Railway Dispatcher Pro

🎯 Goal of the Game

You are the dispatcher in charge of an entire line.
From the overview screen of CTC (Centralized Traffic Control), you watch over the whole line and keep every train running on time. When delays or disruptions occur, your job is to restore the timetable on the spot through rescheduling.

🎛 Ways to Play

On the title screen, choose an entry point depending on what you want to do.

• Scenario — A hands-on mode where you deal with trouble. Train failures and service suspensions occur, and you aim to meet the objectives. → Scenario Mode
• Sandbox — A practice mode where you dispatch services freely. There are no set goals; choose any timetable you like and run a whole day. This is the only mode with autosave.
• Co-op — An online mode where you dispatch together with Steam friends. → Co-op
• Tutorial — An introductory mode where you learn the controls from scratch. There are 5 tutorials in all, taking you step by step from reading the screen to station control (manual routes). We recommend starting here.
• Timetable Builder — A mode for editing train timetables yourself. → Timetable Builder
• Map Editor — A map editor for building lines from scratch. → Map Editor

The menu also has "How to Play" (this manual), "Settings", and "Quit Game". Select a menu item with ↑↓ or the mouse, and confirm with Enter or a click.

📋 Basic Flow

1. On the title screen, choose how to play, then pick a scenario or timetable.
2. Even after loading finishes, time is still stopped. Start the clock with "Gameplay → Start Game" in the top menu.
3. Trains run according to the planned timetable. By default, all routes are set automatically, so at first you can simply watch.
4. When delays or disruptions occur, click a train to open the order window and take action.
5. Save with Ctrl+S at a convenient point.

🖥 Reading the Screen

• Overview map (center) — Shows the track circuits, signals, switches, and trains of the whole line.
• Top menu bar — Four menus: "System", "Edit Timetable", "Gameplay", and "Window". Menus that can't be used in the current mode are grayed out.
• Clock and playback controls (top right) — The current time and controls for play/pause and speed. While paused, the time turns amber.
• Windows — "Diagram", "Log", "Train Info", and "Orders" are opened and closed from the "Window" menu.

You can drag windows anywhere. You can even move them to a second screen (secondary monitor), so placing the map and the diagram on separate screens is comfortable. If you lose track of a window, restore it with "Window → Reset Window Positions".

Track and Signal Colors

Track circuits on the map (each one is a single section of track) change color depending on their state.

• White — Normal
• Yellow — A route is set
• Red — A train is occupying it
• Dark gray — Impassable due to an incident
• Dim gray — The side of a switch that is not currently set

Signals are round markers whose color shows the aspect (the signal's indication).

• Red = Stop (R) / Orange = Restricted (YY) / Yellow = Caution (Y) / Yellow-green = Reduced speed (YG) / Cyan (light blue) = Proceed (G)
• Shunting signals are drawn as white rings and light up only when showing proceed.
• On ATC (cab signal) lines, signals show only two states: red = stop / green = proceed. Because speed is determined by the cab signal rather than wayside signals, proceed is shown in green, the same as shunting signals, instead of the cyan used for wayside signals. Block signals between stations are not shown.

Reading Track Numbers and Directions

Which way trains on "Track 1" and "Track 2" are heading follows a rule set for each line.

Sendai Regional Railway

• Track 1 = toward Hiyoridai
• Track 2 = toward Kyujo-mae

The exception is Fukushidai-mae Station, which has a passing loop: Tracks 1 and 2 are toward Hiyoridai (Track 1 is the passing loop, Track 2 the main line), and Tracks 3 and 4 are toward Kyujo-mae (Track 3 is the main line, Track 4 is for turnbacks).

Uchibo Electric Railway

• Track 1 = toward Hatsudensho-mae (toward Golf Course on the Yokota Line)
• Track 2 = toward Dentetsu-Chiba (toward Dentetsu-Anegasaki on the Yokota Line)

The exceptions are stations with 2 platforms and 4 tracks, and dead-end stations.

• Dentetsu-Kamatori — Tracks 1 and 2 are toward Hatsudensho-mae, Tracks 3 and 4 toward Dentetsu-Chiba (Tracks 1 and 4 are passing loops)
• Ichihara — Tracks 1 and 2 are toward Hatsudensho-mae, Tracks 3 and 4 toward Dentetsu-Chiba (Tracks 1 and 4 are passing loops)
• Dentetsu-Anegasaki — Tracks 1 and 2 are toward Hatsudensho-mae and Golf Course, Tracks 3 and 4 toward Dentetsu-Chiba (the inner Tracks 2 and 3 are used by Yokota Line trains)
• Dentetsu-Kisarazu — Tracks 1 and 2 are toward Hatsudensho-mae, Tracks 3 and 4 toward Dentetsu-Chiba
• Dentetsu-Chiba, Hatsudensho-mae, Golf Course — Dead-end stations, where trains in both directions arrive and depart at every platform

Yokohama New Urban Railway Line 3

• Track 1 = toward Futamatagawa
• Track 2 = toward Hiyoshi

The exceptions are Tsurumi Station, which has 2 platforms and 3 tracks, and dead-end stations.

