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Railroader
You and your fellow railroaders are the lifeblood of your railroad, just like it is the lifeblood of the communities it serves. Switch cars at industries. Keep people moving while running local passenger trains. Run trains with a purpose in transition era Appalachia – in Railroader!
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
55 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I am a big fan of Derail Valley so I wanted to give this a try. I will say it is slightly different than derail as you are moving multiple trains at the same time. The models are pretty dang good and a good variety of…”
“Had the game for coulle of months. In those 2 months i have derailed, delivered goods, have forgotton what grass smells and looks like 10/10 definitely do play again”
18 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I'm not going to write much because so many other's have. If you like the idea of running your own shortline railroad. If you like large modding communities that are invested in the game and are turning out great…”
“I rarely review games, so my review may not be as good as others. The best way I can say my views is that for 20+ years I have been trying to find a train game that really scratches the itch. This is the first game to…”
“This game is good. My friend bought me this game a while ago and it's some of the best fun I've had. The steam sim is also relatively accurate which makes for an enjoyable running experience. There's also a large…”
12 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I am a big fan of Derail Valley so I wanted to give this a try. I will say it is slightly different than derail as you are moving multiple trains at the same time. The models are pretty dang good and a good variety of…”
“Had the game for coulle of months. In those 2 months i have derailed, delivered goods, have forgotton what grass smells and looks like 10/10 definitely do play again”
“found diesel trains didnt know what to do ended up with a 20k ton train derailed multiple times its derail valley all over again but better 10/10 will do it again”
8 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I rarely review games, so my review may not be as good as others. The best way I can say my views is that for 20+ years I have been trying to find a train game that really scratches the itch. This is the first game to…”
“Horribly addictive. Steam trains, shunting tetris, progression, shiny toys, coop, great modding community. Scratches the "just one more turn" itch. Beware the quick 30 mins game when you suddenty realise it's 3am. Again.”
“I have almost 100 hours on this game.. has a few bugs, but you power through them. Huge mod community. Great "campaign" (milestones). Keeps you busy all the time. Recommend this game 100% can't wait for the full product!”
8 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I'm not going to write much because so many other's have. If you like the idea of running your own shortline railroad. If you like large modding communities that are invested in the game and are turning out great…”
“I rarely review games, so my review may not be as good as others. The best way I can say my views is that for 20+ years I have been trying to find a train game that really scratches the itch. This is the first game to…”
“I've enjoyed this game a lot I've learned a lot on how to run a steam locomotives and diesel locomotives. I am more into steam engines than anything else, they built the country that we live in to day. And I am looking…”
11 of the 103 reviews raise this · 10 of them still recommend the game.
“I'm hesitant to not recommend this, because aspects of it are great... but it's suffering from two glaring issues in my opinion... The first and most important is that there's too much to do. There's a lot of railroad…”
“It is a fun game, not a great game, but a good game nonetheless. The problem with Railroader as it stands right now at the time of this review is performance drops, gameplay issues, and lack of proper modding support.…”
“I greatly enjoy railroader for its logistics, not its sim. If you are looking for a sim railroader is not an ideal option, but if you want to manage the logistics like no other game, railroader is the best for it.”
9 of the 103 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“It is a fun game, not a great game, but a good game nonetheless. The problem with Railroader as it stands right now at the time of this review is performance drops, gameplay issues, and lack of proper modding support.…”
“This is a great game. There are some random glitches due to being in early access, but for the most part it runs really well. I'm excited to see what the makers add to the game in the future.”
“I have almost 100 hours on this game.. has a few bugs, but you power through them. Huge mod community. Great "campaign" (milestones). Keeps you busy all the time. Recommend this game 100% can't wait for the full product!”
8 of the 103 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“It is a fun game, not a great game, but a good game nonetheless. The problem with Railroader as it stands right now at the time of this review is performance drops, gameplay issues, and lack of proper modding support.…”
“Decent game, Still needs ALOT of Polish, even with my System it can drop to like 20fps alot of the time for seemingly no reason. And be warned the Community around it are VERY toxic, don't bother with their Discord or…”
“For an early access game, Railroader is a very well designed. The game could use more optimization to run smother, especially in larger save's.”
6 of the 103 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Great foundation for a game, but in the last year the developers have almost completely abandoned this. No new content from them, and a reliance on modders to add new content. No new locomotives, no new rolling stock,…”
“Decent game, Still needs ALOT of Polish, even with my System it can drop to like 20fps alot of the time for seemingly no reason. And be warned the Community around it are VERY toxic, don't bother with their Discord or…”
“This game is good. My friend bought me this game a while ago and it's some of the best fun I've had. The steam sim is also relatively accurate which makes for an enjoyable running experience. There's also a large…”
3 of the 103 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Great foundation for a game, but in the last year the developers have almost completely abandoned this. No new content from them, and a reliance on modders to add new content. No new locomotives, no new rolling stock,…”
“It's a great base game and even better with mods. While modding can be complicated it's definitely worth if you're into this kind of thing. When it comes to gameplay the work CAN become long but you can work at your own…”
“Bottom line, experienced train sim people who already own several sims will be underwhelmed because this game is only on one map. It doesn't seem like Railroader will one day have DLC for routes around the country or…”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 96.6% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“As a game, Railroader has a lot going for it, and, as you can see from the number of hours I have invested in playing it, I have had a great time with it in its current pre-release form. The game's basic scenario is that you are rebuilding a mid-19th century railroad that has…”
— a player, Steam review · 653 hrs played“Nice every 10 years a game manages to get it right; some perfect blend.. where something simple turns addictive.. this game manages to do that; like a work of art. Game Design for connaisseurs. I love every detail of this one… you start to live in this valley, know every bend,…”
— a player, Steam review · 288 hrs played“I came to this game as an avid Transport Fever player who was dissatisfied with MS Train Simulator and Trainz New Era, and I am glad someone finally hit the sweet spot between those types of games. The train driving mechanics are in depth enough to actually feel like you are in…”
— a player, Steam review · 116 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-04). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
July 2026 Development Update
Hello, Railroaders! It's been a busy month for us here on the Railroader Dev Team. We've got three things to share with you today. First, it's Train Fest here on Steam, which means it's a great time t
Maintenance of Way Preview Video for National Train Day
157 years ago, the driving of the golden spike marked the meeting of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads at Promontory Summit – the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. We
March 2026 Development Update
Hello Railroaders!We wanted to give you an update on where things stand with the MoW Update. The beginning of this year has been particularly productive, and while we are happy with the state of the g
November 2025 Development Update
Hello Railroaders!Can you believe it’s been almost two years since Railroader was released in Early Access? Some of you have been with us since before it was called Railroader! Many of you have joined
New Bundle: Running the Railroad - Railroader & Rail Route
Railroader has coupled up to Rail Route, the railroad design and dispatching strategy game, for a railroading bundle! Take command behind the signal board in Rail Route, where you’ll design, expand, a
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | Simulation, Strategy, Early Access |
| Player tags | Early Access · Simulation · Trains · Transportation · Automobile Sim · Open World · 3D · Immersive Sim · Cinematic · First-Person · Realistic · Top-Down (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · Co-op · Online Co-op · Steam Cloud · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English * * |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i5 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1660 6GB Storage: 8 GB available space