Sid Meier’s Railroads! & Windows Vista Patch Available
February 16th, 2009 Posted in Download, Game, News
I play a lot of games, most of them railroad related, and have for many years.
One of the games I’ve always considered a favorite, is Sid Meier’s Railroads!
When I upgraded my computer, Windows Vista came along for the ride and it spelled the end of my days with Railroads!.
A memory allocation issued caused Railroads! to crash anywhere from 15 seconds to 15 minutes into the game.
Firaxis, makers of Railroads!, quietly acknowledged the incompatibility and commented that there was no update or patch planned.
Now, thanks to Mike Fullarton, Windows Vista users can now enjoy Railroads!.
Railroads! must already be upgraded to version 1.1 prior to patching…
The v1.1 update is available here: Railroads! Update (1657)
Download the Vista patch here: Railroads! WinVista Patch (4952)
Back up the original version of the games executable in the program folder, called RailRoads.exe.
Copy and paste the new executable that you downloaded into the original installation folder.
Right-click on the executable, select properties and then select the compatibility tab. Select ‘Run as Windows XP Service Pack 2′ and tick ‘Run as Admininstrator’. Then click ‘OK’.
It works like a charm, the game hasn’t crashed yet!
I have to give Mike credit for a fine patch, and much gratitude for giving back one of the greatest games I have played.
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31 Responses to “Sid Meier’s Railroads! & Windows Vista Patch Available”
By Scott on Feb 17, 2009
What about vista64? Should it be the same procedure and result?
By Eric on Feb 17, 2009
I just tried Mikes patch and for me it didn’t work. I got about 15 minutes out of it and then it crashed. I guess it’s back to the drawing board. Thanks anyway.
By RGoodell on Feb 17, 2009
Good question… I have no experience with WinVista64, but it certainly won’t make things worse to try.
By RGoodell on Feb 17, 2009
Wow, sorry to hear that. I works like a charm for me. I played for several hours last night.
By cascaderailroad on Feb 17, 2009
Wish Railroad Tycoon would work on my Vista PC, it won’t load…I think it requires XP or lower
By Anonymous on Jun 6, 2009
I can’t find a Railroads.exe file!
By RGoodell on Jun 6, 2009
Look in the folder where you installed Railroads. It’s there, I promise.
By kesmoli on Jun 13, 2009
Vista 64bit
no patch necessary
delete install
cancel out of auto run
explore cd
right click on setup icon
click on properties
go to compatability tab
change compatability to xp service pack 2
apply changes and exit
double click setup icon to reinstall
follow same steps w/ the exe. shortcut icon b4 u run
everyone thinks to change the compatability on the exe. icon but not on the setup icon befor installing. that was the key for me. gl
By idaho on Aug 8, 2009
i love this railroad game. i bought it and i have vista but it seems to keep crashing. i c there is a patch for vista but i cant get it to download. and as far as the patch from the offical web page when i try to install it, it tells me that there aint no version of railroads on my pc. please help me.
By HenryEMH on Nov 27, 2009
This solution works perfectly for Windows 7 x64. Thank you.
By Jesse Maison on Dec 3, 2009
Does this work with downloaded versions of RailRoads?
By RGoodell on Dec 8, 2009
As far as I know, yes.
By DeadWrong on Dec 12, 2009
This does NOT work for Windows 7 x64!!!
By SettleItWithFisticuffs on Dec 17, 2009
ok DeadWrong and HenryEMH – this needs to be settled, and I’m cheering for Henry! Going to try this soon on W7-64 since its the season to run the Christmas Scenario!
By Dale on Dec 17, 2009
I am using Windows 7 x64 and the file works fine for me.
By Alex Baines on Dec 20, 2009
This works perfectly on my Windows 7 X64 machine, thanks!!
By HarryL on Dec 24, 2009
I am also having trouble with running Railroads on a Win7 X64 box. I have discovered though that the thing only crashes when playing with AI players. It runs fine when I play alone and have not tried playing online.
By Jason on Dec 27, 2009
I’m running Windows 7 64bit and it keeps crashing. Any advice? I love this game!
By skinballs on Dec 29, 2009
win7 x64
Played for hours yesterday and today. Now keeps crashing after a few seconds. Changed all the compatibility settings to xp sp2. Still no joy. If its a memory issue i reckon a reboot’ll sort it out. If not i’ll download patch. Thanks chaps
By David on Jan 10, 2010
win7 x64 Enterprise.
Mike Fullarton patch worked great. Was able to play with no crashes.
By john on Jan 29, 2010
Took a few tries, but the patch worked fine.
By Aesircorp on Feb 18, 2010
Im running Win7 x64 and the patch kicks ass. i just played for hours without crashing. awesome dude, you deserve a medal.
By Chuck on Feb 19, 2010
I did both the re-install using the compatability and the Vista patch. It is working fine on my Win 7 x64 system. Thank you!!!
By nightquail on Feb 22, 2010
I planned to update from Vista to Windows 7 in order to run “Railroads”. Now it seems that Railroads and Windows 7 don’t play together either. Back to Railroad Tycoon.
By ben on Mar 17, 2010
+1 from a windows 7 x64 user here.
By Jon R on May 22, 2010
Totally fixed the problem on my Win 7 x64 machine. Thanks a million!
By oldpuffer991 on Jun 6, 2010
it doesnt work!!! i try to download the patch but it wont let me!!!!!!!!!!!!
help!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Incitatus on Jun 20, 2010
I’ve just bought a new win 7 x64 desktop. Did install trains; crashed after about an hour. Googled for solutions, found this site, didn’t reinstall but just installed the vista patch (over the 1.1 patch) and changed compatibility settings: have played for hours since then without any crashes.
Thanks!
By Eris on Jul 2, 2010
Doesn’t work for me.
I run Windows 7 x64. I have installed all the patches, and replaced the .exe with the one provided in the original post. Doesn’t work.
Additionally, I increased the amount of page file memory. Doesn’t work either.
Even tried the tips given by Kesmoli. No difference, though I was extremely surprised that I could actually make the compatibility settings to the setup.exe be carried over to the railroad.exe. I thought it was just silly gossip.
Reinstalled the game 3 times. No change. It shut down my laptop between 8-15 minutes of playing everytime. No difference whether I was playing alone or with AI.
If anyone can help me, please contact me at my email: shinieris@yahoo.com, because I’ve given up with trying to find a solution, despite still wanting to play this.
Eris
By Greg on Jul 24, 2010
I have Windows 7 x64, and the instructions above have worked for me. Although I found it a bit odd that the original .exe was like 11 meg, and the new one only 7 meg.
By Dave E on Jul 30, 2010
Works great after the 1.1 patch and vista patch on Windows 7×64! Great work that very much appreciated.