Please remember you won't be able to include any of your items in routes and scenarios which you publish to the Steam Workshop. You will get an "unrecognised blueprint" error if you try to publish any custom-made stuff. But if you wish to make your own unique custom assets for your route with a view to getting it released on a platform like UKTrainSim or as payware then this guide is definitely for you.

What we want to do is to create a scenery object, such as the Gosport station sign in this picture


We need to create the sign and then import it into the game.

This is where you will store your scenery item files and the textures used to create them.

You need to create the Developer folder inside the RailWorks/Source folder.

You can call the Developer folder anything you like that identifies you.

Inside this you need to create a Product sub-folder. Call it something which describes the planned group of scenery items.

And inside this create a sub-folder called Textures.

So the resulting path will probably be like this

This PC > OS (C:) > Program File (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common > RailWorks > Source > Developer > Product > Textures

But of course, you would rename Developer and Product to your own choice.

Here's an example



Later on, as you develop more assets of varying kinds, you will want to add more subfolders to your Product folder, such as

Audio
Environment
Particles
RailNetwork
RailVehicles
RouteMarkers
Scenery
Stations
Systems
TemplateRoutes
TextureSets
TimeOfDay
Weather

Your file structure will now look like this



Now you are ready to go on to the next step.

In order to create your 3D models for import, you will need some appropriate software. I recommend a free utility called 3D Crafter. Everything else, you should already have.



Grab your free copy of 3D Crafter from the Microsoft Store. Here's the link

Microsoft Store download page [apps.microsoft.com]



The other stuff you need is either already supplied with Train Simulator or is included in your operating system.

1. Paint (or an equivalent image program) to make 128x128 bitmap images for textures. You can use 256x256 if you prefer or 512x512. The sides of the square texture files should be powers of 2.
   
   
2. RWAceTool.exe - this can be found inside your RailWorks folder
   
   
3. BlueprintEditor2.exe - also can be found inside your RailWorks folder

Open your free copy of 3D Crafter and build your simple object.

In this example we have made a station sign for Gosport by drawing a rectangular box for the signboard, sizing it with dimensions of approximately 3 metres x 1 metre x 10 cm, and then applying a texture (a 512x512 .bmp image of a green board with some white text over it to spell the word "Gosport").

The texture image for the name will be created with dimensions in the ratio of 3 to 1 (3 metres by 1 metre), and when resized to make it square will look like this.




Then we have applied textures to the edges and the reverse side. There is a tutorial in 3D Crafter to explain how to apply textures.

Note that it is better to include any lettering as part of a texture, rather than to add a separate text element to your model. This will eliminate any flickering or shimmering of the text when moving towards or away from the object in-game.

Before we go on, I must just mention one thing you will need to change in 3D Crafter before you apply the textures, so that the object will not look too bright and luminous in the game.

What you ned to change are the Diffuse and Ambient settings in the Material Palette. The default settings for these are 60 and 20 respectively. You will want to change these to 35 and 4 so that the object looks correct.



Then apply the textures. You will see that everything is a bit dark, making editing rather difficult. Simply adjust the Ambient lighting by changing the colour to light grey or white.






Now go ahead and apply these textures according to the instructions in the 3D Crafter tutorial.



The next step is to export the model as an .igs file.

First: select the members of the group (textured board)
Second: use the top file menu to export the model as an .igs file.



This window will appear asking where you want to save your new .igs file. For this you should select your Product folder which is in your Developer folder inside the Railworks Source folder. We shall call the file gosportsign.igs



You will now have to click a couple of buttons to complete the export operation. The first relates to distance-base levels of detail. As this is just a simple object which will not impact performance very much, we shall click "no."



The next box tells us that the export is complete, so we just press "okay."




You are not finished yet. You need to take copies of the texture files you applied, place these in the Textures folder inside your Product folder and convert them to .ace files.



To convert them, we shall use the RWAceTool.exe program which is found inside your RailWorks folder.



Double-click on the RWAceTool.exe file to start it. Then select the single image option (we are only converting 2 files so we can do them one by one).




Then we simply browse to the first texture file and press "Convert" to complete the operation.



Repeat this for the other texture file.

The .ace files will now have been added to the Textures folder and we are ready to go on to the next step.

Now you have all the files in place, it is time to import the item to Train Simulator so it will be available in the editor. For this, we must use the blueprint editor which you will also find inside your main RailWorks folder. It is called BlueprintEditor2.exe



Double clicking on this brings up the blueprint window, and we navigate on its menu to open our Product folder where we will find our object's .igs file. If we right click on the file, a window will pop up and we can select "Create scenery blueprint."



