RailPro's market opportunity

[ON28]

There is a thread on Trainorders about hobby manufacturers, and the point was made about the lack of progress by DCC system makers, and how programming, MUing, sound and CV protocols leave much to be desired in terms of user friendliness. Much of what posters wanted is available from RailPro, yet there was no mention of Ring. (I am not a TO subscriber.) Tim should take notice, the opportunity is there to grow market share with expanded features and improved HC and LM designs, much like startups Scale Trains, Rapido, Tangent and Exactrail have jumped out as market leaders with better rolling stock and locos. What say you, true believers? 

[JRad]

He also has a nice, albeit smaller, opportunity in the Large Scale market.

I just jumped in with both feet with 6 LM's, an HC and the USB radio.  I have been in Large Scale for over 20 years and used several systems over the years. Currently, the closest competitors for dead rail layouts are AirWire, which is a radio based DCC system, using DCC protocols and deocders, and Revolution which is a proprietary system.  For me, Airwire was not a choice because of the complexity and Revolution was ruled out because the sound is not very good and I don't like buttons for throttle.

When I tried my first Large Scale LM I was very impressed with the throttle response as well as the sound.  Once I tried MU (consisting) I was hooked. My outdoor has a steep curving grade which previously limited train length. I could MU with my old system so long as locos ran at close to the same speed, but it really didn't help getting longer trains up the hill.  RailPro using 3 locos I was able to double train length with power to spare 

If Ring would do more with steam sounds and write the software to use the input to trigger steam chuffs, it would be the hands down best sysetem out there for Large Scale.  I'm doing what I can to spread the word!

[G8B4Life]

There's a couple of threads on Model Railroad Hobbyist at the moment along similar lines as well .

Unfortunately there's few of problems that don't help.

1. Ring is not a great marketer, he only advertises in one place, doesn't get out to promote his products and has been basically trying to sell the "New Technology" term with the same ad's since RP came out all those years ago, and

2. RailPro is a dirty word in world of people who have invested in DCC and the uninformed that haven't but take the DCC users word as gospel. The web is littered with forum posts where someone has requested info about RP from anyone who has used it and the whole thing is trashed by DCC users trying to convince them that DCC is the only way, and "nope not for me for various reasons".  I think many of us gave up trying to promote RP that way because we just keep getting trashed by those who blindly think that DCC is the one and only and those who blindly follow those people without looking at what it's all about themselves.


Seriously, I can't see why people would stay with DCC as it's given to them in this day and age. Even to this day I see people saying to newcomers to DCC to find out what system is popular with others in their area / local club uses and choose that system because you'll have close support. Heck, if you need to choose a system based on having support like that then how good can the system really be?

If Ring would do more with steam sounds and write the software to use the input to trigger steam chuffs, it would be the hands down best sysetem out there for Large Scale.  I'm doing what I can to spread the word!

The issue with sounds for primer movers / steam chuffs is that someone has to get out there and record them at sufficient quality and then give them to Ring, and then wait for him to make them into sound files.

- Tim

[darryl.trains]

I beat that drum a few years ago then I did a clinic showing all the various RP items at our local club.  Some had a little interest and our few N scale fellows were very interested but since size was the issue, that too went bye bye. I run once in awhile my RP engines on the club layout and some like it but that's all she wrote. Very little promotion of the products sure doesn't get the job done. Do I care?  Nahhhh   TOF

[Alan]

... Do I care?  Nahhhh   TOF

Same here. So long as Ring sells enough equipment to stay in business.

[ON28]

It's rare to find a hardcore trained electrical or any other kind of engineer who's also adept at marketing/product development.

I've demo'd RP for friends and they're impressed, especially with the simple installation, easy to use MU capabilities, and smooth performance. When they see that it runs on top of existing DCC, their interest turns more serious. That RP is a proprietary system doesn't matter, I think Ring's just a couple of minor but shrewd product changes away from substantial growth.