Railroader
Railroader reproduces the on-the-running-board experience of the engineers, the conductors, the brakemen – the railroaders: moving freight and passengers in transition era Appalachia.
First Person Railroading
Be on the ground with your trains: walk the train to connect the brake line. Get a little elevation by climbing into the cab where immersive 3D throttle, reverser, brake stand, and whistle cord await. Ride the pilot to the next couple, or settle into the caboose cupola until the next town. Railfan your train with a flying/tracking camera as it rolls down the line, or get a bird’s eye view of your switching work.
Multiplayer & Singleplayer
Run your railroad solo, or cooperatively with friends.
Realistic Running
Slack action, brake lines, gladhands, anglecocks. Dimmable forward and reverse headlights, configurable class lights and marker lights. All of the critical elements for realistic railroading.
Dynamic Gameplay
Run a timetable passenger train, switch industries on the local, or classify cars in the yard. These aren’t scenarios: your shortline has a lot of work to get done, and how it gets done is up to your train crew — or crews!
A Gorgeous Mountain Railroad
Tree-covered mountain vistas line your winding Appalachian shortline’s right-of-way as it follows the river between towns. On the ground to connect a cut as night falls, you’ll be thankful you brought your lantern to light your hike back to the cab. But the train is already rolling — guess the engineer decided you’re riding in the caboose. No matter, you need to study the switch list anyway. The lantern lights the sides of cars as they rumble past. Before long the marker lights of the caboose are drawing near. You climb aboard as the train starts to pick up speed, watching the track disappear into the distance.
Steam User 189
(THIS IS AN EARLY ACCESS RELEASE – The core game is stable and playable but some cosmetic features are still rough/absent and are being worked on)
There's a saying in Model Railroading about the different scales that goes something like this: O scale (the largest of the 3 common scales) is for people who like Locomotives, HO scale is for people who like Trains and N scale is for people who like Railroads.
Railroader is a game for people who like Railroads.
You start out as a scrappy little shortline railroad with about 5 miles of track and 1.5 locomotives, a caboose, a passenger car, some logging flats, $2500 bucks and a dream. There's been a flood that washed out the bridges connecting you to the rest of the branch and the big Railroad that used to operate in the area has sold the rights off for a song. Your ultimate goal is to rebuild and restore the line to its full ~60 mile long glory – repairing bridges, buying locomotives, expanding yards and facilities and even modernizing with authentically modelled 1950s Centralized Train Control signals and diesel locomotives.
Railroader focuses on what train people call the "Operations" level, which means the logistics and management of freight car movement on the railroad. The game supports this aim very well, with a system of contracts and waybills that create realistic traffic for the player to deal with. Cars arrive at interchange yards tagged for their destinations and have to be delivered by the player. Once loaded or unloaded, the waybills flip and the cars are returned to the interchange, with the player getting paid at both ends.
The game really nails the realism of railroad operations. Its fun to deliver cars "with a purpose" and get paid for doing it. Other train games like Run8 have had waybill systems, but Railroader adds a company management aspect that expands on the concept. One thing I really liked was that most of the milestones you pay for to expand and upgrade the railroad also involve delivering cars of materials to the job site and then returning them to the interchange.
Playing singleplayer you find yourself thinking like a yardmaster or dispatcher pretty quickly. The "Orders" feature, which lets you hand road trains off to a computer engineer or have it assist you in yard ops, lets you manage more than one train at a time. By setting switches, dropping fusee flares and a few other tricks of the trade you can get 4 or 5 trains rolling on your tracks at the same time without too much effort.
"Ok, its 6AM lets get the passenger train rolling east out of Whitter and bring the log train down the Connely branch to the sawmill. I've got enough time to get #11 out of the house and start switching the sawmill loading track before it gets here. Then I'll build an outbound freight for Bryson Yard. By the time its rolling the passenger train should be on its way back from Bryson and they can meet at Ela." is the sort of thing going through my head regularly.
Stable and functioning multiplayer co-op over steam only enhances this gameplay loop. If you can get friends or gaming buddies in to play as engineers, conductors, yardmasters and dispatchers the amount you can get done on the railroad skyrockets.
I'd classify the locomotive simulation as "simplified". There is no firing simulation, steam locos simply consume water and coal and stop working if they run out. Wheelslip is supposedly simulated, though there is no sand and I've never seen wheels slip so it might be overtuned. There are different weather conditions, though the have to be set with console commands and have no physical effect on adhesion. Shoutout to /weather fog at night though, its spooky. Couplers cannot break. You can derail if you take a curve too fast or hit a car too hard, though the cars stay "attached" to the spline of the rails and come off a few feet at most. Derailed cars can easily be re-railed with a few button presses so you can get on with your life. Rolling stock can get damaged by derailing or being hit too hard, though the damage model is fairly simple. Damaged locomotives consume more water and coal and damaged cars will derail more easily in the future. You also get a payment penalty for delivering damaged interchange cars. You can repair damage at your engine facilities if you need to.
