CabForward is a beautiful, fully native client for the DCC-EX Command Station — a complete, delightful control surface for model railroaders. Throttles, roster, routes & automations, operating sessions, accessories, command-station management and decoder programming, wrapped in a polished, themeable interface.
This is the one you've been looking for.
Every top-level area of CabForward is shipping today. Tap any tile to jump in.
Throttles, functions & live driving
Your locomotives & consists
Switching games & sessions
EX-RAIL sequences & scripts
Turnouts, signals & outputs
Connection, power & status
CV reads, writes & decoder setup
Appearance, network & preferences
CabForward speaks the DCC-EX command protocol natively, verified to the letter against the full command summary.
Drive every locomotive on the layout with speed, direction, stop & e-stop and a full function grid — with per-loco control styles and inputs.
Catalog locomotives with short/long addresses and customizable functions, build consists, and track non-powered rolling stock with rich hobbyist metadata.
Generated, capacity-aware jobs built from your layout profile and roster — light-engine moves, transfer runs, local freights, yard switching, unit trains, passenger runs and railfan sessions.
Send a friend or club a standing iCloud invite and your whole layout — track plan, roster, rolling stock, routes and saved operating sessions — becomes theirs to hop aboard, live, anytime.
A typed opcode palette lets you build ROUTE / AUTOMATION / SEQUENCE routines, run them live in-app, and export a compliant myAutomation.h.
Real screens from CabForward — the same themeable interface, sized beautifully for every device.
CabForward extends to your wrist, your Home Screen, Siri, and a physical controller in your hand.
A wrist remote that drives speed with the Digital Crown, plus direction, favorite functions, e-stop and track power. The phone owns the live connection.
A configurable Quick Drive widget showing a chosen locomotive or consist — its photo, name and address. Tap to deep-link straight into Train Controls. It even mirrors your active theme.
App Intents for emergency stop, track power, set speed & direction, toggle a function, throw a turnout, run a route, and "Drive" a roster locomotive — executed against the live client.
Map a physical controller onto the throttle — D-pad to switch trains, face buttons for favorite functions, sticks for direction & speed, triggers to ease speed, with haptic rumble throughout.
Roster & photos, consists, rolling stock, accessories, routines and your layout profile sync through CloudKit — with explicit Merge / Upload / Download and opt-in live sync.
Auto-discovery, reconnect-on-launch, exponential backoff, and a lightweight heartbeat keep the link alive. Swift 6 ready, built on the Observation framework.
CabForward integrates physical controller support seamlessly to provide ultimate console-grade, tactile command over your railroad layout.
Dress your whole railroad in a look you love. Pick from thirteen beautiful themes and the entire app — along with your widget and Apple Watch — instantly restyles to match.
Drive a single locomotive, control accessories and manage your command station for free — unlock the full railroad with Pro.
Monthly & annual subscriptions include a 7-day free trial.
CabForward