Raspberry Pi Model Railway control
This is a basic model railway train control application. Created using Python GPIO Zero and Python Bottle.
This is designed for a analogue model railway with DC motors. It could also be used to control other DC motors.
A H-Bridge motor controller is required. A L298N motor controller is recommended, although other controllers can be used depending upon your model railway power requirements.
You will also need a suitable DC power supply. Note if you have a power supply "wallwart" with your existing train set then it may be AC, in which case you would also need a full-bridge rectifier. Instead I recommend a 12V DC power supply with sufficient current for all your trains (eg. a 2A should be sufficient for running two OO/HO trains).
The following pins should be used for connecting from the Raspberry Pi to the motor controller. Note that only 1 train can be controlled using this version of the code, see later for details about the advanced version.
| Function | GPIO numbers | Physical pin | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Train 1 | 17,18 | 11,12 | |
| Train 2 | 22,23 | 15,16 |
Each train has 2 gpio numbers. The first is for forward, the second is for reverse. These can be switched depending upon how the motor is wired to the track.
Install Bottle using sudo apt install python3-bottle
Create directory /opt/train And change ownership to your own username (replace )
sudo mkdir /opt/train
sudo chown <username>: /opt/train
Create directory /opt/train/public mkdir /opt/train/public
Save the file train.py into /opt/train Save the file index.html into /opt/train/public
Run the program using python3 train.py
This progam is created as a tutorial for The MagPi magazine. For a version with more features and an improved interface see the PenguinTutor model railway pages or Model Railway code on GitHub