On the plus side the brake simulation feels pretty good. Gladhands and anglecocks are modelled, you can bottle and dump air to kick cars or stop them. There are animated, working handbrakes and all the brake pistons and shoes on locomotives and cars operate and animate which is kinda awesome. Train and independent brakes work like you'd expect, and small applications of the train brake are pretty effective. Personally I think the brake pipe recharges just a bit too quickly, but it could be tuned that way for gameplay reasons. Nobody wants to wait minutes for their brakes to recharge.
The level of simulation present makes running on the road a bit dull. I'd recommend trying to drive as close to track speed as possible, which adds a bit of excitement. Otherwise hand your road freights over to the AI and go do some switching or run local trains.
There are a number of cosmetic issues that may bother you if you're a serious train guy. Some of the whistle options sound pretty bad. Currently all the trains use the same chuffing sounds and the transition from simulated chuffs to the recorded ones at ~10mph is too abrupt. Externally, locos and rolling stock look great but internally they're a bit bare and missing certain features. Scenery on the map is sparse and unfinished, with placeholders and untextured buildings in some areas. Still, its early access and we can expect this stuff to improve in the coming months.
Do be sure to turn the draw distance, vegetation and tree density up if your GPU can handle it, it makes the game a lot prettier.
All in all, Railroader is one of the more exciting train game releases we've had in a while. The combination of realistic operations, economic management and multiplayer co-op is unique to the genre. The game is stable and playable, with all core gameplay loops present. While some cosmetic details are rough, we can reasonably expect improvement soon.
If you're a person who likes Railroads, its an absolute buy.
Steam User 144
TL;DR This is a game which you didn't even know you needed or wanted. But you do. Badly.
So my first thought when I looked at the screenshots was: cool, a train simulator. I mean, it's gonna be ETS2 but on rails, right?
Well, yes and no.
It's a _railroad_ simulator, which at first introduces itself as a train engineer kind of thing. Then it tells you that, ackchyually, it's more about logistics than merely pulling brake levers. Now, my experience with steam trains is limited to robbing one a couple of times in RDR2, so when a torrent of anglecocks, waybills, interchanges and gladhands arrived on screen I thought that it's only going to be for the proper railfans, but then I've discovered AI engineer orders and fuseés.
And everything finally clicked into place.
Railroader is just a giant sandbox model railway, where you choose your own fun and pace. In meta-speak, there's a system of 'missions' to be fulfilled, map unlocks, gear upgrades and reputation system to maintain. Logistical puzzles to be solved. Route planning to do. Finances to take care of. But most of all there's a marvelous sight of meticulously modelled thousand tons of steel on wheels chugging past you at 35mph, which makes you stop and forget what you were doing for a few minutes.
Thanks Devs.
I needed that
Steam User 95
-Updated on 12/20/2023-
Let me be clear from the start. This is a railroad game, *not* a train simulator. The focus of this game is not so much on operating the locomotives, but managing and organizing a railroad. The locomotive simulation is basic, but decent at the current time of the Early Access Review. Locomotive simulation may be expanded in the future, but my review is just what the game has in the current state, and not what it could potentially have.
The key thing this game delivers is modeling on how railroads actually operate. You are picking up and dropping off cars to industries and a connection to another railroad. Railroads are not in charge of loading and unloading rail cars, that's the responsibility of the industry. Therefore, with the exception of the logging industries and passenger service, you are not going to be hauling the same cars back and forwards to the same points. Most industries are going to only have one or two cars and can sometimes take days to load or unload. They may also have days where there are no cars needed to be sent to them. At the same time, once the cars are empty or loaded at the industry, they need to go back to the interchange.
It sounds really simple, but it is actually quite the deceptive puzzle with different solutions. One example is that the sidings are often dead ended, and often the car you need to get in the siding is on the wrong end of the locomotive, requiring you to either find another siding to run around or try your luck in "Dutch dropping" where you get a running start, decouple the locomotive, speed up even more to get a gap between the locomotive and car, throw the switch and let inertia carry the car to where you want it. High risk, but can be quite the time saver if you get it just right. Another puzzle you may have to tackle a little bit later in the game is organizing and planning your trains. A route between two towns may have a decent grade between them, and you need to get over a thousand tons of cars over it. Do you buy a larger locomotive, or do double-head with two smaller locomotives? Or how about cutting the train in half and making two trips up the grade? The choice is yours. In short, there's a lot of problem solving, but I think the game does it in an engaging way.
