RailCommander is an easy to use yet powerful software application for the design, management and automation of model railway layouts. RailCommander allows you to control any DCC layout directly from your PC as well as providing tools for block control. Additional features have been made available for the control of RailCom enabled locomotives, rolling stock and accessories.

The software is intended to make full use of DCC and RailCom's potential, but, as a prediction system is also in place, it is possible to work without RailCom if desired. By far the most powerful feature of RailCommander is the built-in scripting system that allows you to set up both simple and complex relationships between locomotives, accessories and the rest of the layout using sets of plain English rules chosen from drop-down boxes. This removes the confusion and frustration many automation enthusiasts have encountered with other scripting systems. To simplify setup, RailCommander will also auto-detect your hardware if at all possible, removing the setup process entirely in many cases.

If you want to try RailCommander before you buy it, you can make use of the 100 hour free trial period. During this time you will be able to use every feature available in the complete software package without any restrictions. Best of all, we only count the time you are actually running the software — e.g. that's more than 3 months to get to know RailCommander if you were to use it for an hour every day. A copy of RailCommander can be downloaded from the Downloads page. The software starts in trial mode but you can purchase a licence at any time using PayPal and we will email you a key for your copy. A lifetime license costs £80 + V.A.T. for people living in the U.K. and the E.E.C.

Version 0.1

• Simple track editor with a flexible, bezier curve based approach to track drawing.
• Optionally use an image (either a photograph or a layout diagram) as a layout background.
• Automatic block control, which is active by default.
• Manages locomotives and functions by name instead of number.
• Supports points and signals with an arbitrary number of states.
• Simple, human-readable scripting.
• Supports the DCC₄PC RailCom Reader, the Lenz LI-USB and the ESU ECoS.
• DCC₄PC Computer Interface Devices and Lenz LI-USBs are detected automatically, with no configuration necessary.

Version 0.2

• Points will now change to meet an oncoming locomotive automatically.
• Block control will no longer permit a locomotive to enter a section of track if the only possible result is a future head-on collision.
• If a locomotive is approaching a point, the track ahead is occupied, and the point can be changed to select a different route, the point will do so automatically.
• As a consequence of the previous three block control enhancements, reversing and passing loops now automatically behave correctly.
• A simulator has been added to permit experimenting with a layout's behaviour in the absence of a physical layout. Simply click the Simulator button in the Track View, right click on zones to assign locomotives and then control the virtual locomotives using a throttle as usual.

Version 0.2.1

• Fixes a potential problem where the automatic collision avoidance can fail if two locomotives attempt to enter a contested section of track sufficiently close together. The result is both locomotives stopping until the user manually resolves the situation.