Hawk & Badger Railroad

This section of the site contains a wide selection of Railroad Tycoon 3 maps and extras submitted by forum members. A collection of maps from the Heineken & Pacific Railroad, the Railroad Tycoon Info Archive, and Molse's German RRT site are also archived here.

A lot of these maps require the Coast to Coast Expansion and/or the 1.05 Patch. Some warn you of this requirement, and some do not. Since any older maps will play without issues on 1.05, it is strongly recommended that you install the Coast to Coast Expansion and the 1.05 patch if you have not already done this. Make sure you install the Coast to Coast Expansion before installing the 1.05 Patch.

Some of these maps require the Unofficial 1.06 Patch. This requires installing the Coast to Coast Expansion and the 1.05 Patch first.

This section is chock full of add-ons for Railroad Tycoon III that have been created by members of the forum. These creations are not required for playing most maps, but can add a lot of enhancement to your game play and help to heighten your enjoyment of the game.

Note that occasionally a map may require some specific add-ons. These are usually mentioned in the map description, and included with the map zip. If any add-ons are required for a map they must be installed before you attempt to open the map in the game.

Please do read any instructions which come with the add-ons before you attempt to use them (unless you prefer the excitement of watching things go haywire, and then trying to figure out what went wrong).

If you are installing from an old disc that is not Version 1.05, you may need one or more of these patches.

1. Official 1.03 Patch (2.1 MB) - You may not need this. See this forum topic for an explanation of reasons to use this patch.
2. Coast to Coast Expansion (1.04) (119.5 MB) - A large expansion of original PopTop content. Install before the 1.05 patch.
3. Official 1.05 Patch (2.13 MB) - Fixes some minor bugs. The Coast to Coast Expansion must be installed before this patch.

If the game is installed from a PopTop disc, you will normally need the game disc inserted in a disc drive to play the game. Sometimes you can get a "Wrong Disk Inserted" error message. This patch allows you to play the game without requiring the disc. Installing this patch is not difficult, but it needs to be installed on a 1.05 version of the game. If you are going to install the 1.06 patch, install this patch first.

1. Your installation needs to be at Version 1.05 before you install the "No CD" patch.
2. If your installation is not already at Version 1.05, you need to install the 1.05 patch.
3. If your installation does not include the Coast to Coast Expansion, install that first.
4. Once your installation is updated to Version 1.05, download RT3_nocd105_patch.zip.
5. Unzip that file to a temporary folder. Do not unzip it to your Railroad Tycoon 3 folder.
6. Rename the existing RT3.exe in your Railroad Tycoon 3 folder (ie: to RT3_backup.exe).
7. Copy the new RT3.exe that you just downloaded and unzipped.
8. Paste it into the main folder of your Railroad Tycoon 3 installation.
9. The game should now run without the CD. Do not place the CD in the drive!

It is rare for this patch to not work. However, if it does not work: delete the new RT3.exe, and rename your backup file to the original name (RT3.exe). The game will now run from the original file, but you will need to have the CD in the drive.

The "Official" Final Release of the unofficial RT3 1.06 Patch - by Milo, Bombardiere & Crew.

The 1.06 patch (24.1 MB) is only necessary for maps that state this requirement. Maps created in Version 1.05 (or earlier versions) can be played in 1.06, but may not play as intended. In general, maps not made for 1.06 should probably be played in 1.05. For details about setting up multiple installations, so that you can run different versions of RT3, see this forum topic.

The Coast to Coast Expansion and the 1.05 Patch are required before installing the 1.06 patch. If you are going to install the "No CD" patch, that must also be installed before the 1.06 patch. You can download the 1.06 Patch from this link: RT3-1.06.zip.

Please read this PDF (also included in the 1.06 download) before installing 1.06: English.pdf / German.pdf
The release notes are also available. Reading these is optional: English.txt / German.txt

If you are installing from an original Poptop disc, you may have problems running RT3 with newer graphics cards and operating systems. The best solution is to run the game in conjunction with dgVoodoo. It is free, it is easy to set up, and it gives very good results.

The game is also available as a DRM-free download from Good Old Games - GOG.COM. This is very reasonably priced, and does not require a disc or an internet connection to play. The GOG version of the game will run without dgVoodoo, but will run better with it.

The following two items were attempts at fixing RT3's problems with some newer graphics cards and operating systems. These items are not recommended anymore. They are still available for anyone who needs them, but dgVoodoo is a much better option for most people.

Blurry Texture Fix - 36 kB (Read Me). See this forum thread for details, and this post by the patch maker.
Vista Fix - 0.77 kB (Read Me). Stops game crash for Vista/W7/W8/W10. See this forum thread for details.

Campaign Movies - Read Me
Download the 149 MB zip.

RRT3 FAQ by Scott (Zoogz) Jamison
Hosted with his permission.

RRT3 Theme Song & Movie
Download the 28.7 MB zip.

In 2003, Pop Top released Railroad Tycoon 3. Amid much hoopla, touting their new 3D Graphics, RRT3 sold briskly. After 5 years of playing RRT2, fans were ready for the new genre.

Admittedly, the 3D world of this new version was quite appealing to me. Camera movement was greatly improved and the animation of the factories, maintenance facilities, clouds, weather, and water was pretty neat to watch.

There were also some vast improvements in the Editor. No longer did you have to understand scripting to set up events. Just point and click. Of course you still have to understand how events work, but at least you don't have to try and figure out how to write it, although the new 'point & click' scheme did limit event scripting somewhat.

This version also included a Map Builder, a feature that gives the opportunity to grab a small patch of land mass anywhere in the world, and create a map with close to real world terrain. Mountains and valleys are easily created.

Unfortunately, it would seem the creation of this 3D world gave rise to sacrificing some of the features that were available in the earlier version, that or the creators just decided to leave them out for some reason. No longer could you drop a shipment off at a station to be later picked up by another train (later added back in with the release of the 'UnOfficial' 1.06 patch). Hauling freight that was not profitable was also an option sadly missed (again, added back in with the 'UnOfficial' 1.06 patch). On top of all that, this version shipped with a gaggle of bugs.

Granted, Pop Top issued a few patches in an attempt to correct these glitches, and were successful for the most part, but it seems the developers just decided to abandoned their posts and RRT3 still has a few bugs that may never get worked out (a few of these bugs were addressed in the 1.06 patch).

In spite of it's shortcomings, end users managed to produce a proliferation of maps and scenarios, which can be found right here in the RT3 Map Archive. They've also created a gaggle of add-ons, which can be found on the User-created Add-ons pages.