Lionel iCab vs Blunami
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lionel iCab
Control Lionel TMCC and LEGACY engines, accessories, and trains from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Features include extended locomotive control, speed graphs, and accessory management.
- Control TMCC and LEGACY engines
- Accessory and train operation
- Extended Legacy locomotive controls
- Speed graph with target/actual speed
- Quilling Whistle feature
- Train Builder for unified operation
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Use your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch device to operate Lionel TMCC and LEGACY engines, accessories and trains. iCab includes the most popular features from Lionel's flagship hardware-based LEGACY CAB2 remote including the Train Builder and Quilling Whistle. NOTE: Additional hardware is required to use iCab. iCab includes the operating features of the basic Lionel cab remote plus: - Extended Legacy locomotive control screens - Speed Graph with target and actual speed - Six preset official railroad speeds - Quilling Whistle - Accessory control screen - Special screen for Legacy StationSounds Diner car control - Automatically loads Engine Roster (LEGACY Command Base required) - Train Builder combines multiple locomotives, rolling stock and accessories for unified operation Also available is the Lionel LCS app for iPad. Use this companion app for easy control of layout switches and accessories. iCab app requirements: Lionel LCS WiFi (6-81325) to connect to your layout (up to 15 users can share a single LCS WiFi module). The iCab App works with the Lionel command base model Base-1L; a Legacy command base (v1.52 required) adds additional features. All available from Lionel LLC.
Blunami
Control locomotives equipped with a specific DCC decoder using your mobile device. This application allows for seamless operation of your model trains.
- Locomotive control
- DCC decoder compatibility
- SoundTraxx Blunami support
- Mobile operation
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The Blunami train control app by BlueRail Trains let's you control any locomotive equipped with a SoundTraxx Blunami DCC decoder.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Blunami at 100% against Lionel iCab's 30%. Blunami also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.3) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 4 months). Lionel iCab's advantage is iOS requirement (7.0 vs 13.0). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Blunami holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 18 and 10 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 30% of Lionel iCab's written reviews are positive against 100% of Blunami's.
Lionel iCab ships an update every 4 months, Blunami every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lionel iCab | Blunami |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (18 ratings) | 4.7 (10 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 30.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 18 — better | 10 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 7.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 50 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lionel, LLC | BlueRail Trains |
Customer experience
Lionel iCab
Blunami
In-app purchases
Lionel iCab
No in-app purchases
Blunami
No in-app purchases
