Train Director is a clone of the popularTrain Dispatchersimulation software.With Train Director you can simulate the work of the Centralized TrafficControl (CTC). Your task is to direct trains running in a territoryto their final destination, by throwing switches and clearing signals.Penalties are collected for incorrect or inefficient operations,or for trains arriving late.You can also create your own territories with theincluded track layout editor.Train Director is available for Windows (95, XP, 7, 8, 10) but can be executedon Mac OS X and Linux using Wine (see below).

Your vintage train consists of a steam locomotive and tender, plus baggage cars and passenger coaches. Your train will travel between stops, up and down grades, negotiate curves, switch tracks. Rail Route is a management & tycoon game based on railroad dispatching. With relaxed gameplay which is easy to understand but hard to master, Rail Route offers a unique experience that hasn't been done before.

Installing on Windows

Running on Linux

As of August 2017 the native Linux binary has been retired.
You can run the Windows binaries on Linux using Wine. This gives much better performance, has better behavior, and is guaranteed to be always up to date with the latest version.
Follow these instructions:

Go to the Wine download page, and choose your Linux distribution. Then follow the instructions on the following page. Basically you would use apt-get or yum to install the Wine package. You will want to have 32-bit compatibility installed, since Train Director is a 32-bit application.

After that, download the file tdir39win.zip, create a directory such as ~/traindir3, unzip the downloaded file there and type wine ./traindir3.
You may be notified that a few 'mono' packages are not installed. Just ignore the warnings, as these packages are not required.
That's it! You should see the Train Director window open, and you can start using the game.

Running on Mac OS X

As of August 2017 the native Mac OS X binary has been retired.
As a matter of fact, the native Mac OS X executable had never been able to play complex scenarios, due to some technical limitations of Mac's graphics code.
But, you can run the Windows binaries on Mac OS X using Wine. This gives much better performance, has better behavior, and is guaranteed to be always up to date with the latest version.
Follow these easy instructions:

First install XQuartz 2.7.x. Go to the XQuartz site, and click on the Download link (for example 'XQuartz-2.7.11.dmg'). After the download has completed, open on the downloaded .dmg file, then click on the .pkg file that appears in the window. You may have to provide your system credentials to install the package. When the installer starts, accept the license and proceed with the installation.

Then go to the Wine download page, and click on the 'Installer for Wine Stable' link. After the download is complete, click on the downloaded .pkg file, and proceed with the installation. Installing 64 bit support is not required to run Train Director, but you may want to install it anyway if you want to run other Windows 64-bit applications.

After that, download the file tdir39win.zip, create a directory such as ~/traindir3, unzip the downloaded file there and open the traindir3.exe from the Finder.
You may be notified that a few 'mono' packages are not installed. Just ignore the warnings, as these packages are not required.
That's it! You should see the Train Director window open, and you can start using the game.

Quick Tour

The following image shows the welcome page, from where you canload a previous simulation or start a new simulation.

Train Dispatcher Game Machines

Once loaded a scenario, the most relevant data to the executionof the simulation are shown in the same window frame.In the following image you can see the layout, the time tablein the lower left corner, and information about a train inthe lower right corner.

It's also possible to remove undesired elements from thescreen, such as the toolbar at the top or the status bar at thebottom, so as to maximize the area used to show the layout.

It is now possible to show and print the summary pages (suchas the performance page, the station schedule and the train timetable)directly from inside the program.

It is also possible to scroll the view of the layout using thearrow keys (use Ctrl+arrow for bigger scrolls).

Lastly, it's possible to load a scenario directly from the .zipfile, without the need to expand the scenario in its own directory.

In version 3.1 it is now possible to zoom in/out the layout;this is very useful when looking at very packed territories.

Also new in version 3.1 is the possibility of always showingthe layout coordinates, and also the ability to insert/delete lines/columnsor move blocks during the editing of the layout.

In version 3.2 you can define up to 8 train types.Also a new action has been added to the trigger: 'assign @'.With this new command, one can automate almost every operation,allowing for full unattended simulation of a scenario.A lot of minor bugs have also been fixed.

In version 3.3 you can define approach signals and definesignals with multiple aspects. This is accomplished by writingseparate scripts that are associated with each signal, and thatprovide the logic for changing the signal's aspect according tothe traffic conditions.

Version 3.4 introduces the management of rolling stockthat is separate from running trains. It is now possible tosplit and join trains, thus increasing the simulationrealism, especially when trains have the length information.

Version 3.5 is the first version that can be compiled and run on Mac OS X. This version uses Unicode support for the Mac OS X and Linux versions. I fixed a few bugs and I introduced the possibility of saving the performance report in a text file, as well as the possibility to select an itinerary from a list or using the Shift+Click on the beginning and ending signal of the itinerary (as in version 1.19).

Free Train Dispatcher Game

Version 3.6 extends the scripting capabilities tocover tracks, signals and trains. See the scripts page for more information. It also introduces the abilityto automatically display information about the simulation from HTMLpages in the 'Scenario Info' window.

Version 3.7 allows scenario creators to specify random delays for the entrance time and departure time of trains. Moreover it is now possible to connect to Train Director from another program and to control its behavior and receive user-generated events. Also, it is now possible to save an image of the layout as a BMP, JPG, GIF or PNG file through the File + Print menu. Finally many bugs caused by the split and join train feature have been fixed.

Consult the user's manual for further information.

This page is maintained by g_caprino@gmail.com
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Created on June 1, 2000