Announcement from the JMRI community: October 3, 2024The Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI®) community announces two major milestones:
the 25th anniversary of the first use of JMRI and the 10,000th update to the Java Model
Railroad Interface software used by almost 50,000 model railroad hobbyists for managing
and operating today’s digitally controlled model railroads. With over 300 developers
worldwide having contributed, the “community sourced” JMRI project began in 1999 to
provide a way for model railroaders to manage the complexity of train engines fitted with
digital decoders. Today, model railroaders worldwide use the greatly expanded JMRI
system for everything having to do with the development and enjoyment of modern model
trains and layouts.
Bob Jacobsen, a member of the original team and still a senior developer, said “JMRI has
helped bring the sophistication of modern electronics and computers to thousands of
model railroads - all based on open source software.” Not only model railroad hobbyists,
but millions of people of all ages have seen JMRI in operation at holiday train displays,
hobby shows, and train exhibits at multiple museums around the world.
“JMRI was one of the key steppingstones in the wide adoption of Digital Command Control
across the model railroading community by making the process of implementation easier,
visual, and common across all manufacturers,” noted Peter Ely, a founding member of the
NMRA DCC Working Group. “JMRI itself grew in complementary directions to allow the
typical model railroader to do things at the system-wide railway level only dreamed about
by the original working group.”
Jacobsen said that JMRI development continues to keep pace with changes in technology
and that another 10,000 updates are likely over the next decade. It is through the
continued interest and contribution of time and effort of the community members that
JMRI feature are expanded and technology updated. Interest in JMRI extends over dozens
of user forums and social media platforms, with over 8,000 users participating in the
primary user forum on groups.io, asking questions and contributing answers and
suggestions that are used to expand and improve JMRI capabilities.
Congratulations and thanks to all who have participated in using and improving JMRI, now
and into the future.
About JMRI (
https://www.jmri.org/)
The Java Model Railroad Interface project was initially a modest undertaking of some dozen
model railroad hobbyists who wanted to bring their computer skills to the emerging field of
digitally controlled model trains. Forming an open source software development project,
their first output was called DecoderPro® and provided easy-to-use screens for managing
“configuration variables” in the small computers that manufacturers and hobbyists were
installing in train engines. The effort expanded to create PanelProTM with features for
controlling all types of electronic devices and automating train operations by monitoring
sensors around the layout.
Unfortunately, the community was soon embroiled in a copyright and patent dispute that
resulted (after seven years of litigation) in the landmark Jacobsen v. Katzer case that helped
establish the legal basis for today’s open software movement. The Electronic Frontier
Foundation cites this case as one that has allowed the internet to flourish and find its way
into millions of computers in homes, offices, and businesses.
JMRI today provides functions including management of Digital Command Control
decoders in train engines, cars, and other devices, graphic display of small and large train
layouts, on-line real-time operational monitoring of sensors and other devices, automation
of train operations, and management of realistic train operation scenarios. JMRI also
provided the first widespread implementation of the WiThrottle protocol.
New releases of JMRI are made available to users approximately monthly. JMRI is
comprised of several thousand source files available at GitHub, the free open source code
repository, and is maintained and expanded by community members. One of the
milestones celebrated today is the 10,000th developer update to the JMRI repository on
GitHub, indicating the robustness and on-going development of this important open source
project.
For more information, contact Bob Jacobsen via email: info@jmri.org
