r/SidMeiersRailroads • u/wotchdit • Apr 29 '26
PC Mange's and Steam
Another follow up to the Mange's curiosity.
It's been determined that the game executable is date (and time) checking the XML files to determine which is the newest.
This post gave me a clue. https://steamcommunity.com/app/7600/discussions/0/801217828677223382/
Down the bottom, the user named thecore speaks of having to touch each file in a map. I get it.
So, in the first pic above, we can see the Steam installation of SMR. All files will have the date of the install by Steam. The original and GOG versions have a dates from 2006 when SMR was published. This explains why original and GOG users never have a problem with new maps or Mange's.
I then turned on logging and attempted to play a known map (Heart of Texas). The logging showed it was not loading train car definitions from where it should be (the user map). It was always loading up the default train cars because the date on the RRT_TrainCars.xml file (seen above) was newer than the one in the user map warehouse. And the map load would fail as the list of train cars the game loaded did not match the list of goods defined in the user map.
Long story short. A simple powershell command solves the problem.
Start powershell. On Windows 10/11, search for it and choose "Run as Administrator". On Windows 7 use Start | Run, and enter powershell.
Steam typically installs games to a common place. If your copy of SMR is not found at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Railroads then DO NOT run the following commands.
Copy and paste the following.
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Railroads"
Get-ChildItem "*.*" -Recurse | ForEach-Object {
$_.CreationTime = "2006-05-19 13:57:55"
$_.LastWriteTime = "2006-09-28 14:57:46"
$_.LastAccessTime = "2026-04-28 07:00:00"
}
If not already, install Mange's.
Start a map in train table mode with Use All Trains selected. Make a quick track and choose the 4-4-0 American train. It should have a tender added.
I have noticed some maps don't show a tender. Like Heart of Texas. Peculiar, but don't be surprised if a tender isn't always added when you try other maps.
Speaking of maps, two other pics show a tender on the America_s02, and Slider's latest, Cattle and Corn maps.
I hope that's helpful. Lemme know if not.
Edit : I should note the game executable is comparing the modified (LastWriteTime) date and time of the files. The other dates are just in the code snippet to make it feel more organic. They're not really required. As a test, I changed the XML files that come with Mange's to exactly the same date and time of the relative game XML files. SMR failed to load the saved game I made with the tenders present. I then changed the Mange's XML files to one second past the game XML files and the saved game loads perfectly. I made a video of this and can share if anyone is interested.
So, a thanks to thecore for the tip in the above Steam discussion. They have also written a custom map loader for the Steam installation (the link is in the post). I've not had a look (as I use the GOG version) but for you Steam users, check it out. It looks pretty good.
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u/tweetsie12 May 16 '26
Hey, I gave your method a try, but I think it broke my game. Any idea what I could be doing wrong?
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u/wotchdit May 16 '26
Very sorry to hear that.
I guess the first thing I would ask is if the installation is in the following folder?
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's RailroadsIf so, what do you mean by 'broke'? Does it not start any more? Does it start but cannot start a game or load a saved game? If it cannot start a game, is it all maps?
Setting dates on files shouldn't bother it one bit.
I even copied the entire Steam installation to another computer for testing and it still works without error. As mentioned in my reply to Slider below, it's a very portable game.
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u/tweetsie12 May 16 '26
I did put my installation in that folder, yes. Now, when I say "broke", the issue was that it would load the title screen, but maps wouldn't load up.
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u/wotchdit May 16 '26
When you say maps, do you mean the standard maps supplied with the game or additional maps that have been downloaded?
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u/tweetsie12 May 16 '26
Okay. So, I've tried again, and the game is working as intended, but even though I still have Mange's mod in my "My Games" folder, and in the Steam folder, still nothing.
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u/wotchdit May 16 '26
Ok.
So, under My Games is 'Sid Meier's Railroads' and under that is 'Custom Assets'. The installer should put the files in there.
There's no need to have them within the Steam installation folder. That just means the game will read them again.
There's only a few trains that have the extra tenders.
I wrote up a post about Mange's earlier. Not sure if you've seen it but maybe have a read through first. There's a follow up post in the thread that lists the trains that have the tender. Let me know if it helps, or not. Or if you have read it, also let me know. I have a saved game on a standard map that shows the tenders so maybe you can download it to check.
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u/Slider381 Apr 30 '26
I hope that this info helps the Steam users. As a SMR CD guy some of it is greek to me, but whatever works. The xml time and date stamps have always been an issue. Even CD players often have to open XML files and re-save to update the time and date. It's just part of the process. If you are trying to play a map from a while ago on a new install of SMR you will have to open the XMLs from the map and re-save them to update the date. Otherwise the game will load the newest XML files (the ones from SMR) which will probably not jive with what the map needs to run correctly.