For decades, JR East has used proprietary simulators: full-motion cabins, 180-degree projection screens, hydraulic actuators that mimic every rail joint. But before those million-dollar rigs, there were internal PC-based prototypes—testbeds for signaling logic, brake models, and timetable adherence. These were never intended for public release.
Yes. That number again. Why would anyone endure this? Why wrestle with Windows XP, hunt down an obsolete controller, and memorize brake curves for a single 12-minute run? Simulador de trenes JR EAST- version 11779437
In the sprawling, obsessive world of railway simulation, most names evoke immediate recognition: Dovetail Games , Trainz , BVE Trainsim , OpenBVE . These are the pillars—accessible, moddable, widely discussed. But beneath them, in the dark sediment of forgotten hard drives and archived Japanese message boards, lurks a different class of software. It is not sold. It is not advertised. It is barely even named. For decades, JR East has used proprietary simulators:
Version 11779437 is believed to be one such prototype, compiled on an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday in 2008. The version number itself suggests an internal build counter—11779437 iterations of code, each a tiny adjustment to adhesion coefficients or ATS-P (Automatic Train Stop) response curves. This was never meant to see the light of a hobbyist’s monitor. Why wrestle with Windows XP, hunt down an
But in the quiet corners of the internet, on a machine that hasn’t been online in seven years, someone is still driving that E231-500 from Shinagawa to Shinjuku. Still chasing that perfect pattern match. Still haunted by the ghost of JR East’s own perfectionism.
And the version number ticks upward, one phantom build at a time.
Others say it never existed at all.