49 thoughts on “How to manually install custom maps”

1. Jancsika 2009/12/24 at 07:44

   This is fine.
   Hooked does not accept 7Z file extensions.
2. Jancsika 2009/12/27 at 21:31

   Unless you repackaged them all compressed maps from the Hooked forum are in RAR or Zip format.
   Bobby’s are 7Z.
   This is confusing, if I want to put it in the FAQ, I can not refer to 7Z.
   Why not just say compressed or even ZIP-d. Zip is becoming a generic expression for all compressed file forms.

   The proper way to do the installing is to download the map directly in a clean UserMaps folder and decompress it right there. (That’s how the SAM instuctions are worded) No copy-ing and pasting needed.
3. Warll Post author2009/12/28 at 00:21

   All the maps on this site are in compressed using 7zip, it says a tone of bandwidth. Plus 7-Zip is an awesome program everyone should use, yup I’m an open source fanboy.

   For the FAQ you cna simply change the wording, and if you want to you can change the instructions to have the user decompress right into the proper folder. Both ways would of course work but when I had wrote the article I did so expecting (As I was dong at the time) at the user would be keeping a separate folder full of maps and only playing one at a time.
4. Jancsika 2010/01/06 at 18:03

   I have Nafta Phase II revised with installer by Rodea. It is in two RAR files 7500 Kb each. Now you can post it, then I can refer to you.
   How can I get it to you??
   Need an E-mail address
5. Warll 2010/01/06 at 18:16

   I’ve emailed you, just reply with the attachment.
6. Paktas 2010/02/23 at 12:47

   What about Windows7? It doesn’t have “My Games” folder. Where do I put the maps?
7. Warll Post author2010/02/23 at 13:07

   It will if you have ran SMR before. Try looking in “documents” which can be found in your home folder.
8. Chris 2010/04/20 at 06:52

   I have followed all the instructions here – cleary the folder, donwloading maps etc (extracting with 7-Zip)
   But when I start railroads there is nothing in the usermaps directory. I have chosen ‘devon’ as my map. There is a ‘devon’ folder – nothing else.
   Do I click on Load Map or single player?

   Also tried the auto map moving .exe but when I extracted the maps to a folder, then selected this in the moving maps program browser section, nothing comes up. No one siple map!

   no sure what’s going at all. any help appreciated.
9. Warll 2010/04/20 at 13:26

   When you start up Railroads! and select Single player have you looked through ALL the maps?
10. Chris 2010/04/21 at 16:49

    yes, all the way through, no new maps there, even the old multiplayer one’s are there, all the original maps, no more, no less
11. Warll 2010/04/21 at 17:44

    Try installing SMRI (Sid meier’s railroads! intercontinental)
12. Patrick 2010/07/24 at 16:09

    first custom map that worked for my 2GB ram computer. Wohoo!
13. jancsika 2010/07/24 at 19:50

    Try some of my alternate Universe maps. (Alternate France, Alternate UK, Alternate Germany, Alternate Balkans).
    They were made for people with computers like yours.

14. Pingback: New to using custom SMR maps? | Sid Meier's Railroads! Simple!

15. David 2011/01/12 at 02:31

    I have done this and it works fine. The only problem is I can only put in 1 map at a time. Is their a way I can insert many maps into the “user maps” folder rather than doing this process each time I wish to play a different map?

    Thank You.
16. Karsten 2011/01/13 at 13:50

    No, it is not possible to insert many maps into the “user maps” folder, because they interfere with each other’s stability and crash.
17. chad williams 2011/02/04 at 03:31

    Please help. I understand that only 1 user map can be installed at any given time. However, when I run SMR Map Shifter, I find that I have 2 folders: one called “sid meier’s railroads” and the other called “Sid Meier’s Railroads!”. The Shifter app places into the “Sid Meier’s Railroads!” folder and nothing shows up in game. However, if I copy the map, say “Middle Earth” over to the “sid meier’s railroads” folder, the map shows up in game but then I get a run time error every time. I’ve cleaned out the folder by deleting it entirely so the game will build a new folder structure from scratch but I just don’t get it. What am I doing wrong?

    So, in case I’m unclear, the folder >>> C:\Documents and Settings\Chad\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier’s Railroads!\UserMaps has a folder called “MiddleEarth” and a bunch of .FPK files.

    I am using the Steam variety of the game, should be the updated version I would assume. The folders I am referring to are here: C:\Documents and Settings\Chad\My Documents\My Games. I am running XP.

    Thanks in advance,
    Chad
18. Daniel 2011/02/04 at 09:43

    Chad, that problem has come up once before. In that case it was a retail version from a east European country.

