Dovetail Games recently released Train Simulator 2018 for all those German, Russian and Dutch gamers out there who absolutely love them some realistic train simulation that takes them across the farthest reaches of Europe. For gamers new to the franchise and want to take a dive in but don’t know what the heck they’re doing, there’s a basic gameplay walkthrough guide available for Train Simulator 2018 that teaches you how to play.

YouTuber Colonel Failure has a basic starter guide available that covers all the necessary ins and outs for controlling your train. From the main menu you have the Dovetail Live option, the store, your user profile, the ability to build your own track, or to drive. There’s also an Academy mode that teaches you how to handle the multi-ton beasts that rule the railways. You can check out the near half-hour video below.

In the Drive mode you’ll be able to do quick drives, career, standard, free roam, and the workshop mode.

The different modes depict the different routes you can take, and you’ll be able to choose the scenario, which will feature the train you’ll be commanding (in this case the Class 221 Super Voyager), the duration of the scenario (showcased in minutes), and the difficulty of the scenario. The more bars there are the harder it is to complete the scenario. The lowest setting is a single blue bar and the highest (and hardest) is when there are five red bars on the screen.

The first thing you’ll need to do is start the engine and then open up the passenger doors, which you can do by pushing the passenger door buttons on the panel in the cockpit. You’ll want to open the door on the side of the platform that the train is facing. So if the train is parked with the platform on the left, open the left doors. If the train is parked with the platform on the right, open the right doors.

Once the doors are open and the passengers begin piling in, proceed to turn on the headlights. Depending on the cockpit the panel position may change but you should be able to spot the switch for the headlights by doing a basic look around. The knob is indicated in the image below.

Once the passengers are all loaded, proceed to press the “Signal” button to indicate that you’re prepping to take off.

After that’s all set. Proceed to shift the train into gear and release the brake by pulling down on the lever.

Once you reach the straightaways you can use the power lever to increase your speed after you pull away from the station.

Out on the track you’ll need to watch the bar at the bottom, which will showcase how fast you’ll need to take turns on the track.

The numbers will countdown until you reach the turn, and it may indicate how fast you’ll need to be going in order to take the turn.

The objective is to speed up, slowdown, and perform the proper procedures as a conductor to avoid being penalized along the way.

You can use the GUI instrument panel at the bottom to change the view, pause the game, monitor fuel, and honk the horn.

When you get near the station markers you’ll want to slow down and prepare to pull back on the power and apply the brake once you reach the station. Just like in starting off and opening the door for passengers at the platform, once you pull up to the stop you’ll need to open the door once more and let the passengers off.