• Tsurumi — Track 1 is toward Futamatagawa, Track 3 toward Hiyoshi. Track 2 (the middle track) between them is used for turnbacks and for moves to and from the depot, and trains in both directions arrive and depart there
• Hiyoshi, Futamatagawa — Dead-end stations, where trains in both directions arrive and depart at every platform

New Chitose Airport Access Line

• Track 1 = toward New Chitose Airport and Lake Shikotsu Onsen
• Track 2 = toward Sapporo (on the airport side of Kenkyujo-mae, trains toward Sapporo (Subway) that run onto the subway use it too)

On the subway section (Sapporo (Subway) to Fukuzumi), Track 1 is toward Kenkyujo-mae and Track 2 is toward Sapporo (Subway).

The exceptions are stations with 3 or more tracks, the single-track section to Lake Shikotsu Onsen, and dead-end stations.

• Yamahana, Minami-Hiragishi — Tracks 1 and 2 are toward New Chitose Airport, Tracks 3 and 4 toward Sapporo
• Kenkyujo-mae — Track 1 is toward New Chitose Airport, Track 4 toward Sapporo. The inner Tracks 2 and 3 are used by trains running to and from the subway: Track 2 is toward New Chitose Airport, Track 3 toward Sapporo (Subway)
• Kiyota, Utsukushigaoka, Kitahiroshima — Tracks 1 and 2 are toward New Chitose Airport, Tracks 3 and 4 toward Sapporo and Sapporo (Subway)
• Eniwa — Tracks 1 and 2 are toward New Chitose Airport, Track 3 toward Sapporo
• New Chitose Airport — Many trains turn back here, and trains in both directions arrive and depart at every platform
• Izumisawa, Suimeikyo, Nishimori (single-track section) — At Izumisawa, Track 1 is toward Lake Shikotsu Onsen and Track 2 toward New Chitose Airport. At Suimeikyo, where trains pass each other, trains in both directions use both tracks. Nishimori has only one platform
• Sapporo, Lake Shikotsu Onsen, Sapporo (Subway) — Dead-end stations, where trains in both directions arrive and depart at every platform

Japan Sea Shinkansen

• Track 1 = toward Sapporo
• Track 2 = toward Kanazawa

At stations with 3 or more tracks too, the lower-numbered tracks are toward Sapporo and the higher-numbered tracks toward Kanazawa.

• Joetsu — Tracks 1 and 2 are toward Sapporo, Track 3 toward Kanazawa
• Tsubame-Sanjo, Murakami, Odate — Tracks 1 and 2 are toward Sapporo, Tracks 3 and 4 toward Kanazawa
• Tsuruoka — Tracks 2 and 3 are toward Sapporo, Tracks 4 and 5 toward Kanazawa
• Shin-Aomori, Okutsugaru-Imabetsu, Oshamambe — Track 2 is toward Sapporo, Track 3 toward Kanazawa
• Toyama, Nagaoka, Niigata, Akita — Track 2 is toward Sapporo, Track 3 toward Kanazawa. The outer Tracks 1 and 4 are used in both directions by trains that turn back at that station
• Hakodate-Shin-Hokuto — Track 2 is toward Sapporo, Track 3 toward Kanazawa (Track 1 is for turnbacks)
• Kanazawa, Sapporo — Dead-end stations, where trains in both directions arrive and depart at every platform

Cursor Info in the Bottom Left

When you hover the cursor over the map, a description of that element appears in the bottom left of the screen. It shows the ID together with its meaning, so you can tell at a glance "which track at which station this is".

• Track circuit … TC_0001 (Kyujo-mae Track 1); if it is part of a switch, TC_0075 (Switch SW_006)
• Lever … Lever 1 (Kyujo-mae, Start/main)
• Train … 712B Local for Sendai (Stopped at Kokubuncho)

🗺 Map Controls

• Zoom — Mouse wheel (zooms in and out around the cursor position). Ctrl + wheel works the same way (laptop touchpad pinch gestures work through this). Without a mouse, you can zoom with PageUp/PageDown or Ctrl++/Ctrl+- (hold the key to keep zooming).
  * When you turn the wheel over a window such as the diagram, it controls that window instead.
• Move (pan) — Right-drag, or WASD/arrow keys.
• Show whole line — Home returns to a view where the whole line fits on one screen.
• Map compression — The "Map compression H / V" buttons on the right of the top bar shrink the line map horizontally and vertically, each from 100% down to 40%, reducing empty space so it can be shown larger. Choosing a ratio from the dropdown applies it immediately (when you compress strongly horizontally, station names become 2-character abbreviations).
• Selecting a train — Left-click a train. Click an empty spot to deselect. When selected, everything else is dimmed and the selected train gets a yellow frame.
• Follow — Select a train and press F, and the camera follows that train. Panning yourself cancels it automatically.