    My only suggestion is to manually install the maps, the process isn’t difficult.

    For the crashing, have you tried the trouble shooting tips in the tips and tricks section?
19. chad williams 2011/02/04 at 21:28

    Hi Daniel,

    Well I tried it again with a different map. This time I deleted everything under the C:\Documents and Settings\Chad\My Documents\My Games\sid meier’s railroads folder, restarted the game and exited then installed a different map (Mysterious Island_SAM) which does work. A couple other maps do as well (SAM and non-SAM).

    I tried two maps the other night that didn’t work so I guess both of those do not agree with my system or require special attention in the installation process.

    Thanks,
    Chad
20. Matheus 2011/04/08 at 11:33

    The version 1.1 is required for all the maps in this website?
21. Marco 2011/08/21 at 17:44

    My computer is only 4Gb RAM, there will be a prob if I install 3Gb enabler?
22. warll 2011/08/21 at 18:06

    No.
23. Marco 2011/08/22 at 17:05

    Thanks man, I didn’t know about this game and I bought it last month, and I love it! Your work is great, congratulations guys!
24. Евгений 2012/12/13 at 11:48

    У меня некоторые карты не работаю как например транс сибирская железная дорога эта карта как быть
25. Евгений 2012/12/26 at 09:33

    Как самому создать карту
26. BlackPeach 2012/12/26 at 13:57

    I have been trying to instaling maps manual, however it dont work, have tried going diretly into the game files, when i do that I can see the map ingame as all other senacios, however it cannot start. then i try doing like this decription i cannot see the map at all (i had to greate the folder called UserMaps)

    using a retail vertion of SMR and Win7
27. Alexander 2013/01/07 at 16:33

    Hi! Where do I put a custom map on a Mac? pls help. thx Alexander
28. oguz 2013/02/18 at 00:56

    i dont have usermaps folder, why ?
29. Oguz 2013/02/18 at 01:25

    i guess no stupid could remember to mention that “version 1.1 needed to see usermaps folder”
30. JSJ 2013/04/14 at 22:51

    I am unable to find the Usermaps folder. Can u help me. I run WinXP.
31. TMiller 2013/04/15 at 08:02

    JSJ, On my PC it is under Documents-MyGames-Sid Meier’s Railroads! If you don’t find it there, try clicking the windows flag at the bottom left of your screen and type in UserMaps in the startsearch box. It should tell you where the folder is. Good Luck.
32. VWoerdemann 2013/06/01 at 13:29

    I am unable to find the Usermaps folder. Can u help me. I run WinXP.
33. irfantheguy 2013/06/15 at 16:24

    How do I install this on a mac?
34. danieru 2013/06/15 at 16:34

    @irfantheguy: You can install maps for mac with this guide: http://smrsimple.com/2012/11/custom-maps-smr-mac/
35. OwenCao 2014/02/11 at 01:04

    I have a little trouble using SMR Map Shifter.
    The “My Games\Sid Meier’s Railroads!” folder in my PC is “My Games\Sid Meier’s Railroads”,
    so whenever I want to install a custom map, it will automatically create a new folder which has a “!” and my game(on steam) can not read it.
    Could u please fix it or create an option that can switch two path?
    Thank you a lot!
36. aaron 2014/02/16 at 00:36

    http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1090651
    use the top one i dont get any crashes at all
37. czy 2014/11/20 at 20:12

    could try renaming the game folder under Program Files (x86) from “Sid Meier’s Railroads” to “Sid Meier’s Railroads!”
38. czy 2014/11/20 at 20:13

    for those using SMR map shifter (sorry for double post)
39. Foxxy 2015/05/18 at 11:44

    Well there are no folder call “UserMaps”

    I have version 1.0.1.0 (59543)
40. Foxxy 2016/03/13 at 19:18

    get the patch 1.1.0.0.
    The folder is (in win 7) library/documents/my games/Sid Meier’s Railroads/userMaps
41. Markus 2016/06/08 at 05:30

    Does anyone know where the Usermaps are on Win 10 ?
42. snoopy55 2016/06/08 at 14:40

    Search in MyDocuments/MyGames. Do a system search for the folder called MyGames. Should be one and \Sid Meier’s Railroads!\UserMaps should be there.
43. luke 2018/02/20 at 16:00

    Great map – keeping the game alive. Just managed to complete it with 3 years to spare…
44. Ozz 2018/04/08 at 21:23

    For Those Using Windows 10:
    Click on “This PC >>> Documents >>> My Games >>> Sid Meier’s Railroads! >>> CustomAssets”

    ————————————————————————-
    TIP 1: If you click on “Settings.ini” and open it up (No Special Program Required), you can disabe the intro movies (Company Ads) by adding the number 1, instead of zero (0) after the equal sign, then save in top left corner. By doing this, you won’t have to keep hitting “Esc” to get to the player page.

