DCC Box will only be available from model shops with a physical store, whether you buy in person or online.
Planned release January 2027:112 days to go
Run your railway, not your software.
DCC Box makes it easy to control a DCC model railway. You can get started in minutes: choose a
train, choose a route and press Go. DCC Box sets the points and signals, controls the train and tells you
what’s happening next. When you’re ready to try more, you can add features such as timetables, departure
boards and station announcements.
This is a photo of the real prototype, enhanced with AI.
The box
DCC Box comes in three configurations
DCC Box is available in three configurations. Choose the one that best fits your layout and equipment.
Every tablet and phone in the house finds it at dccbox.local, straight from the browser.
Configuration
What you use
How it connects
DCC Box Command Station
The complete DCC Box system
Connect it to your track.
Physical DCC Box
The DCC Box hardware unit and an existing command station
Connect the DCC Box to your command station.
Software
DCC Box running on a Windows PC or Raspberry Pi, plus your own command station
Connect command station to your track.
Easy to pick up
Three steps from the box to driving
No addresses to remember and no key sequences to learn. You work with trains by name and
picture; DCC Box looks after the numbers.
Add your loco
Put it on the programming track and choose Add a device. DCC Box gives it the next free address and shows you each step; point motors and signals are added the same way.
Give it a name and a picture
Take a photo of your own loco with your phone, or pick its picture from the maker's catalogue (Hornby, Bachmann, Accurascale, Dapol, Heljan, Peco or Rapido).
Drive it
Choose it by its picture and drive: speed, direction, lights and sounds. Or send it along a route you've drawn and let DCC Box do the tedious parts.
What it does
Everything a layout needs, nothing it doesn't
You stay in charge. DCC Box handles the points, the direction and the speed, and you watch
the layout and decide. It's interactive, not just an exhibit. Everything below is currently supported today unless
shown. It will all be supported when released.
Drive
Up to three throttles side by side, made for fingers: a regulator lever, direction, and every function
key labelled with what it does. Swipe through your locos by their pictures, couple two to double head
them as one train, and send each train along a route from its own throttle.
STOP ALL is always one tap away. It cuts track power so every train stops dead, and START brings the
power back with every loco still at a standstill. Leave the layout and the power goes off by itself after
a while.
Routes and recordings
Tap where the train starts and where it should go on your track plan: DCC Box finds the way and sets the
points. Mark where it slows, stops or sounds its whistle, and add steps before and after: engine start-up,
doors, the guard's whistle.
Or press Record and operate as normal, on any screen or from your handheld, with as many trains as you
like. Every speed, key, point and signal is noted and tidied into steps you can move, change or delete,
then played back. Repeat a recording, play several side by side or one after another, or reverse one to
bring the trains back home.
Layout and accessories
Draw your track and put its point motors, signals and sensors on it. Group points and signals to set
together with one tap, and find accessories already on your layout by trying each address in turn.
Timetables, boards and announcements
Make up your own stations and their trains, or fill them from a real station's departures, with real
names swapped for made-up ones. Each station gets a dot-matrix departure board, full screen on a spare
tablet, running on a model clock you can speed up. Choose the days each timetable runs, and the clock
keeps the day of the week.
Announcements are put together the way real stations do it, in natural voices, with calling points, a
touch of station-hall echo, and your own messages for cancellations, delays and the café. A name that
comes out wrong can be spelt the way it's said, and shared with other DCC Box owners.
“The next train to depart from platform 1 will be the 22:14 Great Western Railway service to Exeter St Davids. Calling at Yatton, Worle, Weston Milton and Exeter St Davids.”
Programmer
Add locos, point motors and signals step by step, each on the next free address from your address plan.
Change a loco's starting speed, acceleration and braking with sliders instead of CV numbers, or any CV
by name from the full NMRA list; every CV is backed up.
Roster
All your locos in one place, with pictures, types and what their keys do. Search it, sort it, and filter
by diesel, steam, electric or multiple unit.
Shared setups
Share a loco's setup with the DCC Box community, and use and rate other people's. Add a new loco and
DCC Box offers any setups shared for that model, best rated first.
DCC Station
Live readings from your command station: track power, currents, voltages and temperature, and what it
is reporting. Everything done is in an activity log.
Backups and its own WiFi
Back up to the box or a USB stick in one tap, kept daily, weekly and monthly, and restore any of them.
No network at a show? DCC Box makes its own WiFi.
See it
What it looks like
Big, clear screens made for a tablet beside the layout, with STOP ALL always in the corner. These screens are not
final and will probably change as development continues and the user experience is improved.
