Having replaced the Ez-command and the two command companions with the Hornby Elite and the two Select units I just had to try Railmaster!

First off I tried using it with a Samsung N110 Notebook and it does work but the screen really is too small, OK to use sort of but a bigger screen would be much better, so I treated myself

There are a number of Multi-Touch screens available which all say Windows 7. I believe that they need Windows 7 for the multi-touch function.

Railmaster works perfect with single point touch, and it just so happens that using Windows XP with this monitor the single point touch works perfect and it was just plug it all in to the Notebook switch the monitor on then turn on the Notebook, touch screen functionality!!

This Touch Screen monitor is the AOC E2239FWT and varies in price from £127 upto £213.

I think this is the way to go, get a cheap second hand laptop/notebook then pay this sort of money for a 22inch touch screen after looking about it's the cheapest way of doing it.

I went for this touch screen as I like the built in stand it allows the notebook to be slid underneath so only the keboard is showing.

It also comes with VGA, HDMI, USB and a power cables!!!

The power cable is just a standard kettle type lead, the only problem is that it has a plug for Europe moulded on the other end.

I had a spare adapter, which proved ok for a quick test, but as it only has a 1amp fuse, it blew on the second power up.

Still I just chopped the plug off and put a new plug on the original lead, heaven forbid someone actually knowing how to change a plug!!!!( sorry I did read a review somewhere that gave it a big negative because they had to get a new UK lead )

A few shots of the Railmaster operating screens, the main op screen showing the track diagram, the red/green actuator buttons operate the points, when you select the buttons from the design screen you can select which address they will be.

The loco roster down the right hand side of the screen,

By touching one of the loco rosters you pull up a large controller.

The little mouse shown here is quite novel, if you have a mouse connected turning the thumbwheel increases/decreases the speed of the loco, pressing the mouse buttons switches left/right.

If it's a wireless mouse you in effect have a wireless controller, you can see which loco you will be controlling as on this mouse symbol it has the loco address number on it.

In the instructions it does recommend covering the optical part of the mouse so that there is no possibilty of accidentally changing the loco or switching off the function.

After playing around for 10mins this really is the way to operate Railmaster, it makes life so much easier.

Saying that if you have a standard 15.6inch laptop display it will be no problem at all!

The touch screen adds a new dimension to it......and lets be right it's a big boys toy

Here is a poor video(I'm crap at taking videos!) that I captured of my first automation program, which was written and setup/tested with the Notebook!

Till the next time!