    SkipOpeningMovies = 1

    ————————————————————————
    Tip2: The best hassle free easy to use program for setting your SMR to 4GB is not the 3GB Enabler, but this one which takes one minute to do and works for all Old Games that only used 2GB:
    /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    CREATED by Daniel Pistelli: 4GB Patch
    Current Version: 1.0.0.1
    Download the 4GB Patch: http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php

    His notes about it:
    I originally wrote this tool for a friend of mine who needed it. This very little tool patches x86 executables in order to let them have 4GB (instead of only 2) of virtual memory on x64 platforms. This tool comes very handy for applications which need a great amount of virtual memory like games, 3D renderization, multimedia etc. To gain these 2GB, you just have to use this tool to patch the executable (*.exe file) of the software you want to have these additional GBs of virtual memory. It can be used by clicking on it and choosing the file or through command line (e.g.: “4gb_patch file.exe”). It automatically creates a backup copy of the original executable.

    Why things are this way on x64 is easy to explain. On x86 applications have 2GB of virtual memory out of 4GB (the other 2GB are reserved for the system). On x64 these two other GB can now be accessed by 32bit applications. In order to achieve this, a flag has to be set in the file’s internal format. This is, of course, very easy for insiders who do it every day with the CFF Explorer. This tool was written because not everybody is an insider, and most probably a lot of people don’t even know that this can be achieved. Even I wouldn’t have written this tool if someone didn’t explicitly ask me to.

    Daniel Pistelli
    ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    Therefore, once you download it, open it up, then find your Sid Meier’s Railroads folder on your C Drive/ Program Files(86) / 2k Games / … and click on the “TRAIN ICON (.exe). It will immediately do the job and it done, just like that 🙂 No more crashes at all.
45. Ozz 2018/04/08 at 22:20

    CORRECTION: I made a mistake about this link to the Custom Maps.
    For Those Using Windows 10:
    Click on “This PC >>> Documents >>> My Games >>> Sid Meier’s Railroads! >>> CustomAssets” <<<<< WRONG!!!!!

    Right now I don't have a clue and will give further feedback when I work it out.

    I'm trying to get the Australia Map working, but froze up my PC and had to reboot a few times.
46. Ozz 2018/04/08 at 23:13

    Update:
    (1) Install RailroadsPatch1.10.exe

    (2) Download the 4GB Patch: http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php
    Therefore, once you download it, open it up, then find your Sid Meier’s Railroads folder on your C Drive/ Program Files(86) / 2k Games / … and click on the “TRAIN ICON (.exe). It will immediately do the job and it done, just like that No more crashes at all.

    (3) For Those Using Windows 10:
    Click on “This PC >>> Documents >>> My Games >>> Sid Meier’s Railroads!” THEN make a New Folder in there called “UserMaps” (Without Inverted Coma’s).

    (4) Place your Map and .FPK File in the UserMaps Folder. Dome here previously mentioned that you can only have one Map at a time in the UserMaps Folder. I don’t know if this is true. Just test and see.
47. railage 2018/04/09 at 07:35

    Golden rule: Only one map at a time in UserMaps folder.

    Why?
    Some files must be setup as Global files for them to work correctly, for example RRT_Goods XML file. Global files have the same name as the masters file in the SMR install proper. The game will load whichever one of these has the latest timestamp. Custom maps were made after the game was published, at least the Windows version. Some early maps do need an update of their XML’s timestamps for the MAC version.

    If there are multiple maps “installed”, the latest one will work fine, but the earlier ones will also try to use parts from the latest map and therefore never work. We could change the timestamps, but recommending one map at a time is far simpler to follow for the average user.

    What I do is have the zips for a lot of maps in my UserMaps folder, but I only have one unzipped at a time. When I want to play a new one, I delete the current one, then unzip another.

    There is one more fix for the game, found on the game’s page on pcgamingwiki. This is a low memory crash fix. I think this is more than just LAA. For example, I believe it allows you to build as long track sections as you like.
48. Nico 2020/05/29 at 12:50

    NONe work. They all crash at the start of the scnenarios.
49. Michael123 2024/02/27 at 18:35

    Hello. I extract the mod map to the folder (My Games\Sid Meier’s Railroads!\UserMaps, but when I start the game and click on the map to play the game simply closes! How do I solve this??