How to Repaint in RW (and RS) TrainSim.Com (2025)

I am having to learn to repaint in RW to get a set of correct steam era pullman passenger cars as there are none in the commonly used dark green pullman colour.

I am doing research and will share as some of the cars and engines that are available have to be repainted to be of any use in any normal route....

here is a summary i have found of what needs to happen in RS and i hope in RW..

UPDATE: After trying both methods described here I reccomend the use of Mike Sinclairs RWTools which is available for a donation from his site. It works very smoothly and really helps the process for you will need to convert files between one format and another and if you make any mistakes your new paint or skin will not load back int RW correctly or at all.

Here is the description for using RW_Tools for this process which is one of the clearest for this process....you will need a repainting graphics program,...some use Photoshop (me) and some use Paintship Pro.... either way, you will need a program to do the actual art work in, but the process of preparing the files for this and then converting them back is taken care of very nicely by Mike's great tool set:

You must select the RW texture from the model you want to paint or reskin: then you have to convert it to a .dds format for the graphics program (PS or PSP) to work on. RW Tools can do that for you, select Graphics Tools menu and select 'Convert .TgPcDx to .dds' The converted texture file will be placed in your RW_Tools\TempDDS folder and will have the same filename as the original texture, but will have a .dds suffix. Once it is converted, you will receive a message like the following which tells you the type of .dds file it is and the number of Mip-Maps, you should note these down as they are required when you come to save your edited texture in your [graphics] Paint program.

You can now either view this .dds file, or open it a Paint program for editing by selecting the appropriate
menu option. Alternatively if you need to save memory, the editor can be closed at this time and the texture
edited in your Paint program. (If possible, keep this program open while re-skinning the file as the Rail
Works_Bin_Editor saves the details of the texture in a .dat file in the TempDDS folder so that the texture can
be re-exported back to Rail Works at a later date, so it is safer to keep RW_Tools open so that the .dat file is
not unintentionally erased).

Once you have edited your texture file, you must save it in EXACTLY the same format as it was originally,
or you will not be able to re-export it back to Rail Works. You must also save it with the same filename back
into the TempDDS folder

this overwrites the original file and gives you a .dds with your new art. Now Tools will convert it back to the original RW file format and put it into the correct place in the Assets.

A great tool set and a great help.

Open the texture with RSBin and export it as DDS to a temp working folder
Open the DDS texture in Paintshop/ photoshop.
Edit and save theDDS texture back to temp.
Import DDS texture back into RSBin
Save AS TgPCdx texture back to the original RailSIM texture folder..

I have found RSBin tool on the UKTrainsim site, and will share more info as i get it, i welcome suggestions from ppl who have done this already. I suspect there will be others who will need to learn this.

I am going to use Photoshop for the texture work, tho some use Paint or another program called Paint/NET 3.5.4 and dds converter v 21 both accessible via Google.

Here is the READ ME that comes with the RSBinTool: