7a3 Merge pull request #1247 from cesarBLG/linux-cross-build
  Allow cross-compilation on non-Windows systems
  • 8fc54304 Allow building on Linux

See more code changes

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

09 October 2026, 98MB

• 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.