@H1000 personally I think the rubbery buttons on the side of my iPhone have poor tactile feedback; for speed control a knob seems more logical. Lionel is still offering its CAB-1L and it has a knob. If necessary, I would choose it over a touch screen device. However: I wasn't impressed by the original CAB-1. Its knob had a vague motion and lacked detents. Part of the issue with the original CAB-1 was its "acceleration" feature, and use of relative speed steps. I'm not sure how the CAB-1L handles this. I do know that all of those shortcomings were resolved by the CAB-2, and now it's gone!
CVP Products (Airwire) is another small company that offers a remote control system for model trains with a physical controller. Their controller doesn't have a touch screen or graphics array, just a basic LCD display. But it fits nicely in your hand, has a multitude of physical buttons and a precise knob with detents. It also retails for less than the RailPro controller:
https://www.cvpusa.com/airwire_wireless_throttles.php
Clearly, many folks on the Forum liked the CAB-2 and still want an improved physical controller with a knob. I've mentioned a few small companies that build and sell RR control systems with physical controllers. So I don't accept Lionel's claim that it's impossible or too costly. Partnering with one of these other companies (NCE, Ring Engineering, or CVP Products) might be a way to give us something more informative and precise than the CAB-1L at an acceptable cost.
