Hello Railroaders!

On Monday, March 3rd, we are finally bringing our work on the Experimental branch to everybody! Those of you who have not opted into the Experimental branch will finally experience Auto Engineer Waypoint Mode, Timetables (if you so choose), new engines, and more!

We will remove the experimental-2024.6 branch at this time. If you wish to delay updating to 2024.6, you can switch to the 2024.5.x branch which is currently available, but note that we plan to remove the 2024.5.x branch on Monday, March 17th.

Thank you to the many of you who played the experimental branch and shared your feedback with us. You've been a huge help in improving Railroader. If you're already on the experimental branch you don't need to change anything before Monday: when we remove it you will be moved to the main release. We plan to create a new experimental branch at some point in the future.

For those of you who haven't been on the experimental branch, here are some of the highlights of what to expect in 2024.6 when it releases:


The most game-changing feature in 2024.6 is Auto Engineer Waypoint Mode. Waypoint Mode lets you give your Auto Engineer (AE) a point on the track, and it will route itself to that location, lining switches along the way! You can perform a run-around in just a few clicks, or send a train out of the yard and straight to a customer track, miles away.

While Waypoint mode is very powerful, there are some limitations:

• AEs can not negotiate meets with other trains; you still need to act as dispatcher, either by setting incremental waypoints or using CTC.
  
• Along the same lines, AEs may "fight" over switches if they have conflicting routes.

If you haven't used it yet, we think you'll find Waypoint Mode makes a huge difference in your ability to scale your operations, which is why we've invested so much in this feature over the past few months.


Another new feature for Auto Engineers is Notices, a new UI element that lets the AE notify you when something is wrong, or when it has completed its instructions. Notices appear in the upper right corner of your screen and help make you aware of when an AE reaches its waypoint, a fusee, or can't move because of a handbrake, switch against it (Road/Yard mode), and so forth.

In 2024.6 we've moved all AE control to the HUD (lower left) -- the Auto Engineer Orders tab has been removed from the locomotive inspector. We know the Orders tab is preferred by some players, but with adding a new AE mode we had reached a point where maintaining two different UIs for the same thing was not practical. We'll be looking at ways to make it easier to control an AE engine without selecting it for a future release.

We've also made numerous other refinements and enhancements to the Auto Engineers, including making hard couples less likely, reducing some of the "padding" distances to make it easier to get right up to the end of track, and treating intermediate signals as Stop and Proceed. The default minimum passenger stop duration has been changed to one minute, and can now be set as low as 30 seconds in Settings. Additionally, MU now works better with steam MU'd to diesel and vice-versa.


Timetables are a new, advanced, and optional feature in 2024.6. By creating a timetable in the in-game editor you can bring a sense of structure to your railroad, as well as enjoy higher passenger profitability, as passengers will gather for the scheduled trains. Auto Engineer passenger trains also follow the timetable, holding at passenger stations until the timetable departure time.

Timetable train symbols are assigned to train crews. Timetable trains are directional (westbound or eastbound) and can even run onto the Alarka Branch. Note, however, that because trains are directional and Alarka is railroad west of Alarka Jct, it is not currently possible to create a timetable train from, say, Andrews to Alarka. Instead, you will need to create a separate timetable train so that the eastbound from Andrews can change symbols to a westbound at Alarka Jct. Keep in mind that it's also possible to avoid this issue by transferring passengers to another train entirely at Alarka Jct.

For more on timetables, see the Timetables section in the Guide (F1), or our video overview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_TrE44jLo4


This release includes numerous equipment updates. There's new power, and a new tank car:

• P-48 modeled after the Southern Ps-4 class, and revised the P-43 to model a USRA Heavy Pacific
  
• C-40 Mastodon, modeled after the Norfolk & Western M Class
  
• SD7 diesel locomotive
  
• Union Tank Car tank car

As well as aggregate load models, and numerous model refinements, including: C-46, F-71, T-22, SW1, C-40, C-55, S-23. GP9, and SW1.


This release also sees a lot of new construction along the railroad: there's a new station at Dillsboro. Ela Farm Supply. Alarka Copper Co., Locust Pin Co., Nantahala Power & Light, Union Lumber Co., and several fuel dealers now have structures. We think these add a lot to the environment and are looking forward to adding more in future releases!

We've also added new crossing pads and concrete road bridges!


There's a new wye at Sylva - now you can turn your trains at the eastern end – as well as a new customer, Sylva Building Supply. Both were inspired by historic Sylva track arrangements.

