Hi all,

I wanted to share a free cross-platform program that I've been developing on and off for about 10 years now. Perhaps not-so-creatively named "TrainControl", the idea is to make operating your Marklin layout as easy (and therefore as fun!) as possible. Over the past year or so I've doubled down on maximizing stability and compatibility with both the CS2 and CS3, and now with the new "v2.0.0" release, it should be quite refined and ready for use by the community!

The key feature of the UI is that there is a keyboard shortcut for everything. I've found switching between locomotives via the Central Station itself to be exceedingly time-consuming, and having two (or three, or four) knobs just doesn't cut it for a large layout. Touchscreen/mouse-based UIs have a similar slowness issue. So, with TrainControl, you can select locomotives, set/increment speed, set functions, decelerate, emergency stop, etc., simply by using the keyboard, without having to look at the screen at all. There are also keyboard commands for applying function presets for a specific locomotive, turning off all functions, applying a speed preset, etc., so that you don't have to spend time doing any of these repetitive tasks manually.

You can learn more and download TrainControl here: https://github.com/bob123456678/TrainControl/.
Your Central Station must be connected to your local network for it to work, and don't forget to turn on the CAN broadcasting setting.



In line with the "easy and fun" theme, in addition to manually controlling trains, if you have the right S88 sensors, there are also facilities for semi-manual (i.e., conditional routes dynamically switch your switches and signals while you run the trains), semi-automated (you pick the destination for a specific train, and it goes there on its own), and fully automated (press one button and things happen) operation. The latter is similar to how other software does blocks. I plan to post some tutorials in the future on these features.

Originally, the program simply mirrored the Central Station's database, which it still does. In other words, it will download the locomotive database, routes, and layouts (CS2 only), and keep it up to date with the latest addresses and configuration. However, almost everything short of programming locomotives can now also be done within TrainControl itself, which adds quite a bit of versatility.

TrainControl can be used concurrently on multiple computers, and concurrently with the knobs on the Central Station itself, if desired. Personally, I run this on a small desktop connected to the CS3, along with a wireless keyboard. Others I know run it on their laptops. For those who want to program their own logic, you can use TrainControl's Java API as an interface to the CS2/CS3 to do all sorts of things.

A lot of my early inspiration came from RocRail, so a shout-out to that group is well-deserved. Perhaps one day this UI could be extended to other control systems as well.

In the meantime, I hope you find this handy, and I welcome any feedback or ideas for the future. I've tested it mostly on Windows 7/8/10/11, so input from Mac and Linux users would be appreciated (the only thing that is Windows-only is the embedded layout editor). Enjoy!

Thanks! Rocrail has a lot more advanced features and compatibility with more controllers beyond Marklin's, but is also going to be harder to set up.

An easy comparison would be to think along the lines of the base functionality of the Central Station 2/3, with some enhancements to routing, automation, and an easier UI sprinkled on top.

Hi Y'all

I hope not to be too much off topic with this.

This new CS3 release V2.5.1(0) works without problems with Rocrail.

However, it seems that this version calls for firmware updates on many MFX locos (MFX / sound locos are to huge majority of my locos:
- a warning is first displayed on the CS3 the firmware has been changed
- the loco is moved to the top of the list (with another warning) waiting for a full MFX registration
- By my medium-size layout, I had to move locos one by one to the programming track and upload all loco parameters to have the loco icon back to its normal place

Naively I would suspect that such a change indicates that Märklin is up to something big in the digital field.

Rocrail complained / observed that Märklin was not providing any help to software creators like Rocral and probably iTrain and not answering any letter requesting some specific information.

Cheers
Jean

What about ESU lok/soundpilot decoder update needs, Jean? I have no current layout or access to ESU-based locs (everything dismantled and packed for move), so cannot test myself. My little MS2 was updated after cs3+ update and works on mfx locs i recently bought.
Ben

Hi Alan

I am not in a position to say anything but Märklin is, on its messages. I was forced to bring my locos one by one on the programming track.
What the CS3 did I am not sure but only then, would the locos be back in the list and the little red oval bar become full
Cheers
Jean

MFX registration has always been a bit less stable with multi-protocol/non-Marklin decoders or locomotives that remained idle for a while, so perhaps this update will fix that. I didn't see anything outright broken or changed with existing ones on my layout, though I do have several Piko and ESU decoders running in MFX mode so it will be interesting to see how that goes in the long term.

Speaking of the CS3, it seems the 2.5 update did change the web UI quite a bit (doesn't seem to be particularly more usable at first glance, just different, and I see the locomotive icon UI doesn't let you crop the images any more. Still looking into that...). They also changed the default URL to icon images, so the TrainControl is now also updated to work with that.