Drive. Swipe through your locos by their pictures and drive up to three at once. Couple two to double head them, and send each train along a route from its own throttle.Draw a route. Tap where the train starts and where it goes; DCC Box finds the way and sets the points. Mark where it slows, stops or whistles.Recordings. Drive as usual and DCC Box notes every speed, key, point and signal. Tidy the steps, then play them back, repeat them, or line several up.Departure boards. Each of your stations gets its own board, full screen in its own tab on a spare tablet or screen, running on the model clock.Timetables and announcements. Your stations' trains, made up or filled from a real station's, each with its calling points and a spoken announcement. Choose the days each timetable runs.Layout. Draw your track, then tap a point to throw it or a signal to change it. Occupied sections show red, set routes green.Accessories. Point motors, signals, sensors and groups of them, each on its own tab. Tap a state to switch it.Programmer. Read a loco, add a new device step by step, or find the accessories already on your layout.Roster. Every loco with its picture, address and decoder. Search, sort, filter by type, and sound its whistle from right here.Welcome. Your railway at a glance, and a backup in one tap.
Power under the bonnet
Simple on the surface, serious underneath
Built for no lag.Commands go straight to the command station; nothing queues behind a slow job.
Learns your layout.Press Learn and put a train on a section, or throw a point from your handheld, and DCC Box finds the detector or address itself.
Any kind of occupancy detection.R-Bus, LocoNet and CAN detectors all reach it.
Every screen at once.Any number of tablets and phones, all live, all in step with the handheld.
Real trains for your timetables.Fill a made-up station from a real one's departures, calling points and all, from National Rail's live data.
Announcements the way stations make them.Each phrase, time and station name is recorded once and put together as it plays, so a whole timetable is ready without recording each train.
Looks after itself.Daily, weekly and monthly backups, its own WiFi when there's no network, and track power off when nobody's driving.
Small and self-contained.One program and one data file, made to run on a Raspberry Pi or a Windows PC, with nothing else to install.
Your command station
Works with Z21 and XpressNet stations, and the SPROG 3
DCC Box talks to your command station in any of three ways:
Z21 LAN, over your network. Stations from, for example, Roco and Fleischmann (Z21),
YaMoRC, Digikeijs and ZIMO speak it.
XpressNet, over your network or a USB cable. Stations from, for example, Lenz, Roco,
Hornby, Digikeijs and YaMoRC speak it, some through a PC interface.
SPROG 3, on a USB cable. DCC Box becomes the command station and the SPROG drives the
track. Plug it in and DCC Box picks it up by itself.
Today DCC Box is working with the YaMoRC YD7010 and the SPROG 3. Other command stations will be
fully tested as the project moves forward. Compare the YaMoRC and the SPROG 3.
Supported controllers
YaMoRC YD7010 or SPROG 3: what each can do
Everything in DCC Box works with the YaMoRC. With a SPROG 3, DCC Box is the command
station itself, so a few things that need the station's own hardware aren't there. Grouped as DCC Box's menu.
Feature
YaMoRC YD7010
SPROG 3
Notes
Drive
Driving locos (speed, direction)
Yes
Yes
With a SPROG, DCC Box keeps every loco's commands going itself (up to 32 locos at once)
Function keys
F0–F31
F0–F31
Double heading
Yes
Yes
Handled by DCC Box, so it works the same with either
STOP ALL / emergency stop
Yes
Yes
Handhelds
Yes
No
With a SPROG, DCC Box is the only controller
Seeing changes made by other controllers
Yes
No
Programmer
Reading and writing CVs (programming track)
Yes
Yes
A SPROG programs on the same track, with track power off
Programming while trains run
Yes
No
A SPROG has one output
Programming on the main: write
Yes
Yes
Programming on the main: read
Yes
No
Needs RailCom, in the decoder and the command station; a SPROG has none
Learning a point's number from a handheld
Yes
No
Finding accessories already on a layout
Yes
Partly
The address-by-address test works with either; the quick search uses the YaMoRC's memory
Accessories
Points and signals
Yes
Yes
Accessory numbers are the same with either, so decoders don't need re-addressing
Knowing where points and signals are
Partly
Once switched from DCC Box
The YaMoRC remembers the last commands it sent; a SPROG remembers nothing
Set every point and signal
Yes
Yes
Makes every position known in one go
Layout
Occupancy detection (sections)
Yes
No
A SPROG has no feedback bus
Routes
Drawn routes
Yes
Yes
Routes acting by themselves on detection
Yes
No
With a SPROG, routes wait for you to press "Next"
Timetables
Timetables, departure boards, announcements
Yes
Yes
These don't involve the controller
DCC Station
Track power on/off
Yes
Yes
Overload / short warning
Yes
Yes
A SPROG cuts the track power and DCC Box reports a short
Current, voltage, temperature readings
Yes
No
Connection
Network or USB
USB
Choosing it
Settings or the DCC Station page
Picked automatically when plugged in
Unplugging the SPROG goes back to the previous controller
Power for the track
The YD7010's own output
About 2.5 A
Enough for a typical home layout; larger layouts may need a booster
Only one controller may feed any piece of track: never connect a SPROG to track a YaMoRC also feeds.
Stay in touch
Get DCC Box updates
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DCC Box will only be available from model shops with a physical store, whether you buy in person or online.
