Christopher Mitchell has spent three years building a full-scale replica of a British Rail Class 800 control cab, designed to interface with Train Simulator and Train Sim World via their controller APIs. The Class 800, a Hitachi AT300-platform train first deployed on Great Western Railway in 2017, runs in both electric and diesel-electric hybrid configurations. Mitchell is working from a corner of an apartment, which means every component decision is a deliberate trade-off between fidelity and space.
The cab uses a CAN bus to coordinate all internal controls and feedback, including LEDs that mirror real external light states pulled live from the simulator. The most technically interesting detail is the inclusion of genuine AWS sunflowers, physical components from the Automatic Warning System that train drivers use to acknowledge non-clear track signals. These are not replicas. That distinction matters, and the blog post goes deep on their internals.
The July update documents where the build stands on metal panel fabrication and control layout. Read it for the engineering specifics: how real components get sourced, how simulator APIs get mapped to physical hardware, and how a hobbyist reverse-engineers the feel of a cab that most people will never sit in.
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