Railways, Train Routes, and Railway Bridges

1. Apply a railway family

In an FS25 project, select the Railways vector layer or the railway lines you want to build. Open Collections, choose Railways, choose a Collection and Family, then Apply. Cancel clears the railway assignment from the selected lines or layer without deleting the guide lines. Read-only projects cannot save these changes.

The European railway family provides fixed-length straights, calibrated curves, left and right switches, and buffer stops. Below Family, small Track parts cards show the contents of that family; parts are chosen automatically, not selected individually. Bridge Constructor appears in the bottom action row when a bridge is selected. Hover or focus the Track status information button to inspect the latest track count, train routes and warnings. There are no poles, overhead wires or unsupported diamond crossings in this pass. The separate Collections page also lets you browse railway families available for your game.

Guide lines describe the intended direction and broad bends, not the exact rails. Small changes in the guide do not make the track weave back toward it. Track pieces keep their physical dimensions and may stay offset from the guide, including after a switch. Use the fitted track, not the original line, when checking clearances. Simplify an unsuitable guide or use a broader curve if the Editor reports excessive deviation.

With lines or a layer selected, the railway collection footer offers Sync guides to tracks, Apply, and Cancel. Selecting a pin or bridge replaces the assignment actions with controls for that selection. Select the railway layer again to return to its assignment actions. Longer labels wrap within their button when the panel is narrow.

When the fitted layout is final, choose Sync guides to tracks in the railway collection. It replaces every constructed railway source line in the project with the actual fitted centerline while keeping the visible native tracks and switches fixed. Bridge ranges, bridge controls, moved pillars and route choices are remapped to the new stations. Existing fitting-pin corrections are baked into the lines and the pins are cleared so they are not applied twice. The action supports Undo and Redo.

The synchronized lines can then be buffered or used by Rasterize and Paint Lock where the terrain treatment must follow the real rails. Generated train-return leads outside the playable area are not copied into the authored lines. If you later edit a synchronized line, add or move a fitting pin, or change a railway family, fitting becomes active again; use Sync guides to tracks once more after the layout is final.

Shared guide vertices can connect compatible tracks with available switches facing either direction along the main track. Connect the branch endpoint to a vertex on the main guide: nearby but unconnected endpoints and planar crossings do not create a connection. A switch may move along the fitted track to meet a suitable straight section. Unsupported intersections remain separate and produce a warning. Buffer stops appear at genuine dead ends inside the playable area; they are not placed on exits outside it.

2. Mark important places with fitting pins

After applying tracks, open Railways (8). The original guide appears in blue. Click a fitted track or its guide to select a location and show a sphere. This selection is temporary: it does not save a pin or move the tracks. Drag the sphere freely across the map and release it to create a fitting pin at the required location, such as the opening beneath a bridge; it is not constrained to the guide. Use two pins around a bridge approach to guide its position and direction.

The sphere follows the cursor during dragging and a connecting line shows the previous fitted track position. Release to save one change and refit the tracks; Escape cancels the drag. Moving a pin changes the target for that part of the track without editing the original guide. Ground pins follow terrain; pins on railway bridges retain the separately authored bridge height. Delete, Backspace or Remove pin removes the selected pin without deleting tracks. Pin changes support Undo and Redo and are saved with the railway assignment. Each guide can have up to 64 pins. Translated copies move the targets with their guides; cut or reshaped fragments need new pins.

Green pins are within 2 metres of the corresponding fitted track position. Amber pins are farther away; a connecting line shows the mismatch. Pins are fitting priorities, not a promise that every layout is possible: fixed curves, switches and conflicting pins can prevent a close fit. Move conflicting pins or broaden the guide and recheck the result. Unpinned tracks keep their usual direction-guided fitting. Pin fitting keeps native parts rigid and does not detach a branch from its switch or open an already closed chain.

Eligible switch arrows, green route lines, bridge handles and bridge fence slots share the same Railways tool. Drag a sphere for a fitting pin; use its upward arrow for a bridge. Cancel dismisses a selected pin or temporary sphere. Clicking or cancelling a temporary sphere leaves the tracks unchanged. Pins influence FS25 export as well as the preview; review track clearances again when exporting at a different map size.

3. Review the train route

Choose Railways in Toolbox, or press 8 with the default shortcuts. Gold lines show fitted tracks and green lines show eligible closed train routes. At a supported switch, click the through or branch arrow to choose another eligible route. This changes the saved train route; it does not make trains dynamically choose branches in game.

