Getting started with RailKernel
Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2026 4:01 am
Getting Started with RailKernel
Welcome to RailKernel!
This guide will help you get your first layout up and running as quickly as possible.
Most of the help for RailKernel is embedded in the application itself, you have the help menu with a lot of topics, and, exactly where you need help, you will find it in the menu's or in the windows.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 1 - Install RailKernel
Download the latest version from:
https://railkernel.nl
RailKernel is available for:
• Windows
• Linux
• macOS
After installation, start RailKernel and follow the First Run Wizard.
https://railkernel.nl/movies/RK_Instr_V ... tartup.mov
In 11.01 only the IP dialogue pops up, in 11.02 both.
Tip:
Assign a fixed IP address to your command station to avoid connection problems. Otherwise for each new DHCP lease you will need to reconfigure RailKernel (File --> Interfaces)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 2 - Create a New Project
Select:
File → New Project
Choose a project name, catalogue and save location.
RailKernel will create all required project folders automatically.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 3 - Draw Your Layout
https://railkernel.nl/movies/RK_Instr_V ... fining.mov
Use the drawing tools to create your layout.
RailKernel supports:
• Straight tracks
• Curved tracks
• Turnouts
• Curved turnouts
• Three-way turnouts
• Double-slip switches
• Crossings
• Flex tracks
• Turntables
Use the mouse wheel to zoom and drag the layout to pan around the drawing area.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 4 - Define Feedback Contacts
Add feedback contacts to the appropriate track sections.
For each feedback contact:
• Select the feedback tool from the Define menu
• Place the contact on the track (read the inline help about mouse clicks)
• Verify that the contact changes state when occupied
Feedback contacts are the foundation of reliable train detection.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 5 - Configure Accessories
Configure all accessories on your layout (Define --> Acc4e4ssories):
• Turnouts
• Signals
• Crossings
• Turntables
Verify that every accessory responds correctly from RailKernel.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 6 - Generate Blocks
Once your track plan and feedback contacts are complete, or earlier
Define → Generate Blocks
RailKernel can automatically generate blocks based on your track plan and feedback configuration.
NO MEASURING : All measurements are calculated from the geometry.
Review the generated blocks and make adjustments where necessary.
https://railkernel.nl/movies/RK_Instr_V ... eneral.mov
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 7 - Import Locomotives
Open:
Drive → Locomotives
Import locomotives directly from your CS3.
Verify:
• Name
• Address
• Functions
• Image (optional)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 8 - Create Simple Trains (License needed)
A Simple Train consists of:
• A locomotive
• A train length
• A train type
Open:
Drive → Simple Trains
Create one or more trains that can be used by the automatic driving system.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 9 - Place a Train on the Layout
Locate an occupied feedback contact.
Right-click the feedback and select:
Place Train Here
Select the train you wish to place.
RailKernel now knows the train's current location.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 10 - Perform Your First Automatic Move
Rightclick your train and start Driving
Need Help?
If you encounter any problems:
• Search the forum
• Check the Known Issues section
• Create a support topic
• Report bugs in the Bug Reports forum
When asking for help, always include:
• RailKernel version
• Operating system
• Command station type
• Relevant screenshots
• Log files if available
- Your layout xml file
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Enjoy RailKernel!
We hope RailKernel helps you build, operate, and enjoy your model railway.
Happy railroading!
The RailKernel Team
https://railkernel.nl
https://forum.railkernel.nl
Welcome to RailKernel!
This guide will help you get your first layout up and running as quickly as possible.
Most of the help for RailKernel is embedded in the application itself, you have the help menu with a lot of topics, and, exactly where you need help, you will find it in the menu's or in the windows.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 1 - Install RailKernel
Download the latest version from:
https://railkernel.nl
RailKernel is available for:
• Windows
• Linux
• macOS
After installation, start RailKernel and follow the First Run Wizard.
https://railkernel.nl/movies/RK_Instr_V ... tartup.mov
In 11.01 only the IP dialogue pops up, in 11.02 both.
Tip:
Assign a fixed IP address to your command station to avoid connection problems. Otherwise for each new DHCP lease you will need to reconfigure RailKernel (File --> Interfaces)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 2 - Create a New Project
Select:
File → New Project
Choose a project name, catalogue and save location.
RailKernel will create all required project folders automatically.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 3 - Draw Your Layout
https://railkernel.nl/movies/RK_Instr_V ... fining.mov
Use the drawing tools to create your layout.
RailKernel supports:
• Straight tracks
• Curved tracks
• Turnouts
• Curved turnouts
• Three-way turnouts
• Double-slip switches
• Crossings
• Flex tracks
• Turntables
Use the mouse wheel to zoom and drag the layout to pan around the drawing area.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 4 - Define Feedback Contacts
Add feedback contacts to the appropriate track sections.
For each feedback contact:
• Select the feedback tool from the Define menu
• Place the contact on the track (read the inline help about mouse clicks)
• Verify that the contact changes state when occupied
Feedback contacts are the foundation of reliable train detection.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 5 - Configure Accessories
Configure all accessories on your layout (Define --> Acc4e4ssories):
• Turnouts
• Signals
• Crossings
• Turntables
Verify that every accessory responds correctly from RailKernel.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 6 - Generate Blocks
Once your track plan and feedback contacts are complete, or earlier
Define → Generate Blocks
RailKernel can automatically generate blocks based on your track plan and feedback configuration.
NO MEASURING : All measurements are calculated from the geometry.
Review the generated blocks and make adjustments where necessary.
https://railkernel.nl/movies/RK_Instr_V ... eneral.mov
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 7 - Import Locomotives
Open:
Drive → Locomotives
Import locomotives directly from your CS3.
Verify:
• Name
• Address
• Functions
• Image (optional)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 8 - Create Simple Trains (License needed)
A Simple Train consists of:
• A locomotive
• A train length
• A train type
Open:
Drive → Simple Trains
Create one or more trains that can be used by the automatic driving system.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 9 - Place a Train on the Layout
Locate an occupied feedback contact.
Right-click the feedback and select:
Place Train Here
Select the train you wish to place.
RailKernel now knows the train's current location.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Step 10 - Perform Your First Automatic Move
Rightclick your train and start Driving
Need Help?
If you encounter any problems:
• Search the forum
• Check the Known Issues section
• Create a support topic
• Report bugs in the Bug Reports forum
When asking for help, always include:
• RailKernel version
• Operating system
• Command station type
• Relevant screenshots
• Log files if available
- Your layout xml file
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Enjoy RailKernel!
We hope RailKernel helps you build, operate, and enjoy your model railway.
Happy railroading!
The RailKernel Team
https://railkernel.nl
https://forum.railkernel.nl