There's also a new customer at the western end of the railroad, Tatham Grain & Seed Co. at Andrews. This has necessitated moving the Andrews signal milestone staging area closer to Andrews passenger station - you will need to move any cars formerly spotted for this milestone.

More operationally, we've made some enhancements to passengers: passengers taking transfers now pay full fare upon reaching their destination (previously they would only pay fare for the last leg of their journey). Also, passengers will now only wait four hours from the time they board their first train - after four hours they will disappear.

We've removed the time multiplier feature. This was a fun feature but as we have made enhancements (the aforementioned passenger time limit and timetables in particular) it became clear that the time multiplier -- which made everything but trains "move" faster -- would become a source of confusion. We have, however, added a new Time window -- click on the clock in the top right corner or hit F3. With the time window you can easily "wait" to allow time to pass and get the customer to release that last car!


There are a number of simulation changes in 2024.6:

• Locomotive and tender brake cylinder pressure for a train brake application now matches the 2.5X factor of standard cars. Additionally, locomotive brake cylinders hold pressure applied via train brake until the train brake is released or the independent is bailed off.
  
• Fixed a longstanding issue where, when an engine that had been bailed off was loaded from a save, the brake line would incorrectly be restored to 0 PSI.
  
• Fixed a case where a car on a grade would not start rolling after releasing the handbrake.
  
• Updated notch-to-power mapping to more closely match EMD documentation. Diesels now produce 100% more power at notch 1.

We've also continued to invest in improving Railroader's UI:

• Revamped right click circular menu design.
  
• Fixed an issue where clicks on objects might not register correctly in low frame rate situations. If you still encounter these issues in 2024.6, please try enabling Vsync or Limit to 60fps. Let us know if the issue persists!
  
• Windows now remember their position and size between game sessions.
  
• Overhead ("2") camera now restores its orientation after moving to stay above ground, such as when following a train through a tunnel.
  
• Refined the Switch List window, fixing layout issues and moving the buttons into gear dropdown menu.
  
• Teleporting to the mouse pointer now results in first person camera pointing in expected direction.
  
• Car Inspector Operations tab Status field now shows expected waybill payment, including timely bonus and damage fine. Tooltip has a full breakdown.
  
• HUD controls for diesel engines now snap and show notch values. In-cab control throttle tooltip now shows notches.
  
• Added Shift-Click on anglecock to toggle between open and close, or jump to nearest if in the middle.

There are several multiplayer enhancements. New settings give you more control over your crews: "Trainmaster Manages Crew Assignments" and "Restrict Equipment Control to Train Crew". We've also fixed joining a game from Steam invite when Railroader is not already running, and made a key enhancement to better handle joining very large games.


A few other noteworthy changes:

• A new decal culling system helps with frame rates on busy railroads.
  
• Fixed a memory leak relating to audio clips used on engines.
  
• We've bumped up the "High" video quality level to improve texture quality (forced anisotropic) as well as shadow cascades.
  
• Made the first person camera move more smoothly when riding on a car.
  
• Rail ends are now rendered.

Thank you for reading to the end! Keep in mind that these are just the highlights. For a complete list of changes, please see the in-game release notes, which can also be found in a text file if you click "Browse local files" in Steam.

We're excited to finally release this work to the main branch -- it's been quite a journey, and again a big thank you to the players who have played on the experimental branch and provided their feedback and bug reports!

What's next for Railroader? We're not quite ready to say what's next for features, but we're going to continue populating the map with buildings, as well as making model refinements. Our Roadmap[docs.railroadergame.com] is up to date and we've got some great stuff planned for future updates. Until then!

As with 2024.6.9, focusing on refinements with the goal of this being our last release before 2024.6 is posted on the default branch!

• Adjusted Auto Engineer to make hard couples less likely. (RR-750)
  
• Adjusted Auto Engineer Waypoint Mode to take current train direction into account when planning its route. (RR-763)
  
• Fixed Auto Engineer Waypoint Mode slowing in advance of CTC switches when there was a non-CTC controlled switch beyond it, even when that switch was lined for its route. (RR-764)
  
• Waypoint selection is now cancelled when selecting another engine or changing the control mode. Fixed clicking on window setting the waypoint 'through' the window. (RR-595)
  
• Changed locomotive and tender brake cylinder pressure for a train brake application to match the 2.5X factor of standard cars. Additionally, locomotive brake cylinders will hold pressure applied via train brake until train brake is released. (RR-762)
  
• Overhead ("2") camera now restores its orientation after moving to stay above ground, such as when following a train through a tunnel.
  
• Added "Jump to Waypoint" item to gear menu in HUD controls. "Simplified Controls" toggle now only appears for engines in Manual control mode.
  