Each train uses one closed, non-branching route. Independent networks can have separate trains. Fitted tracks that end outside the playable area can be extended and joined by a return outside it, even when their endpoints are still inside the surrounding terrain. You do not need to extend the guides to the outer terrain boundary. Routes and switch arrows follow the fitted tracks, not the original guides, and the Editor and FS25 export use the same playable area. A dead end inside the playable area cannot serve as a return. If no valid route exists, the tracks remain but no train is added.

The route must be long enough for the supplied train; routes shorter than 250 metres are excluded. Very complex networks can reach a route-search limit. Review the warning, simplify the network, and inspect the available alternatives again.

4. Construct and adjust a railway bridge

Open Railways (8) and click the track or blue guide to show a temporary sphere. Click its upward arrow to create a bridge profile at the current elevation, or drag the arrow upward and release to raise it. A click on the track alone changes nothing. The initial ramps extend up to 18 metres on either side, limited by the line ends and neighboring bridges. Inside an existing bridge, select another location and drag its upward arrow to add a height control. With a bridge selected, Bridge Constructor appears in the action row at the bottom of Collections, alongside Remove bridge and Cancel. Use it to apply the deck, pillars and abutments. Cancel dismisses the selection; a height profile alone creates no supports.

The constructor opens as a centred movable dialog and uses the same deck shapes, textures, pillar types and abutments as roads. With a railway bridge selected, choose Bridge texture collection in Collections to select one Road collection for its materials. This is the same selection used by the Roads panel; the track Family remains separate. The constructor lists only surface textures from that collection, and existing bridge materials remain unchanged until replaced. A collection with surface textures is required to create a structure. After you apply a structure, its deck, pillar and abutment choices become the defaults for the next new road or railway bridge using that texture collection. Individual moved or removed pillars are never copied into those defaults.

Drag the green height handles to adjust elevation and the purple end arrows to move the ramp boundaries. Drag either blue side arrow to change the deck width from 4 to 30 metres. A wider deck supports nearby parallel tracks inside it; it does not raise a perpendicular track passing underneath. Configured pillars have their own handles on the fitted track. Drag a pillar along the bridge, or select it and use Remove pillar, Delete or Backspace to remove only that pillar. Changing generated pillar spacing resets individual pillar edits.

Release a handle to save one change, or press Escape to cancel its drag. Select a bridge away from an individual pillar and press Delete, or choose Remove bridge, to remove its profile and structure without deleting the track guide. Railway assignments and bridge changes support Undo and Redo. A translated copy retains its profile; cut or reshaped fragments inherit the family but require new bridge ranges and route choices.

A configured railway bridge always shows pink and purple fence ribbons along its deck edges while the Railways tool is active. The selected ribbon widens and turns yellow, like road guardrail slots. Click either ribbon to open Decorations in Fences mode for that bridge side, choose a fence family and its parts, then Apply. Apply and Remove affect only that bridge side. The fence follows the fitted rigid track and elevated deck rather than the original blue guide or terrain, including after the bridge is rebuilt.

Bridge elevation uses the chosen track parts without realigning the entire railway to its fitting pins. Rigid parts keep their dimensions, so tilting the approach pieces shortens their horizontal reach slightly. Changing deck materials, width or individual pillars leaves the owning track fit unchanged. Bridge control heights remain absolute when you sculpt a river below a road or railway bridge. Carving below the span does not pull its deck down. Ramp ends still meet terrain, and supports reach the current ground, so recheck the approaches and pillars after terrain edits. Nearby parallel tracks must remain inside the widened deck.

5. Export and test in FS25

Save your changes and create a fresh FS25 export. It includes native track placements, railway bridge structures with collision, bridge-edge fence placements, and eligible closed train routes using the supplied diesel locomotive and wagons. Railway bridge fences resolve against the same fitted elevated deck as the Editor instead of being placed on the terrain. Railway parts retain their physical size when export dimensions or terrain height scaling change. This railway export is not available for FS22.

Each eligible train route gets a rental point beside a suitable ground-level track inside the playable area. Find the train icon on the game map, visit it and rent the train for 1,000 per real-time hour. You can enter the rented train and drive it within its playable section. Routes that return outside the playable area keep their automatic return; driving is limited to the longest continuous playable section. If that section is too short or has no suitable ground-level rental location, the export reports a warning and the train remains autonomous.

Selling stations, crossing gates and overhead electrification are not added. Open the export in GIANTS Editor to inspect track joints, switches, bridge clearances and supports, then test rental and train movement in a new FS25 save. Existing saves retain their saved placeables and may not load a newly added train system or rental point. Native conversion alone does not verify in-game movement or wheel alignment.

If a railway model cannot load, reload the Editor. If generation or export reports a missing family or bridge texture, restore the compatible collection or reassign the affected tracks and bridge material. Wait for saving to finish before exporting.