TrainController sales in the USA ended on 30 June 2026
The Best TrainController Alternative
The Best TrainController Alternative
for Model Railroads
If you are looking for a TrainController alternative, this page is the honest comparison: what RailScanPro replaces, what it does not, and who should stay where they are. RailScanPro is the operating system for model railroading, built for hobbyists, clubs and museums.
The short answer
The best TrainController alternative depends on what you are replacing. If you want one platform that drives your hardware, enforces your operating rules, runs your operating sessions and keeps your roster, RailScanPro with RailCommand is the closest replacement, and it reads your TrainController project file rather than asking you to draw the railroad again. If all you need is a free throttle and a decoder programmer on any machine, JMRI is still the right answer and we will not pretend otherwise.
Who should switch, and who should stay
Switching layout control software is a real cost, so here is both halves of it.
Switch if
- You are in the USA. TrainController sales in the USA ended on 30 June 2026, so a new licence, an extra module or a version upgrade is no longer something you can buy.
- You run macOS or Linux, or you want the same railroad open on a phone or a tablet. RailCommand Desktop ships for Windows, macOS on Apple Silicon and Linux, and the web app runs in any modern browser.
- Your club or museum runs operating sessions with several people at once, each holding a crew role on one railroad.
- You want the operating paperwork, the collection and the layout in one place instead of three programs and a spreadsheet.
- You want your TrainController work carried across. The importer reads the file and shows you every object it decoded before anything is created.
Stay where you are if
- Your TrainController installation works, you are on Windows, and it already does what your railroad needs. A working railroad is not a reason to change software.
- Your command station has no RailCommand driver. The public table at /hardware is generated from the shipped driver list, so a system that is not on it is genuinely absent. Massoth DiMAX is the known case: there is no published serial protocol to write a driver against.
- You depend on a TrainController feature we have not built. Ask us before you move, and we will tell you plainly whether it exists today.
- You want to operate with no account at all. Running the railroad happens on your own machine, but authoring a layout and importing a file happen on the web, and the AI features and the voice dispatcher need the cloud.
RailScanPro compared with TrainController, JMRI, iTrain and LocoLink
Competitor columns describe what each vendor publishes, read on 12 September 2026. "Not published" means the vendor publishes nothing about that capability; it is not a claim that the capability is impossible. If we have something wrong, write to support@railscanpro.com and we will correct it.
| Feature | RailScanPro | TrainController | JMRI | iTrain | LocoLink |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Web app in any modern browser, plus RailCommand Desktop for Windows, macOS on Apple Silicon, and Linux. | Windows. | Windows, macOS and Linux. | Windows, macOS and Linux. | iPhone, iPad and Mac as a native app, plus a Windows app. Android is described as next. |
| Operating style | Graph first. RailCommand derives the topology from the layout graph, so routes, conflicts and signal aspects are computed rather than listed by hand. | A schematic switchboard with blocks, routes and schedules you author. | Panels, logic and scripts you author yourself. | A schematic with blocks and routes you author. | A track plan editor with blocks, turnouts, signals and routes. |
| Automation | A rules engine drives every authorable behaviour, alongside operating sessions and dispatcher control. | Schedules and automatic train running. | Logic, warrants and a dispatcher. | Schedules and automatic operation. | Shuttle and timetable automation. |
| Command stations | 20 native drivers, each rated by evidence rather than by how finished the code is. Digitrax LocoNet over USB is field-tested on museum and owner layouts. NCE, Roco Z21 and Digikeijs DR5000, Lenz XpressNet, ESU ECoS, Märklin CS2 and CS3, DCC-EX, CVP EasyDCC, MERG CBUS, Selectrix SX1, SPROG, BiDiB, HSI-88, MQTT sensor nodes, standalone BDL168 detection, the phone throttles RailCommand hosts itself over WiThrottle, and a JMRI bridge are implemented and awaiting a layout, which means the driver is complete and tested against protocol captures and nobody has run it on that physical system yet. LCC and OpenLCB run trains only today. The full table is at /hardware. | The interface list the vendor publishes. | The connection list the project publishes. | The connection list the vendor publishes. | The vendor states more than 45 command stations. |
| Migration from TrainController | Yes, on the web. Upload a .yrrg or .yrl up to 50 MB and it is decoded into a staged preview you review one object type at a time. Anything the decoder could not settle becomes a needs-review row you answer or exclude, never a value we invented. Nothing is written to your account until you press Create layout. | It is the source of the file. | Not published | Not published | Imports locomotive and switchboard data from iTrain, Rocrail and TrainController. The vendor states that no universal one-click TrainController conversion is promised. |
| Multi-user dispatch | Multiplayer operating sessions: several people hold crew roles on one railroad at the same time, and a remote dispatcher's territory falls back to a hard stop if that dispatcher drops. Emergency stop is a dedicated control, for one train or for the whole layout. | Not published | A dispatcher, with phone throttles for other operators. | Not published | Not published |
| Operations and paperwork | Car forwarding, waybill generation, switchlists and the four cycle waybill system, with operating sessions and crew assignments. | Cargo, licensed as a separate module. | Car forwarding, waybills and switchlists. | Not published | Not published |
| Inventory and collection | A roster and a full collection inventory with photo recognition, valuations, insurance reporting and a marketplace. | Not published | A decoder roster. | A locomotive roster. | Not published |
| Price | From $19 a month with a 30 day free trial. Hobbyist $19, Family $29, Pro $49, Club $129, Museum $349, every feature unlocked on every plan. | A one-time licence for the edition, plus separately licensed modules and paid version upgrades. | Free and open source. | A one-time licence by edition. | From EUR 3.99 a month, with a lifetime option. |
| Availability in the USA | Sold and supported in the USA. | Sales in the USA ended on 30 June 2026. | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Every command station claim above is generated from the shipped driver list. The tier on each row, and what each tier means, is at /hardware.