• Made waypoint overlay arrows gently emissive (more visible at night).
  
• Fixed waypoint overlay showing incorrect final waypoint arrow in some cases.
  
• Fixed leaks from audio clips from engines; would occur when engines are unloaded and then reloaded.
  
• Fixed unstable Sort by Destination order in switch list panel; added Sort by Location. (RR-676)

We're continuing to work toward wrapping up work on the experimental branch, so our programming effort has been focused on bug fixes and refinements to Auto Engineer Waypoint Mode and Timetables, but we've also been working on several new locomotives and buildings that are ready for service on your railroads! This release also includes a significant performance improvement for busy railroads.

• Added P-48 modeled after Southern Ps-4 class. Revised P-43 to model USRA Heavy Pacific.
  
• Added C-40 Mastodon.
  
• Added SD7 diesel locomotive! Updated GP9.
  
• Added Union Tank Car Co. tank car tank car. Fixed capacity of Single Dome tank car (8kgal to 10kgal).
  
• Added Locust Pin Co. and fuel dealer buildings!

• Auto Engineer now interprets timetable times that are 12 hours in the past as the next day, allowing assigning an AE to a timetable train for the next day during the 12 hours preceeding its departure.
  
• Auto Engineer now handles timetable stops where the arrival time is after the departure time (example: 18:00 arrival, 7:00 departure) by waiting until next day after the arrival. We recommend an interval of several hours between the two to avoid edge cases, as well as considering using different trains to support layover schedules like this.
  
• Auto Engineer HUD status label now shows reason for not moving which was previously only posted as a notice.
  
• Fixed artificially higher numbers of transfer passengers gathering at stations. (RR-707)
  
• Fixed Auto Engineer Waypoint Mode moving slowly through cleared signals that are not lined for their desired route. (RR-697)
  
• Fixed Auto Engineer Waypoint Mode reporting "Switch Against" when waypoint is within fouling distance. AE in Waypoint mode will now foul switches unless they are already fouled, or CTC-controlled. (RR-607)
  
• Fixed timetable editor window not prompting to apply changes when hitting backspace. (RR-712)
  
• Enabled throwing fouled switch in case where car fouling it is already on that route. (RR-713)

• Improved MU mode reverser handling to automatically set an appropriate reverser setting. Fixes diesel MU'd to steam running at centered reverser setting. (RR-714)
  
• Fixed issue that would prevent completing purchase of cars if they could not be fit on one track. (RR-711)
  
• HUD controls for diesel engines now snap and show notch values. In-cab control throttle tooltip now shows notches.
  
• Fixed first person camera not moving smoothly with swaying car.
  
• Improved performance in cases with many nearby train cars via adaptive decal culling. (Note to modders: we highly recommend consolidating decals where possible. Smaller decals are culled when many decals are visible, similar to how LODs work.) (RR-719)

Thank you as always for your feedback!

Two more quick fixes – thank you for your reports and feedback!

• Fixed issue that caused derailments and equipment damage during regular movement, first seen in 2024.6.6.
  
• Fixed "Edit Timetable" button missing for clients in multiplayer.

A few quick fixes!

• Fixed Auto Engineer Waypoint failing to operate when signals were not unlocked.
  
• Fixed missing Nantahala Power & Light building.
  
• Fixed pavement at Dillsboro grade crossing.

Railroader 2024.6.6 is now available on the Experimental branch! This release brings a bunch of bugfixes, but also some map changes we think you'll enjoy.

We plan for this to be the last feature release for the 2024.6 experimental branch, and work toward releasing AE Waypoint Mode and Timetables on the main branch. There will likely be a few followup bugfix releases, but we will save new features and significant changes to 2025.1.

On to what's new!


We're pleased to have finally added a wye at Sylva! For a long time now we've wanted to add some sort of means of turning trains, and this has certainly been a popular request from the community. Historically, the Tuckasegee & Southeastern Railway had an interchange with the Southern adjacent to Sylva Paperboard, so we've drawn on that design and added a leg to form a wye. We also added a new (historical) customer off of the wye: Sylva Building Supply.

A new customer has erected their elevator and silo in Andrews: Tatham Grain & Seed Co. Also with a historical basis, this industry takes its rightful place just east of the Andrews station. As such the Andrews signal milestone staging track has been moved toward the station. If you have milestone cars there you will need to move them so the signal crews can find them.

Sometimes map changes break the game's ability to restore the positions of cars on the changed tracks in saves. We've improved detection of related issues in this release and you should see the Lost & Found window if any cars need to be re-placed.