In the window which opens, we must enter our object's information. We need to enter a Display Name, Category, Provider and Product. It is helpful to also enter a tick in the "Valid in scenarios" box.



So in the above picture you will see that the Name gosportsign has already been filled in by the system automatically. Then we have entered

Display Name: [HL] Sign Gosport
This will appear in the editor so we put [HL] first to mean the object belongs to Hampshire Lines
Then we put "Sign" to say what kind of thing it is
Then add in "Gosport" to be more specific.

Category: Stations
You can choose from a fairly large list here, but since this is a station signboard the choice is fairly logical. We could have chosen "Clutter" but that is more suitable for other objects, like benches and watering cans etc.

Valid in scenarios: Tick only if required for other users when scenario-making.
This means that the object will appear in the scenario editor and can then be used in different locations according to the scenario. However, in this particular case ticking the box will have no effect because the object is in the Stations category, which does not show up. It will only work if we switch the category back to to "Clutter."

Provider: WarwickRail
This is the name we use so our stuff is grouped together in the object filter drop-down list in the editor. You would put your own developer name here. It should match the name you used when setting up the RaiWorks/Source/Developer folder.

Product: Hants
We use Hants as an abbreviation of "Hampshire Lines - Steam Era" (one of our routes). It is a way of grouping your creations under headings. You could name this anything you wish. It should match the name you used when setting up the RaiWorks/Source/Developer/Product folder.

Detail Level:

One of the complaints often directed at TS routes (both Workshop and Official DLC) is that certain objects are not visible by default when the sim is run. This is caused when the detail level of the 3D object is not set at a high enough level. When objects are placed in a route, the editor assigns a random number for this level according to a range governed by the blueprint. Normally this can be anything from 1 to 10. However, to avoid a situation whereby the detail level is assigned a low value, it is a good idea to restrict the range to something like 7 - 10. For our sign we always want it to be visible no matter what, so we shall set it to the maximum 10 - 10 according to the following setting.



Now it is time to process the blueprint and make everything available for use. Click the little "Export With References" icon at the top of the screen



The next window will tell you that the operation has been completed and will say "Export Success."



Your creation is now available to Train Simulator and you are ready to enable it in the editor and test it out.

To use any object in the editor, you must first make sure you have enabled the Provider and Project to which the object belongs. In our case, this is WarwickRail and Hants.

First open up the editor and select Stations




As you can see, we have clicked on Stations but the [HL] Signs Gosport object is nowhere to be found. So we must enable the Provider and Product - WarwickRail and Hants.

First click on the little blue cube, the "Object Set Filter" and then click the drop-down box to select the Provider.




We select WarwickRail and then tick the boxes in the Hants line in the menu which appears.




Now when we look at the Station list in the editor, our object "[HL] Sign Gosport" is there and can be selected.



Lets place it in position to see what it looks like.



That's all there is to it. Once you have created and imported your first object into Train Simulator, you can progress to more complicated items of scenery.

When making minor adjustments to your newly-imported asset, you might need to tweak it several times to achieve the desired look. For every successive alteration, you will need to edit the item in the blueprint editor and/or your 3D software and re-import it into the game, using the method previously outlined in this guide.

You can use In-Game Asset Editing to make these changes while the game is still running. This feature saves time by eliminating the need to restart the game each time you check the re-imported asset.

To use this feature simply press F9 while in the World Editor. This will bring up the following dialogue box. It will take a while to do its stuff.

The initial reloading process counts the number of files in the Assets directory



When finished it will have a solid green bar like this.



Exit by pressing Reload.

Now, ALT + TAB out of the World Editor, make the changes to your assets in the blueprint editor (and maybe your 3D software), re-import the XML file, and ALT + TAB back into the World Editor.

Now press F9 again. This will bring up a dialogue box again, which will begin analysing any changes.



When finished it will list those files which have been modified since the game started (or since the last reload time) and prompt you to confirm you want those files to be reloaded.



Simply highlight the assets you wish to have refreshed and press Reload or Cancel to discard.



Any items which reference those modified blueprint, texture and model files will automatically be updated on screen to reflect the new changes.

We have written a range of guides for Train Simulator Classic

Click the link below to access them all:

Warwick Rail's TSC Guides

Here are the top 10.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2739089566
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2365689194
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https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2364751070
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https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940948768

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This guide © Copyright Warwick Rail 2021-2025, all rights reserved. This item is not authorised for posting on Steam, except under the Steam account named Warwick Rail.