Every model railway reaches the point where the points and signals need proper control: something better than a row of switches, and more satisfying than a list of numbers on a phone. The Wireless Servo Controller is my answer. It puts a signal box lever frame on a 7-inch touchscreen at the front of your layout. The servos that throw your points and work your signals are driven by small wireless units hidden under the baseboard, right beside the track they serve.
It has already proved itself in public. The system controlled every point and signal on my Navigation Sidings layout, which was awarded Runner Up in the Scalefour Society Jubilee Layout Challenge 2026. Throughout the show it worked faultlessly – even if the layout didn’t. 🙂
Try the lever frame
This is an interactive demonstration of the touchscreen. Tap a lever to pull it, and watch the signals: the semaphore arms heave off to clear and drop back to danger with a realistic bounce. Levers 1 and 2 are a linked crossover, so both ends move together. The signals are interlocked with lever 3, just as they would be in a real signal box: signal 5 won’t clear until lever 3 has been pulled, and then lever 3 is locked until the signal is back at danger. Try the other tabs too.
Interactive demonstration. On the real panel every lever you pull moves a servo on the layout.
What it does
- A lever frame you can touch. Each lever is drawn as an enamel lever plate, numbered and named, showing N or R for points and DANGER or CLEAR for signals, with a small moving semaphore on each signal lever.
- Points that move like the real thing. Each servo has its own end positions, set with live sliders while you watch the blades, and its own speed, so the switch blades travel smoothly rather than snapping over.
- Semaphore signals with character. Home and distant arms, upper or lower quadrant. The arm is pulled off with a determined heave and returns to danger with a decaying bounce, the way a real signal behaves on its wire.
- Accessories too. Any lever can drive something else with two positions, such as a crane, level crossing gates or a road barrier, with its own plate labels.
- Frog polarity switching. Each turnout can switch a relay for its frog. The switch happens at the midpoint of the throw, so there is never a momentary short. The same relays can isolate a section at a signal or feed an accessory.
- Linked crossovers. Pair two levers so that both ends of a crossover work together from a single pull.
- Routes. Store a set of points and signals and set the whole route in one touch.
- Sequences. Timed series of moves for demonstrations, shunting moves or automation at shows.
- Signal box interlocking. Set which levers release or lock which others, and the frame enforces it, so a signal can’t be cleared for a route the points aren’t set for.
How it works
The system has two parts. The panel is the signal box: the touchscreen on your fascia, which holds all your settings, routes, sequences and interlocking. The nodes are the muscle: compact units under the baseboard, each driving up to eight servos and eight relays. The panel and nodes talk by radio. There are no control wires between them, and no Wi-Fi router, passwords or pairing codes are needed.
- Grows with your layout. Each node handles eight levers. Add nodes as you need them, up to sixteen, for a total of 128 levers. The panel shows them sixteen at a time, page by page.
- Short wiring. Because each node sits beside the track it drives, servo leads stay short, and there are no long cable runs back to a control panel.
- Two-tap setup. Power up a new node and the panel finds it. Tap Identify and the node shows itself, so you know which box is which. Tap Assign to give it a place in the frame. You only do this once.
- Safe from the first power-up. New channels start switched off, so an unconfigured servo can never slam against delicate pointwork. You set each one up in turn: centre the servo, fit the linkage, then drag the sliders to set its travel while you watch.
- Self-healing. Nodes remember their last positions, and the panel sends its settings back to any node that restarts. It shows at a glance whether every node is online.
- Movement is local. Each node runs its servos’ movement itself, so points and signals move smoothly regardless of the radio link.
See it on the layout
Watch the system being fitted to Navigation Sidings, and the lever frame in use on the operating display:
Coming to the web store
I’m working towards offering the Wireless Servo Controller through the Make It Miniature web store. If you’d like to know when it’s available, or you have a layout it could help with, please get in touch through my contact page. It helps to know roughly how many points, signals and accessories you’d want to control.