Finally for the map we've added new buildings at various locations: Alarka Copper Co., Nantahala Power & Light, and Union Lumber Co. There's also a new (curvable) crossing pad.

Speaking of model updates: the T-22 ten-wheeler has been updated! We have updates under way for several other engines - look for them in future updates.


We've made a number of refinements to AE Waypoint Mode:

• In ABS the AE will now throw switches within interlockings, rather than creep into the plant. (RR-666)
  
• No longer throws switches while its max speed is set to zero. (RR-660)
  
• No longer tries to clear points it is already clear of.

There are still several known issues that we're working on and plan to address in future updates. The AE will sometimes:

• Roll up to clear CTC switches very slowly if the switch is not set for the route it wants to take. (RR-697)
  
• Display incorrect notices such as "Switch Against" when reaching a waypoint. (RR-607)
  
• Fail to couple to another cut of cars, particularly when it is already very close to the cut. (RR-618)
  
• Appear to be stuck with status "Couple" when it cannot move to clear switch points due to uncoupled cars on the other end, even if points are already lined. (RR-642)

There have also been some refinements to the Auto Engineer in general: it now correctly treats intermediate signals as "Stop and Proceed". We've also reduced the stop distance before stop signals to 15m.

Also, we've removed the AE Orders tab in the locomotive Inspector window. It did not support AE Waypoint mode and we want to focus our effort on making a great AE orders UI in the HUD. Although the Inspector Orders UI had its uses, at this time we don't think it is realistic to keep both in feature parity.


We released timetables in December with version 2024.6.3 and the response has been much stronger than we anticipated! It's been clear to us that enhancements in two areas in particular are necessary: passenger movement and a more robust timetable display.

Managing destinations on coaches can be tedious, so we initially made passengers board coaches on timetable trains if they thought they could get to their destination via that train. The problem with this approach was that it made it impossible to perform finer-grained management of your coaches.

With 2024.6.6, passengers will only board coaches that are checked for their destination. (This is consistent with the behavior of non-timetable trains.) To help ease checking destinations however, we've enhanced the "Copy from Timetable" button to include potential transfer destinations, _and_ we've added a new feature for timetable trains: Auto Destination.

When "Auto Dest" is enabled on a coach, the coach's checked passenger stops will be automatically updated whenever it is stopped at a passenger station. This essentially makes it possible to never have to manage passenger stops manually. When turning a train you need only update the timetable symbol and guide it to its first stop.

We look forward to hearing about your experiences using timetables with these changes!

Additional timetable updates:

• Changed train sort order to be by departure time within class, rather than train name within class. (RR-673)
  
• AE Road mode engineer now posts notice upon completing schedule. (RR-675)
  
• Fixed case where transferring passengers would disperse prior to the arrival of their transfer. (RR-695)
  
• Fixed coaches not departing when timetable schedule runs past midnight. Fixed incorrect display of times past midnight. (RR-669)
  
• Improved text layout to allow for longer train names in timetable. Added "Read Down" and "Read Up" labels. (RR-661, RR-647)
  
• Added "Clear Timetable" to editor tools menu. (RR-685)

Whew, that was a lot. We have a few more enhancements and fixes to mention though:

• Car Inspector Operations tab Status field now shows expected waybill payment, including timely bonus and damage fine. Tooltip shows full breakdown.
  
• Adjusted "High" video quality level settings to improve texture quality (forced anisotropic) as well as shadow cascades (2 to 3).
  
• Fixed regression introduced in 2024.6.5 which caused CTC blocks to show as occupied when they are not. (RR-674)
  
• Increased maximum length of CTC marker text from 16 to 48 characters. (RR-680)
  
• Changed oil point click area to be more focused on the outer axle/gearing area.
  
• Teleporting to the mouse pointer now results in first person camera pointing in expected direction.
  
• Fixed car on grade not rolling after releasing handbrake.
  
• Fixed window sizes not correctly saved/restored when using UI scaling. (RR-696)
  
• Fixed list/detail panels (Milestones tab content) not maintaining consistent list width. (RR-657)
  
• Fixed camera zooming while mouse is over dropdown window or other UI. (RR-691)
  
• Fixed car inspector Operations panel not updating to reflect train crew and timetable symbol updates. (RR-689)
  
• Internal: Deprecated MapMask component; added RectangleMapMask and CircleMapMask.

Thank you for reading, for your support, and for playing Railroader!

One more quick fix for the holidays on the experimental-2024.6 branch!

• Auto Engineer Waypoint Mode: Fixed AE balking at taking diverging route at CTC switches. (RR-662)