TrainController alternative: common questions
- What is the best TrainController alternative?
- It depends on what you are replacing. For an owner who wants one platform that drives the hardware, enforces the operating rules, runs the operating sessions and keeps the collection, RailScanPro with RailCommand is the closest replacement, and it is the only one of these that reads a TrainController project file and shows you every object it decoded. For a free throttle and a decoder programmer, JMRI remains excellent. For running trains from an iPhone or an iPad, LocoLink is a good fit. There is no single answer that is honest for every railroad.
- Can I import my TrainController .yrrg project?
- Yes, and it happens on the web. Upload a .yrrg or .yrl file up to 50 MB, confirm that you own it, and it is decoded into a staged preview. You review one table per object type: turnouts, toggles, signals, sensors, blocks, routes, connectors and controls, plus your roster and your trains when the file carries them. Whatever the decoder could not settle is shown as a needs-review row you answer or exclude: a signal head whose facing is not readable, a train member whose orientation is not readable, a turntable ring size, an accessory address two objects both claim, or an address outside the range we will treat as live. Nothing is guessed and nothing is saved until you press Create layout, which is when the graph, the signal topology and the block wiring are derived.
- Does it run on Mac and Linux?
- Yes. RailCommand Desktop ships for Windows, for macOS on Apple Silicon and for Linux, and the web app runs in any modern browser, so authoring and your collection are reachable from any machine you own.
- Which command stations are supported?
- RailCommand ships 20 native drivers and rates each one by evidence rather than by how finished the code is, so the bare word supported is reserved for hardware a layout has actually run. Digitrax LocoNet over USB, using a PR3, PR4 or LocoBuffer, is field-tested on museum and owner layouts. NCE, Roco and Fleischmann Z21, Digikeijs DR5000, Lenz XpressNet, ESU ECoS, Märklin CS2 and CS3, DCC-EX, CVP EasyDCC, MERG CBUS, Selectrix SX1, SPROG for the programming track, BiDiB, Littfinski HSI-88, MQTT sensor nodes, standalone BDL168 detection, the phone throttles RailCommand hosts itself over WiThrottle, and a JMRI bridge are implemented and awaiting a layout: the driver is complete and tested against protocol captures, and nobody has run it on that physical system yet. NMRA LCC and OpenLCB run trains today, and driving turnouts, sensors and signals as LCC events is accepted for a later release and not built. A simulator is built in so you can learn the app with no hardware at all. The full table, with the tier on every row, is at /hardware.
- What does it cost?
- Plans start at $19 a month for Hobbyist, with a 30 day free trial that has full access to every feature. A payment method starts the trial and you are not charged until it ends, and you can cancel during the trial at no cost. Family is $29, Pro is $49, Club is $129 and Museum is $349 a month. Every feature is unlocked on every plan; what changes with the plan is how many people and how much collection it covers.
- Is TrainController still sold in the USA?
- No. TrainController sales in the USA ended on 30 June 2026, which is why owners in the USA cannot buy a new licence, add a module or buy a version upgrade. An installation you already have keeps running; what has gone is the ability to buy more of it.
- Can I keep TrainController running while I try RailScanPro?
- Yes, and we recommend it. Importing reads a copy of your project file and changes nothing about your TrainController installation, and nothing reaches your RailScanPro account until you press Create layout. Run both, operate a session on each, and move when you are satisfied rather than because a trial is expiring.
- Do I need a cloud account to operate?
- Running the railroad happens on your own machine. RailCommand Desktop and its local runtime own the safety-critical work: occupancy, interlocking, movement authority and emergency stop, and neither the web app nor the desktop user interface drives your hardware by itself. You do sign in to RailScanPro to author a layout, to import a TrainController file and to keep your layout in step across machines, and the AI features and the voice dispatcher run in the cloud. Import in particular is a web action and is never shipped in the desktop app.
Bring your layout across
Start the trial, upload your TrainController file on the web, and see every object it decoded before anything is created. Your TrainController installation is untouched either way.
Related reading: how the .yrrg import works, LocoLink compared with RailScanPro, what the end of USA sales means, and the full feature comparison.