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I'm sorry I came upon this thread so late. I've used a 433MHz Tx and Rx with Picaxe to automate my first live steamer, it was a lot of fun. I had Picaxes controlling two servos, whistle and regulator, and counting axle speed. Pressing one button would sound the whistle and start the train and control its speed. Pressing the same button again would sound the whistle and slow the train to a halt. Pressing any other button would just sound the whistle, the whistle was automated to sound peep-pip-pip.