Train Simulator 2019

Train Simulator 2019 is a first-person, single-player railway simulation built on a platform that Dovetail Games has been iterating since 2009. The 2019 edition is the most technically significant update in years: the entire engine was converted to 64-bit, which means more stable memory usage, fewer hard crashes when you have a large DLC collection loaded, and a measurable performance gain on the right hardware. New content arriving with this version includes the Portsmouth Direct Line (now extended to London Waterloo), the Frankfurt High Speed route with its ICE corridor, and the Soldier Summit and Salt Lake City extension through Utah's Wasatch Plateau - complete with the D&RGW SD40T-2, GP9, and Amtrak F40PH for motive power. Eight locomotives ship in the box across the new routes, and three regional editions add further traction including the BR Class 76, BR Class 450, BR Class 444, and BR Class 455. The driving model is the core reason people stick with this series. You get two control layers: Simple mode, where throttle and brakes collapse to a single on-screen lever controllable by mouse, keyboard, or gamepad; and Expert mode, where each locomotive's cab hardware - reverser, regulator, brake valves, and sanders - is modelled individually and must be operated in sequence. Steam traction in Expert mode is genuinely demanding: getting a Fowler 4F or a BR Class 76 moving cleanly up a grade without a slip requires the same throttle-then-brake timing discipline you would apply in a real cab. Career scenarios, Quick Drive, and Free Roam modes give you structured objectives or an open sandbox, and the Scenario Editor lets you script your own runs with custom instructions, failures, and timetable events. For newcomers, the TS Academy deserves more credit than it usually gets. It is a dedicated multi-locomotive training environment using the BR 189, Fowler 4F, and BR Class 170 across purpose-built short routes. The pacing is slow and methodical - exactly what a 200-hour sim should offer at the front door. Work through it, and the main career routes stop being intimidating. The real learning curve is not the controls; it is understanding how route DLC and locomotive DLC interact, since some vehicle packs are only useful if you also own the matching route. Plan purchases carefully before spending. The problems are real and worth naming plainly. The engine, even with the 64-bit upgrade, still stutters. Benchmarks from the Soldier Summit route show frame rates swinging between a clean 60 FPS and drops to single digits within the same scenario, depending on scene complexity. Scenery textures outside the cab models look muddy at close range, AI pedestrians are flat, and the overall visual presentation has not kept pace with the simulation depth. The main menu and loading screens actively advertise DLC, which gets tiring fast. The total DLC catalogue across the platform runs to hundreds of packs, and the financial commitment to build out a serious collection is substantial. If you already own earlier editions, the 64-bit conversion alone has genuine value for collection stability. If you are brand new to train simulation and want the deepest PC railway sim with the largest mod and route ecosystem available, this is still the platform that delivers - just go in with a route-first acquisition strategy, lean on the TS Academy, and treat the base content as a sampler rather than a complete experience.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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