Disneyland Railroad Steam Simulator turns 5 years old!

Released in December 2017, the Steam Simulator officially turned 5 years old in December 2022.

A retrospective: computers and tech move fast, and a lot happened in 5 years. Apple released four iPhones since then, and game engines improved too. The Simulator was built on Unity 5, which was the latest at the time, and the Sim did look “mostly” photorealistic…for 2017. So, while I do think it looked good for its time, it is definitely showing its age when compared to the latest game engines.

Photorealistic cab of the EP Ripley

To celebrate its big milestone birthday, the Simulator is now available at only $19.

I do not have any updates planned for the Simulator at the moment, and porting the Sim into a new engine is only a daydream for now. This new price also reflects its legacy status.

CK Holliday at Frontierland Station, 1955
Steam Simulator’s recreation of the above photo

Maybe one day I will get back into rebuilding it “from the ground up” with the newest tech. But, at least now that it’s an older game, it should run pretty on most modern hardware!

It may be old, but where else can you fire and pull the original Disneyland Railroad engines, other than getting a job at the park?

6 Comments

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6 Responses to Disneyland Railroad Steam Simulator turns 5 years old!

  1. etay markman

    It may be old and not getting any more updates. but it beats other steam loco simulators by a landslide, sure smokebox is breaking the limits of “train simulator classic” with his steam locomotive add-ons. but he will never do disneyland, and driving the DLRR is much more interesting to me than driving a big boy or a challenger

    • preston

      Hi Etay. Yes, I still find myself playing in the sim once in a while too. I’ve tried others but there’s just something in this sim that makes the engines feel alive to me, in ways that I can’t feel in other ones. Maybe I’m bias… maybe it’s my janky programming . Sometimes I’ll just fire it up in the background just to hear the roar of the fire and atomizer.

  2. Cody Osborn

    Are you planning on updating the sim with new features and Disneyland 1963 map soon?

  3. Nate

    Even though its 5 years old, this sim definitely is up there with some of the best ever developed. Something about the quaint simplicity of running a fully-simulated steam locomotive through a park like Disneyland is always captivating. Here’s to hopefully many more years of the sim!

    Ever thought of releasing a physical disc copy of the sim? It would pair nicely with the physical print manual, as well as being a neat shelf knick-knack, and a nice backup for the digital download.

  4. Alex the Historian

    I truly enjoy this Simulator. I love live-streaming it to people. But even with my custom-built gaming computer, I can’t run certain modes of it, like having people in the park, or extreme weather. It would be awesome if the game could be further optimized, or rebuilt into a newer game engine. Heck, it’d be cool to see that 1963 version announced on the menu finally built. I’d definitely push the simulator more on my channel. Hope you and your family are doing well, Preston.

  5. Steve DeGaetano

    Five years? Man, time flies!

    I don’t have a gaming computer, but I still enjoy running it to the extent I’m able. The detail and accuracy to me is astounding.

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