Update 22-05-2025: ThirdRails 9 has now full support for Train Sim World 5! Whether you want to simply track your ride in Train Sim World or Train Sim Classic, enjoy stunning maps, discover new landmarks, join a growing multiplayer-style community, or integrate a timetable with spoken announcements , it’s all now possible. - Here’s what you can do with ThirdRails in TSW right now: [Edit 03-06-2025 to reflect full API support] 1. Track Yourself on the Multiplayer-Style Radar Follow your train live on a map, complete with stations, signals, and discoverable landmarks. See and interact with other drivers, turning an isolated solo ride into a connected railway experience. 2. Drive Real-Time Timetables Use live schedules from RealTimeTrains (UK) or DB (Europe) in both timetabled and freeroam scenarios. Enjoy spoken announcements along the way, triggered by the timetable or added manually. 3. Leverage the Live Browser Access real-time data on train formations, schedules, and station info while driving. The built-in PDF viewer lets you pull up manuals, maps, or route notes without leaving the cab. Interested? What is ThirdRails? ThirdRails is a tracker Check out more information here: ThirdRails forTrain Sim World users Free download available here: https://thirdrails.org/downloads.html I’m excited to see how this is adopted in the community—let me know what you think! See you on the radar!
This is fantastic news BeenTrain ! I have been wondering if Thirdrails was ever going to be availalbe for TSW and now it is here. Thanks for putting in the time and effort to create this.
I tried it today on the München to Augsburg route using an S3 service from Mammendorf to Hackerbrücke. It worked quite well. The only real difference from TSC is that you need to open the doors at each stop using TSW keys U or Y, as well as the ThirdRails keybinding of Alt T to record the stop. At the end of the run, it didn't save to my ThirdRails Activity Logbook.
Working on it. For logbook bit puzzling what to log, since we don't have driven miles logged. Could probable calculate distance from the straight lines between the stations, but some stations could be missed if we can't find the GPS position, so it will be inacurate anyway. Maybe a combi with manual input or better waiting till an API is available. But would be nice to log the timeliness.
I understand where you’re coming from. ThirdRails has been in development for over six years, continuously adding new features. At its core, ThirdRails is a tracking tool. You start the simulator, click "follow," and your in-game position is displayed on a real-world map (OSM, Bing, OpenRailwayMap). This position is broadcasted to the radar—a website that shows a map with all players in real-time, creating a multiplayer-style experience. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to Train Sim World yet, as we need the API for real-time tracking. The second key feature of ThirdRails is extended gameplay, and this is where TSW users can benefit. Extended gameplay allows you to pick up a real-time timetable (or create your own) and run it using ThirdRails' custom HUD. In this mode, you can ignore the in-game HUD and follow the timetable directly. In Train Simulator Classic, this brings extra meaning to Quick Drive scenarios, where you’re not just driving from A to B—you’re executing a timetable, potentially in sync with a real-world service. As an added bonus, ThirdRails provides spoken announcements on every route, powered by over 450 Azure AI voices, enhancing the immersion. In Train Sim World you could execute this on timetabled of freeroam scenarios and station-to-station tracking shows you on the radar. I hope this helps! For more information, visit the Learn Page, where you’ll find more tutorials and videos.
Yes. In TSW5 for sure if you use a matching timetabled scenario. In TSC it depends if the Quickdrive scenario provides AI traffic. Most do provide AI traffic. For TSC the app also offers a Multiplayer option using standard scenarios.
This is the best idea product for TSW thx. I tried launch it with tsw5 on english routs(as in example) but i cant launch it with Koln-Achen rout. Help me please
For example: I want drive Train ICE 15 Bruxelles-Frankfurt. In TSW i can choose it ICE15 11:40 from Aachen. In ThirdRail choose StartService - Europe- choose ICE 15 and i see that Ice15 only Bruxelles-Aachen So how i can drive it P.S. I founded Route RE9 - and choose it. But its not working I see me in browser but my speed 0km/h
You can search for service from Aachen? Live schedules may differ from the one in game. You can choose what you want, you can for example ride a night service in TSW in the afternoon. No speed and live tracking yet because currently TSW API does not support it. So no realtime live tracking like in Train Simulator Classic.
A wonderful app! Of the features, I noticed a time discrepancy with TW5, namely, if you synchronize the time, then after half an hour there will be a minute difference - the simulator is lagging behind) I also can't connect to the DB service, I don't know what caused it.. The UK service is fine -
A key aspect of ThirdRails Real Drive is that you can largely ignore the TSW HUD and execute the timetable using the ThirdRails HUD. This allows for more flexibility in real-time driving, such as running a night timetable during the day or adjusting your schedule dynamically without strict time constraints. If the upcoming TSW API provides a way to extract the player's timetable, ThirdRails could automatically sync time, much like in TSC, where a scenario timetable is used for execution. (TS Drive) This could open up a whole new gameplay experience, allowing for a multiplayer-style interaction on the radar where players follow and execute real-world schedules together. (It remains to be seen if the API provides this functionality) That's a known issue (the used DB Service stopped working), and it's already fixed in our next update! This update will be released alongside the official TSW API, which, according to Matt in the Roadmap Stream, is expected in one or two TSW updates, so hopefully within a few weeks.