⏱ Time Controls

Right after loading, time is stopped. First, start it with "Gameplay → Start Game" (until you start, you can't pause or change the speed).

• ▶ / ⏸ — Play / pause (Space or P)
• − / ＋ — Change the speed one step at a time
• ×N ▾ — Choose a speed directly from the presets
• The 1–7 keys select ×1 / ×2 / ×5 / ×10 / ×20 / ×50 / ×100
• + / - fine-tune the speed in steps of 1.25×

Pause when you want to dispatch calmly, and use a high speed when you want things to move along. Even at high speeds, the internal calculations run in fine steps, so signal and station-stop checks never get sloppy.

💾 Saving and Loading

• From "System → Save/Load..." in the top menu, you can use 1 autosave slot + 5 manual slots
• Ctrl+S quicksaves to the autosave slot
• After loading, the game always resumes paused

If you want to report a bug, taking a screenshot with F12 and sending it to us makes the situation much easier to understand (open the folder with "System → Open Screenshot Folder").

Save Location

Inside it, Saves\ holds save data, Screenshots\ holds screenshots, and Progress\ holds your scenario clear records. Lines you made yourself (CustomMaps\) and timetables you made for subscribed maps (WorkshopDiagrams\) are also saved to Steam Cloud (Map Editor).

⚙️ Settings Screen

Press Esc to open the Settings screen (if a window is open, that window closes first).

When you are dispatching with many windows open, you can also open it from "System → Settings (Esc)" at the top left. This way you enter Settings without closing the open windows, so your board stays as it is.

• Language — Chooses the display language. It can be changed only when Settings is opened from the title screen
• Notification sounds — The volume of sounds that tell you about things happening where you aren't looking, such as train holds and incidents. Set to 0 to mute them
• UI sounds — The volume of the short sounds played when you use buttons or levers. They are adjusted separately from notification sounds, so you can set only UI sounds to 0 and still hear notifications
• Window mode — Fullscreen / Window
• Text & UI size — Standard / Large / Extra Large. If the text in windows and menus is hard to read, you can enlarge the whole UI at once (applied on the game screen)
• Block signals — Show / Hide. Removes only the block signals between stations (automatic signals without route levers) from the map. Home, starting, and shunting signals are always shown, and train movement and signal behavior don't change. Useful when there are so many signals that the map is hard to read
• Random incidents — None (default) / Few / Normal / Many. In Sandbox (free play), randomly causes train failures, speed restrictions on sections, and so on. They recover automatically after a while
• Notifications — For each of four events, "Incident occurs", "Train cannot depart", "Stopped outside station", and "Blocking a track with no next service", you can choose Log only / Sound alert / Pause + sound. For events you don't want to miss, choose "Pause + sound" and time stops right then
• Notification log — Toggles which categories appear in the log (Routes & interlocking, System diagnostics. "Critical", "Action responses" and "Service events" are always shown)
• View Help — Opens this manual in your browser

Shift+Esc quits the game at any time.

About the Notification Log

All on-screen notices are collected in the "Log" window ("Window → Show Log"). The results of your orders, and the reasons they failed, appear here too. When something isn't working, check the log first.

⌨️ Key Reference

On Mac, read Ctrl in this manual as ⌘ (Command) (Ctrl also works).

General

• F1 — Open this manual
• Esc — Close a window / open or close the Settings screen (to enter Settings with windows still open, use "System → Settings (Esc)")
• Shift+Esc — Quit the game
• F12 — Take a screenshot

During Play

• Space / P — Pause / resume
• 1–7 — Speed (×1 to ×100) / + - — Fine-tune speed
• Ctrl+S — Quicksave
• Ctrl+Z — Undo an order / Ctrl+Y — Redo
• F7 — Open / close the line guide (schedules, running times between stations, calling points)
• F — Start / stop following the selected train
• Home — Show the whole line
• WASD / arrow keys — Move the map
• Wheel / PageUp PageDown / Ctrl++ Ctrl+- — Zoom the map

Timetable Builder Mode

• F2 Edit train paths / F3 Duty assignment / F4 Train types / F5 Preview (test run) / F6 Timetable check
• Ctrl+S — Save the timetable and duties
• Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V — Copy / paste the selected train paths

❓ Frequently Asked Questions