The game does require some knowledge of railroad operations. Switching and a basic understanding of the air brake systems will go a long way in helping people to understand how to play this game. For instance, the air hoses just like in real life are designed to disconnect when stretched out and are not manually disconnected. It is not a bug or missing feature. :-P
I am going to put in some of my caution statements here. First, this is not a fast game to play, and is definitely one where you'll need to dedicate several hour long sessions to play. While I am pretty fast and good with kicks and "Dutch drops" just an in game day will take me about 2 to 4 real life hours, and I have only unlocked about a fourth of the total trackage in the game as I bought the line to Sylva. And yes, even after 80 hours, I still haven't even built the bridge to Bryson City, which is supposed to be the central hub for the game, and generally is the first location people unlock.
The economy in the game is fairly interesting, however, the vast majority of your income will be coming from the Sawmill in Whittier. Most industries, you are going only be making $150-200 a day from delivering cars. The sawmill however, you will be making over $3000 a day delivering logs, on top of a good $600 for the box cars and flat cars going in and out. Even from me expanding from there and keeping it at tier 3, it still provides over half my income. The real problem is that it is perhaps the most mind numbing and boring industry to supply, as you will be sending the same log skeleton cars just up and down a branch line, which is fairly easy to semi-automate by setting some switches and letting a AI controlled loco on road mode to go to the end of the line. It is more so a chore and an eyesore than all the other industries. The logging camps for whatever reason don't need any supplies unlike the other industries, so it's just the same cars going up and down, and got old fast as it is missing the whole puzzle aspect I was talking about earlier. While I could just not renew the sawmill contract, it is just so profitable. Not renewing the contract would be like shooting myself in the foot, making my progression even harder and slower. Perhaps if there was something like dropping off a box car with supplies after so many cars from the logging camp would at least hopefully spice up the monotony of the log cars.
Another point of caution is that the game has quite a lot of placeholder assets and audio. While it should be somewhat expected for an Early Access title, the developers did not really intend on releasing this game as an Early Access game and only released it when they did largely to keep a promise to have the game out in the year of 2023. The placeholder sounds themselves are not bad, and it is really only an issue due to all the steam locomotives sharing the same sound files. The "chuffs" in particular are problematic when you are doubleheading locomotives. Since the exhaust sound files are identical, it causes a fairly severe phenomenon of "comb filtering." Comb filtering is a very ugly audio distortion due to destructive frequencies, and in the game it can cause a phenomenon that sounds like there is water in your ear. I expect this go away with the addition of additional sound effects, but if audio is a very major point to you, it may be better to wait for future updates. I'll update the review when it is fixed.
In the end however, this is still probably the best *Railroad* game on the market. If you want a train simulation with physics, Derail Valley is an excellent choice. Want to build track and be a tycoon watching trains automatically go back and forth? Then Transport Fever 2 is for you. But if you want something in between that, while emphasizing realistic railroad operations, then Railroader perfectly fills that niche that so many other train games have been missing.
Steam User 119
Something to clarify about what this game is and who it's target audience is:
Railroader is a perfect game for those who want to have a management experience of running a small short line railroad in southern east of the United States. The main focus of the game is to run and expand your railroad as profitable & efficient as possible. Much like running a small railroad, the heavy focus is switching rail cars for multiple industries, which is very true to reality (speaking from experience). The game has simple controls and many tools that allows the player to operate multiple locomotives at once. The progression in the game is steady, but those who find satisfaction in solving puzzles and running trains- this game is perfect for you.
Some important things to note:
If you're expecting some hardcore realism on how the trains move and function- you're looking at the wrong direction. I believe the developers made the controls simple for the fact of over-complicating an already difficult challenge would be a little much for the target audience. Your main fear when it comes to this game is figuring out how you're going to switch out multiple industries quickly (and safely) and running back to the interchange with the empty cars within a 24 hour period, and to add insult to injury, god forbid you forget about the profit burning passengers and not stopping at all the stations (which you have to make at least 1 round trip). You have a reputation you need to maintain if you want to have good discounts and benefits on railroad equipment and progression purchases (milestones)- therefore you always have to be aware of which industries or stations need servicing, for if you forget one of either, your reputation will take a hit.
The way how the derailment physics and damage percentage works fairly straight forward. Whenever connecting to rail cars, you IDEALLY want to be going at least 3 MPH or less, anything over could result in a couple of percentages taken away resulting in penalties at delivery (you make less than you would've for said delivery). When it comes to speeding- You have about a 7-9 MPH lee-way before you run into trouble. The long stretches in the game are mostly good for 35, you're more than likely to push it to 42 and 37 on sharper curves (something important to note, depending on the wheel base for your locomotive, could drastically increase the odds of derailing- you're best sticking with a wheel base no greater than M if you want to bend the rules). When it comes to shoving rail cars into a buffer / siding, as of 12/23 there is no penalty running into them no more than 7 MPH, so you DON'T have to be precise at stopping.