Thank you for your reply. The upcoming update with API support is really good news. So far, I've found the best synchronization option for myself: I manually create a schedule according to the current schedule in TSW, enter the time and platforms, and then save and use them. Thus, in the ThirdRails application, the time corresponds to the time in the simulator. The main thing is to take into account the gaps during stops, this allows you to completely abandon the HUD. And the functionality of the program allows you to quickly recalculate the time in the schedule, when the departure time changes. This makes it easy to duplicate schedules for the same service but for different departure times. Thank you for developing such an application and I hope that in the future it will be fully optimized for working with TSW.
Tried this on a New Jersey route and worked flawlessly. Trying it now on Peninsula Corridor and it's all a mess. When I start at San Francisco it shows me in Spain (San Francisco) on the map. My first stop is 22nd Street and that shows me in Toronto (att 22nd Street.) Since it isn't reading location from TSW how can I get it to show me in the proper location? Really enjoy the announcement feature, as well as using a real world timetable in free roam. Eddie
Really glad you’re enjoying it, Eddie! Yeah, the station-based hopping isn’t perfect, it uses the Calling At station names, and sometimes it gets confused if different places share the same name. So every once in a while, you might end up halfway across the world! The good news is: once the full TSW API drops (Matt mentioned in the roadmap stream it shouldn’t be too far off), we’ll have proper real-time tracking. All the features TSC drivers already have will be there for TSW drivers too. Just need a little more patience… but trust me, it’s going to be amazing when it’s all up and running!
damn, this looks good, but I am too lazy to fiddle this much with stuff ... I am still wishfully thinking we get an Ebula/PTC kind of in-cab display on those blank unused screens in cabs ... so we can immerse in the game with either most or all of HUD gone
Hi Beentrain, this is the first I’m hearing of such an application, it sounds amazing. I’ll wait until TSW have released the API software first; however, I’m very excited to see where this goes. Keep up the good work.
Hello, whenever I try to start the service, it says ''please start TS first'', can I know what I have to do so I can use the app properly? Thanks
Assuming you want to use it with TSW you have to start TSW 5 before you can proceed. Since ThirdRails was originaly build for TSC the 'old' message is showing.
I do have TSW5 started then started ThirdRails, I've tried it multiple times and it's still not working
That's strange I did not receive other reports on that. Could be that your system has another setup. Please send an email to beentrain [at] gmail.com so we can workout a solution.
Just wanted to share that ThirdRails 9 now fully supports Train Sim World! Whether you just want to track your ride, enjoy beautiful maps, discover new landscapes, or go all in with a service timetable and spoken announcements, it’s all there. Give it a try! More info: https://thirdrails.org/tut_tsw5.html
This is FANTASTIC! I was using it before but now with the GPS it adds a whole new layer to the sim. Being able to follow along on a satellite map and compare to the in-game scenery really adds to the realism for me. And love the announcements. Well done! And THANK YOU!
Out of interest you mention that we only have to enable -httpapi once, does that change any settings in game files and if so how do we turn it off if we decide to not use the program? Thank you
Good question! Enabling -HTTPAPI doesn’t change any game files or settings, it simply opens up a local port on your PC that makes the TSW API available while the game is running. If you decide not to use ThirdRails (or any API tool), just remove -HTTPAPI from your launch options, and that’s it, nothing permanent is changed.
Is there an option, for those of us with multiple monitors, to pop out the thirdrails overlay to a window on a second display instead of having it overlay the ingame view?
Yes you can! All HUD panels, including the Timetable, Speedometer, EBula, and Radar, can be freely moved anywhere on your screen by simply dragging them. They currently reset to their default positions on startup (relative to the TSW form) , but saving their layout would be a good feature for a future release.
Hmm, activating the overlay ingame causes an infinite loop of unhandled exception errors. But that's cool as the regular thirdrails window looks fine on my second monitor so there's no need for the overlay HUD to ever be turned on.
That bug is fixed in version 9.0.0.3 Download hotfix here : https://www.thirdrails.org/downloads.html?v9003
Oh, wow, that this was not the version available to download on the downloads page when I went and grabbed it an hour ago [edit] I see, it's there when I scroll down past the "latest" version. Maybe ought to just offer a straight up installer for 9.0.0.3 as well as the fix for those who installed 9.0.0.0? By the way, commendation on the variety of skins, I was even able to find my own windows desktop's theme in there, and I had to edit my registry to get that back after it was deprecated in W10. Anyway - next question, is there a means of getting it to remember my layer settings for the radar tab the way it does for the map tab? Or synchronise the former to the latter?
And one more - is there a way to get my whistleboard profile to correctly reference me as "she" rather than the default "he"? Couldn't find a toggle in the settings.
