I'm still new to OR but can say that this review was incomplete. If you like a strong simulation rather than a game, and are a fan of railroading, this is an excellent program. The best setup is built on top of an installation of MSTS which can be found on Ebay. I picked up a used CD for about US$20 and installed it first. This gives you a lot of content which OR then takes to the next level. You glossed over the F1 screen which displays many pages of controls, and the documentation is very extensive. Views and controls that make this an enjoyable sim were completely missed. Operate Steam, Diesel, or Electric engines on a rich selection of routes from multiple countries or download content from one of the communities of track, route, engine, and car builders (modelers is a better description). My personal favorite is an imaginary route called Port Ogden & Northern which has an extensive layout (like a model railroad spanning an entire floor at a mall) that runs between dozens of cities with hundreds of yards, over mountains, through valleys, forests, and down to the seaports. You can create consists from rolling stock found everywhere on the map and then stage and deliver cars to various locations. All while numerous AI trains run around you, sharing sections of track and generating signaling conditions which must be dealt with. It's better than being a kid again! But back to the OR program ... It offers rich viewing options, including a Dispatcher's overview of the route with all switches and AI trains. The Track Monitor shows conditions ahead and behind your train, speed limits, signals and more. The floating camera allows you to take a bird's-eye view of your consist and the surrounding tracks, including yard names, track numbers, and even the identities of the individual cars in the consists, including the air pressure in their brake pipes. The views allow you to zoom in and monitor distances as you approach to couple or verify decoupling, close-up like a brakeman. You have full control over the switches ahead and behind, the couplers, hoses, brake valves, handwheels. Like I said - a simulation. I hope this review helps to offset the impression given by Yo_Adrian! It is a quality piece of software. Rob
Open Rails is honestly my favorite simulator although I still need to get Run 8 V2, but you have to be willing to work with it to set up rolling stock, routes, and activities which can take a while. Every add-on by TrainSimulations is excellent though. Plus, they’ve added an “activity randomization” feature that can randomly change weather and have defects on your train like a brake being stuck on a car or a compressor blowing on an engine.
Yeah I started seeing this after the fact. This video was my first impressions of the game since I played MSTS a lot back in the day. But I will be doing another showcase video featuring a lot of the stuff that you had said, and a lot of other commenters.
You should learn a little bit about the game before posting a video. That is not your estimated speed shown on the dashboard...it's actually your acceleration. If you notice, it doesn't say "MPH", it says "MPH/min", which means miles/hour/minute (a measure of acceleration and deceleration). There are also a lot more functions you can do in the game that aren't even mentioned in your video, such as complex switching scenarios, complicated passenger runs, changes in the time of day, and changes in the weather. If you press the [F4] key, it will bring up a track monitor that shows you information about the track ahead. Pressing the [F8] key will show you the direction of a switch up ahead. You can change tracks by switching from Dispatcher Mode to Manual Mode [CONTROL-M], then either by pressing the G key, pressing [ALT] and clicking on a switch stand, or by pressing [ALT] and clicking on the [F8] window. It's a learning curve, but it's a very fun and challenging game to play. OpenRails is also backwards compatible, so it will read all of your MSTS (Microsoft Train Simulator) files. Most people have abandoned MSTS all together and switched to OpenRails exclusively.
Ah I see. I used to play MSTS, but I just never could get into it. I just saw that they switched to open rails, and saw that it was free so I wanted to check it out.
@@YoAdrian OpenRails is so far beyond anything that MSTS could've imagined. Some of the most recent payware routes are incredible. I just purchased the Montana Rail Link Mullan Pass route, as well as the Canadian National Railway Ruell Subdivision, both from www.trainsimulations.net. There are other routes available that are designed specifically for OpenRails that would never function in MSTS. Many of the keyboard commands in OpenRails are the same as in MSTS, but there are additional functions that didn't exist in MSTS. For example, when coupling cars, you now have to release the hand brake on each car as well as connect the air hoses between each car. MSTS did not have those functions. Switch stands are now animated an operational. They were completely missing from MSTS. At road crossings, the lights actually flash like they're supposed to. One big improvement is that turntables are now operational. The weather and physics have all been improved, as well. If you do a search of "Open Rails" on RU-vid, you can see some very nice videos on the various routes and functions available. It's not a game for everyone. Some may even find it boring. But for rail fans...it's a pretty cool simulation game.
Microsoft Train Simulator is no longer around, you can possibly find it on ebay. But Open Rails is the new game, it's free and the link is in the description of the video.
Because the website this train came from rebranded from Streamlines, to TrainSimulations, therefore you are unable to get streamlines content anymore, unless you use the wayback machine