How the trains work:
Again, don't be surprised, the game is based for management, not realism behind controls. Steam engines and water work a little quirky. Whenever you have the regulator open, even at the slightest, your water level begins to drop. For locomotives with large water capacities it's not a massive concern, but for those below 3000 it's a little nerve wrecking. You can limit how much water is depleted with the reverser (forward/reverse slider), but when you're forced to have both at 100%- you'll run into a water issue fairly quickly. For the sake of strategy, if you know you'll be switching a lot, requiring to go forwards and backwards multiple times, its best to save that assignment for a locomotive with a larger capacity so you don't have to frequently pause to take on water or coal. Coal, you don't have to worry as much compared to water- it's depletion rate is gradual, about 4 times less than the speed of water, but same rules apply- only depletes when the throttle is open. You're more likely to run out of water long before you need to worry about coal. Be warned, once you're out of water, your locomotive is no longer able to move, and if all your locomotives are out of water- essentially, game over*
*So about that*
If you've invested multiple hours into a save and not wanting to restart from the ground up, there are some cheeky ways to forgive yourself. This is technically cheating but if you're by yourself and no friends to play with, take my advice. In the game, and most games, comes a consul for commands. It's intimidating at first but the commands are fairly simple. Simply placing in the text box "/mode sandbox" (ignore the quotations)- you'll be able to instantly summon any locomotive you want. Once you're done playing god- insert "/mode company" to be back where you started. The nice thing about this is UNLESS you "/loan" yourself any amount of money- the fiance report wouldn't detect that, therefore making it seem like you never cheated. I would recommend being honest with yourself and only replacing the locomotive you had that ran out of fuel, for you're only cheating yourself if you take things too far.
Recommended strategy:
You must keep your passengers and industries happy. The best way to begin doing so is having your clock set 1:1, this will by you more than enough time to do every thing needed to do before the day ends. Starting off- you want to have your interchange serviced as early as possible, the sooner you get your cars, the quickly you can get to work. The game hands you two locomotives to start, you should always have one designated for passenger, and the other for switching freight- but until all the industries are serviced, both locomotives should be running freight until all has been delivered. Once all the regular freight has been serviced- the main freight locomotive should begin running captive service (this is the boring and "buy your own freight car" service). You have a sawmill you need to service to start, and best to start making runs up and down Connolly creek while the other locomotive begins passenger service. Once the captive service is complete and you've made one official round trip with the passengers- fast forward to 2 hours BEFORE the interchange gets serviced again. Both locomotives should team up and gather all the industries empty rail cars to deliver to the interchange. 2 hours is a recommendation but depending on how long you believe it'll take to get there, adjust accordingly. As mentioned earlier, if you set your interchange to the earliest delivery and running behind schedule- you can delay when the interchange gets serviced. Earliest is 0400, latest is 1000. You make the most profit this way- and avoid sleeping at all cost. When you sleep, you miss the opportunity to take the empty cars to the interchange before new cars arrive. This is the best way to clear up space and avoid double handling yourself (a slang on the railroad for overworking).
Closing thoughts:
As a short line railroad conductor- I like the joy of solving switching puzzles and admire the complexity and true to life scale it functions on. It's not the most realistic locomotive operating simulator- but screw it, I'm a conductor- I don't drive the train, I boss around the engineer who does all day. The game will emulate that perfectly for you. Granted to the average foamer, no one want's to be the one outside in the elements bossing around the train, they want to be the one that drives it- but if you're a conductor or someone who finds joy in solving problems- you'll appreciate what this game has to offer.
Steam User 70
Railroading with a purpose, this is what every train simulator for the past 15 years should have been.
Steam User 55
This legitimately is the train game I have been waiting for since I've been a kid.
Train Sim World's bite-sized driver experiences always felt too confining.
Run8 was very close to what I wanted, but had no steam and no sense of progression.
Derail Valley is a fantastic driving and progression experience, but I wanted to own the railroad and not just drive the job sheet.
Railroads Online needed me to build the track which I am not interested in for company ops.
Railroader offers an experience where the state of your railroad and your company is continuous, ingame day by ingame day. You can let AI trains roll down the track and dispatch them from your CTC board. You can jump into a loco and run a service. You can crew a loco as a conductor and give the AI engineer commands.
All of this can happen seamlessly, no reloading, no changing saves, no changing modes. You have complete freedom to do as you like, when you like. It still has a way to go in terms of utility and useability as a singleplayer user, and if you're looking for a detailed steam sim you won't find it here.
For me, concerned more with ops and moving trains? This is my perfect train game with great responsive devs.
Steam User 43
I work on trains in real life as a train mechanic. I have to say, this game has a lot of real life stuff which is really neat! If you want a chill and relaxing game, this is it. Go at your own pace, do what you want. Loving every aspect of it. Can't wait to see what more things they add