The NY&E Control System — A Tour
The New York and Eastern Railroad, Northern Lights Subdivision, is operated under an authentic circa-1905 timetable and train-order system — the same paper-and-rules discipline a real dispatcher would have used, run on a proto-freelanced HO branch line modeled after the Chesapeake & Ohio. What makes it work at a model railroad operating session is a small, purpose-built IoT control system layered underneath: touchscreen terminals at every station, a central server, and a fast clock, all standing in for the telegraph wires and train sheets of 1905 without changing how the operators actually work.
This tour walks through what the system is, who uses it, and what an operating session looks like end to end — useful both if you're considering an operating position on the NY&E and if you're just curious how the pieces fit together.
This tour reflects the system as built through the 2026-06-16 development session: Yardmaster terminal software and WP–XP block signals are both implemented (hardware installation for the Yardmaster's RPi3 kiosk and the block signal servos is still pending). See Learn More for links to the full technical documentation, which is updated more frequently than this page.
What's in this tour
- The Railroad — the seven stations and the track plan the control system operates over
- System at a Glance — the hardware: central server, station units, yardmaster terminal
- Choosing Your Role — Dispatcher, Yardmaster, Trainmaster, and Crew, with real screenshots
- A Session Walkthrough — a real meet between two trains, start to finish
- Station Touchscreens — what each station's CYD unit shows the crew
- Learn More — links to the full architecture and protocol documentation