TPWS is a key safety system in UK trains, so my Class 80x cab needed a precisely replicated TPWS control panel.
My cardboard prototype of the central portion of a Class 80x dashboard allowed me to iterate to a laser-cut hardboard prototype.
After sourcing rough measurements of the dashboard of a Class 80x train, I began creating a cardboard prototype, plus associated CAD designs to get the design fabricated.
My several iterations over a CAN bus controller for my Train Simulator physical dashboard has made it simple to add new controls. Here’s how I used it plus a joystick to add UK horn control to my virtual train.
In my ongoing quest to build a physical cab dashboard to control Train Simulator, an important set of components are the gauges that tell me what’s going on with the train. As I build the dashboard into which to embed my gauges, I realized I needed to better modularize my air pressure gauge, moving the control circuit board outside the gauge. Here’s how I did it.
Having sporadically built controls and gauges to interface with Train Simulator over the course of a year, in April 2024 I began to figure out how to design the dashboard they would all fit into.
The core of a train simulator setup could be considered its throttle and brake. Having figured out how to interface a real UK Class 365 power/brake controller with Train Simulator, I designed and built a polished PCB to connect it to my Train Simulator setup.
The core of a train simulator setup could be considered its throttle and brake. Having lugged a combined throttle/brake from a real UK Class 365 passenger train home, I reverse-engineered how it worked, then figured out how to interface it with Train Simulator.
The core of a train simulator setup could be considered its throttle and brake, the control or controls that make a train go and stop. In previous blog posts, I detailed my exploration of building my own controller from scratch, but a fortuitous eBay listing provided me a real Power/Brake Controller (PBC) from a UK Class 365 train. Here’s how I got it home and reassembled.
As the different pieces of my Train Simulator controller come together, a bite-sized first task of building the physical dashboard is the door controls placed at each side of the cab. Here, I detail the process of prototyping the door control panel from a Class 80x out of cardboard and the authentic buttons used in the real train, then laser-cutting refined prototypes I can use with my existing setup
As I add more instruments to my realistic physical dashboard for Train Simulator, I have prioritized a speedometer, one of the most vital tools a driver/engineer uses to safely operate a train. After purchasing working, ATP-enabled speedometers, I set about determining how to build controller hardware and software to use the ATP features and the analog needle with Train Simulator to continue to enhance the realism.
