Alternatively one may sell the cards on the Steam Marketplace (not to be confused with the Train Simulator Marketplace brand) for Steam wallet money. By making this an ESM, other mods can set this as a Master File and make direct use of some of the objects in Sim Settlements. While this can be done without parenting to Sim Settlements, it's a ton more work and will inflate the size of their mod.

Collecting cards and crafting badges enables one to get emoticons and profile backgrounds. A - Sim Settlements includes tons of resources for anyone to add their own stuff to the mod. There are 9 cards in the series, 5 of which you'll receive for purchasing and playing the game. Train Simulator 2015 had Steam trading card support added on September 26, 2013. Main article on the Steam Trading Cards wiki

Steam provides the user with installation and automatic updating of games on multiple computers, and community features such as friends lists and groups, cloud saving, and in-game voice and chat functionality. Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer, and social networking platform developed by Valve Corporation.