Diesel Railcar Simulator

[i]Diesel Railcar Simulator[/i] is exactly its title: a diesel railcar driving simulator. Its primary focus is on British diesel multiple-units and diesel locomotives around the turn of the 60s. I'd like to impress upon readers this game is [i]not[/i] an immersive simulator, not in the truest sense. [i]DRS[/i] shares most in common with traditional rail vehicle simulators, not so much with immersive sandbox titles like [i]Derail Valley[/i]. Pick an engine and a timetable to run from the main menu, and [i]DRS[/i] starts you on the line in a vehicle ready to be hot-started. The short is I adore [i]Diesel Railcar Simulator[/i]. The game gets its sauce by authentically representing the experience of driving and riding these railcars. There's definitely a mechanical or physical feel to it all; the player is in charge of manually shifting the gearbox as well as working the pneumatic brake essentially by opening a valve and lapping it to set a desired brake force. The bogies can be observed recoiling at every undulation in the railroad, and the camera in the cab shakes to give a sense of the forces traveling up from the wheels. This sort of thing is what [i]Diesel Railcar Simulator[/i]…

For those who are looking for a no nonsense simulator for train operation this is one of the best games out there that I have played so far. The price is reasonable for what it is and the details that the simulator models is very good. As a part of the tutorial, the game links actual old British Rail training videos to learn about train operations, signalling, etc. I am American and I knew basically nothing about UK railroading whatsoever before using this simulator. Now after seeing the primary sources linked by the game as well as doing some of the routes my knowledge of UK railroading has greatly increased. I also now have the song "Brainblast" from the BR signalling video stuck in my head (iykyk). If you are a fan of stopping passenger services, this game is for you. I was ignorant to the fact that UK trains used vacuum brakes well into the 20th century and to my knowledge this is the only sim that simulates vacuum braking systems properly. Handling the trains and making stops is challenging to master. I still cannot do it without the handicap of the brake status monitor on the HUD.

Charming and straightforward train simulator with a surprising amount of built in tutorialization and hints to make learning the game a lot easier. Great cameras and sense of speed. Didn't know how much I liked diesel railcars and their funny transmissions until playing this game.

First I am playing DRS on a Linux Mint 22.2 system, and running Proton 10.0-4 (latest). I'd been following the game for quite some time and I see a lot of potential in the games progression from EA to full. There is a lot of repetition of the routes (meaning you do the sames things more than one time), but I believe this is getting players used to driving the rail network. Not a fan of the XP or over penalizing a player for making mistakes, but it is what it is. I think a better solution is reputation and perhaps an economy that gives a player better opportunities to advance in the game. The scoring system falls into the arcade world. On the simulation side it's quite good actually. It's not on the levels of say SimRail, but for what DRS is programmed to do in simulation it's good. There is a career mode that was added so you can take it a step further than just single runs, and adds a lot. There is an editor, but it's not all that intuitive as I am learned (and tried for myself), but coming from Trainz 22 PE that's kind of what I thought the editor would be like in DRS. Though my opinions on what I think isn't necessary in the game doesn't diminish that it is s…

Its a cool sim, I thought it was actually far more in-depth than I was anticipating with the sounds and controls but there is one glaring issue and that is there are no headlights despite there being different times of day as well as tunnels with actual darkness. I know its a one man team or whatever but lights aren't hard to add and are a rather important part of trains. Overall its a nice cost effective experience with a decent world to drive around and admire but if you want headlights evidently you'll have to go to rolling line, train sim world, or trainz to satisfy that simple desire.

This is a good game. Not perfect, but I've put enough time into it to justify the price four times over.