What happens when you take an old Lionel model train system and add some web-control?  This week, we set out to control a Lionel model train set with the Raspberry Pi.

In this project, we go step by step through the parts, hardware, and software to control a Lionel model train set over the web.

We use a Raspberry Pi and Arduberry to setup a web-server where you can control track switches.

Maybe most importantly, we put the whole thing up on the web, and made it accessible anywhere, using the service Weaved.  In the project, we setup a very simple web server with the Raspberry Pi.  Once setup, the page serves up bottons.  These buttons allow you to switch a Lionel track switch back and forth, from any browser.  We tried in our PC’s, a Mac, and our mobile phones . . . it worked really well!

You can do this too!  All of the parts, the code, and the steps are outlined pretty clearly in our Arduberry Projects section, and the code is up on Github, ready to be downloaded to your Raspberry Pi!

Controlling Lionel Trains with the Raspberry Pi

Best of all, we took video of our train crashes.  The best projects always involve train crashes.