I want a model railroad simulator. I don’t want to drive the trains fpv, I just want to lay the track and buildings and terrain and stuff and control the trains third person. Not a transport tycoon type game, I don’t care about economies. Not a MS Train Simulator ripoff, I don’t want to worry about all the nuance of actually driving the thing.
I want a model train irl but don’t have space for it. A video game would fill this niche nicely for me. Something like Cities: Skylines I think but focused entirely on trains and without any of the city building requirements, and a sandbox.
Rolling Line is the closest game I’ve seen to being a true model railroading simulator. You can build layouts with few restrictions and control trains in third person. The low-poly art style can make it seem like it’s not very detailed, but it’s possible to make some great layouts on Rolling Line. You do have to build some things manually though, not quite like Cities: Skylines or Transport Fever where you can simply draw out a track in five seconds.
I just became aware of Rolling Line, which is what prompted me to post this! Rolling Line is exactly what I’m looking for but the low poly art isn’t my favorite (but I might be able to learn to live with it) and I don’t have a VR setup so not sure how well it will work on my steam deck.
Haven’t tried it on a Steam Deck, but it works just fine on PC. You certainly don’t have to get VR for it.
The low poly art is a slight annoyance, but I think that the game makes up for it by giving you a lot of freedom in actually building the layout.
Awesome. If it works well on a flat screen I’ll probably pick it up then. Are there many prefab buildings? I watched a YouTuber build a layout but he was making all the buildings from scratch. I’ve seen that you can ride inside the engines, can you ride inside the passenger cars as well?
I want a model railroad simulator. I don’t want to drive the trains fpv, I just want to lay the track and buildings and terrain and stuff and control the trains third person. Not a transport tycoon type game, I don’t care about economies. Not a MS Train Simulator ripoff, I don’t want to worry about all the nuance of actually driving the thing.
I want a model train irl but don’t have space for it. A video game would fill this niche nicely for me. Something like Cities: Skylines I think but focused entirely on trains and without any of the city building requirements, and a sandbox.
Tabletop sim
Might be worth checking out Art of the Rail. True to the thread, it’s not developed yet, but is coming soon.
It’s economy based, but I think there was mention of a creative mode.
Rolling Line is the closest game I’ve seen to being a true model railroading simulator. You can build layouts with few restrictions and control trains in third person. The low-poly art style can make it seem like it’s not very detailed, but it’s possible to make some great layouts on Rolling Line. You do have to build some things manually though, not quite like Cities: Skylines or Transport Fever where you can simply draw out a track in five seconds.
I just became aware of Rolling Line, which is what prompted me to post this! Rolling Line is exactly what I’m looking for but the low poly art isn’t my favorite (but I might be able to learn to live with it) and I don’t have a VR setup so not sure how well it will work on my steam deck.
Haven’t tried it on a Steam Deck, but it works just fine on PC. You certainly don’t have to get VR for it. The low poly art is a slight annoyance, but I think that the game makes up for it by giving you a lot of freedom in actually building the layout.
I do wish there were more games like it though.
Awesome. If it works well on a flat screen I’ll probably pick it up then. Are there many prefab buildings? I watched a YouTuber build a layout but he was making all the buildings from scratch. I’ve seen that you can ride inside the engines, can you ride inside the passenger cars as well?
If you have a VR headset then you don’t have to wait! https://store.steampowered.com/app/763790/TrainerVR/
Unrelated, but if you do have a VR headset (Or get one) make sure to check out Walkabout Mini Golf!