Frequently Asked Questions

How often will you release updates?

As of September 2024, the development of this project is officially on hold. However, we do not rule out adding occasional functionality or content. As before, a release launch is seamless from the user perspective. Next time you log in you may be in a new release, so you have not to worry at all.

What freedom do I have in this simulator?

Predefined tasks are available to start immediately. But you can also create your own tasks and trains. Then you can:

• Start the train at any station/yard/siding you want.
• Go to any station/yard/siding you want, provided that exists a viable route to that destination.
• Select intermediate stations/yards/sidings by concatenating them to create your route.
• Create your train by concatenating any reasonable combination of available train vehicles.
• Customize the cargo weight of every car in your train. This will realistically affect the physics, so you must be careful about the final P/W ratio of your train, and be sure it will overcome the steepest grade of your route.
• You cannot manually change turnouts or signals. This will be done by AI dispatchers.
• This simulator encourages good practices and prototypical operation, but you are free to drive your train as you prefer. The simulation will be terminated in some extreme situations, like a derailment or passing a stop signal.

Can I repaint my trains?

Yes you can! Read the repaint tutorial.

Where are the track monitor, the next speed and signal information, the destination marker, the grade indicator... ?

RunOnRails tries to mimic the real train driving experience. This simulator does not provide you with any advantage over a real train engineer. Instead, lots of realistic resources can be used to figure out the information you need.

Watch for mileposts to know where you are, use the distance counter, study the timetable in advance, figure out the grade from your location knowledge or train response, be careful to not miss a signal or speedboard. You must know the signal aspects, every signal gives useful information about the next…

After a while, you will find yourself acting like professional train engineers, developing their abilities, concentration and attention skills, instead of looking at an unrealistic cheat sheet that does not exist in the real thing.

Being a beta version, means that the simulator has bugs and frequent crashes?

No, the beta status is related to the lack of features and content we consider essential for a final release. Almost no software is bugfree, but the simulator is performing really well in our tests.

What maintains us in beta version are things like:

• Missing avatars and people.
• Highway traffic still not implemented.
• Variable weather system still in development.
• Coupling and uncoupling still not implemented.
• Excessive reuse of some scenery 3D models, such as buildings.
• Limited amount of rolling stock.

If you can live with this, then you can really enjoy this simulator, even in beta.

What simulator features are available?

Physics:

• Engine tractive effort curve: Yes, with accurate values obtained from the specs of the real locomotives.
• Dynamic brake curve: Yes, with accurate values obtained from the specs of the real locomotives.
• Rolling resistance: Yes, affected by speed, truck bearings condition, vehicle weight, track condition and track curvature.
• Aerodynamic resistance: Yes.
• Coupler slack (a.k.a. slack action): Yes, affected by vehicle type, expect more slack in old freight cars.
• Draft gears: Yes.
• Contact physics (wheel slip and wheel skid): Yes, affected by track condition and sander.
• Irregular and degraded tracks: Yes. Track quality varies by region and track type. It affects rolling resistance, contact physics and vehicle motion.
• Truck suspension: Yes.
• Centrifugal inertial force: Yes.
• Brake pipe pressure propagation: Yes.
• Independent brake hoses pressure propagation: Yes.
• Differential pressure models through brake components: Yes. Through MR, ER, BP, AR, BC, triple valve and distributors.
• Brake shoes thermal model: Yes.
• Gravity and it's effect on grade: Yes.

Railroad systems and features:

• Realistic signalling: Yes.
• Realistic speed limits: Yes.
• Realistic mileposts: Yes.
• Realistic grades: Yes.
• Superelevation on curves: Yes, on mainline, calibrated to the expected line speed and curve radius.
• Automatic dispatching of multiple trains: Yes.
• Origin to destination with stops passenger operations: Yes.
• Origin to destination freight operations: Yes.
• Complex local and yard operations: No, but planned.

Train systems:

• Electric system: Yes.
• Functional circuit breakers: Yes.
• Battery discharge: No. Planned with low priority.
• Diesel engine and generators: Yes.
• Fuel consumption: No. Planned with low priority.
• Electric traction motors: Yes, for traction and dynamic brake.
• Westinghouse 26L air brakes: Yes.
• Independent locomotive brakes: Yes.
• Air compressor and main reservoir: Yes, but the sound is still not implemented.
• Emergency brake: Yes.
• Alerter system: Yes.
• Cab signalling system: No, but planned.
• Parking brakes: No. Planned with low priority.
• Multiple Unit operation: Yes, by jumper cable and the three independent brake air hoses.
• Distributed Power (locomotive telemetry): No, but planned.
• End of train device telemetry: Yes, a limited model with fixed ID at this very moment, but an improvement is planned.
• Sander: Yes.
• Automatic sander: Yes. You can turn it off if you want.
• Horn, horn sequencer, bell: Yes.
• Coupling and uncoupling: No, but planned.
• Passenger doors: Yes
• Failures, air brake leaks, broken couplers and train damage: No, but some failures are planned with low priority.

Will you release a downloadable desktop version?

We do not rule it out, but we are not working on this now. We think the web application approach brings great advantages:

• The WASM and WebGL standards allow for graphical applications that run on web browsers at speeds like native code. How does this work? Our software is compiled to WASM, an intermediate assembler language. Then your browser assemble the WASM to native code for your specific CPU and GPU. Therefore it runs as fast as a native desktop application. Moreover, since server side performs almost all computing except graphics, your PC gets alleviated.
• Not restricted to one PC. You can play from your Windows desktop PC at home, but likewise from your Mac laptop elsewhere.
• You have not to worry about any sowftare installation, configuration or update. Almost any current PC comes with a standards compliant browser and working graphics drivers preinstalled. This is all you need.
• An extra layer of security and privacy: Since our software runs entirely as a web application, it has no access to your hard drive or files. This provides you with the utmost protection for your data and security.

Where can I send my questions and feedback?