New Members!

[William Brillinger]

We've had a bunch of new members in the last few days.

Welcome to the RailPro User Group!

Please take a moment to introduce yourselves if you have not already done so.

[TomO]

Hi

Tom from Verona, Wi. I have been in model railroading since college years but have had trains since 8 or 9. I retired last year and finally have started the build. 14 months later I truly am ready to move from DC control to something else. I heard of Rail Pro from one of Allen at LK&O and Bill B forum entries. I started my investigation. I loved it but did come close a couple months ago to going with the Stanton S-Cab because I do prefer the DeadRail. But not enough room in the units.

I joined to get honest opinions from actual users as other Forums do not have a clue when you discuss Rail Pro. It also will convert easily to dead rail when the tech advances. I will be buying in a few months.

[superCharles]

Hi:
Charles from Shreveport, LA. I have been model railroading since college. I too am newly retired and starting a new HO layout in an upstairs bedroom. I first saw RailPro on YouTube & then in person on a local layout that had DCC & RailPro combine in a heavy operations format with all diesel motive power and was very impressed with the comparative ease of use. I have joined the user group to gain more info from real life users. I'm currently using straight DC with several brass steam locos. At this time I'm seriously leaning toward RailPro if steam sounds are equivalent to Tsunami or WOW. Upgadeability through software is very appealing in that regard.

[ngdave28]

Hello
I have a HOn3 layout modeling Colorado narrow gauge.  Running on DC.  Have wanted sound for years but never got too excited with DCC because of cost and complexity setting up CV numbers, etc.  RailPro looks like the way to go.  A tight fit but I think receiver will fit in tender of my little 2-6-0.  Also wireless throttle would be a definite plus.

Dave in SW Ohio

[GN Cascade]

Hi! My name is Kent Smith. I began railfanning with my Dad when I was 5 and Tyco Trainsets for Christmas at 7. I have read MR since I was a kid and have enjoyed RMC, Mainline Modeler, and other pubs as my interest became more historical/prototypical. I am a member of the Great Northern Railway Historical Society. I still have every train Dad and I collected back in the early 70's in original boxes. As an adult I have collected many more HO trains and brass locomotives and passenger with the idea of building an operating layout based on the Electrified GN Cascade Division 1955, Skykomish to Wenatchee WA. I also may build a small P48 set of modules of the earlier GN Cascade crossing set in 1910. I'm about ready to start a couple HO modules to test ideas for the 1955 layout. I have been reading nodes/posts on MRH re:Ring Eng. and am very interested in learning more, I like what I see thus far.

Kent Smith
GN Cascade

[dfischer71]

Hello All,

I am Dan from Gause, Tx and am retired.  I am building my first layout, so am having to learn everything.  Having a blast!  I have wanted to build one since I was a kid in the 50's.  Now I have the time, so have done the bench work and am starting the track work now.  I have looked at DCC and just have not seen anything about it that impressed me.

My layout will be about 18x16 HO.  I am very interested in RP and am impressed with everything I have seen.  I learn a lot from forums and am looking forward to being on this one and seeing it grow.

[DBeacon]

Hello from Texas!  I'll soon be moving to Palestine, TX to semi-retire ( we'll see how that pans out ).  I ran across this site on MRH and very glad I did. My new and hopefully last layout is planned to be On30, 1880's - 1920's backwoods mining and logging with an emphasis on hand laid track and scratch built.....well.....everything.  Why RailPro?  Think KISS theory.  My plan is the use of "deadrail"....I think I can see the future of model railroading, at least thru these  eyes.  I hope to have many conversations with all of you here about our love for the hobby thru the use of RailPro.   

[TwinStar]

Welcome everyone. I'm Jacob from Ft. Worth, TX. I'm a former DCC Run Chief with Free-mo and know the Digitrax system inside and out. I got out of the hobby in 2012 and when I returned last year I made a list of what I wanted and what I didn't. At the top of the 'didn't' list was DCC. I've been using RailPro, thanks in no small part to KPacks youtube videos, and haven't regretted it for a moment. Tim and Ring have an excellent product and I don't think you'll be disappointed either. Welcome aboard!

Jacob

[KPack]

Greetings all, I'm Kevin from Ellensburg WA.  Nice to see a few members from Texas...I lived in San Antonio for 4 yrs and Corpus Christi for 3.  Texas is nice, but hot! 

I've been a Railpro convert for over 3 yrs now.  I liked it so much when I bought it that I made it my goal to spread the word about it.  Back when I was first researching it I had a hard time finding any information on the system.  The only thing I found in forums was hearsay and rants against it being proprietary.  I decided that the best way to learn about Railpro was to buy it, so I did.  I've never regretted it.  I've tried to make a few videos showing some of the features of Railpro and have been active on various forums sharing my experiences and correcting misconceptions.

I came from a background in both DC and DCC.  I was never impressed with DCC though... working with CV's and those awful controllers felt like I was taking a step back into the early 80's.  Plus it seemed like there were non-stop issues on the club layout.  Dropped addresses, locos showing up in someone else's consist, random locomotives running without any control, loss of control, slot max, speed matching (the most annoying thing ever! even with JMRI), etc, etc.  So much so that it made running the trains a real chore.  None of those issues with Railpro!

Glad to be a Railpro user and to be part of the community.

-Kevin

[hirailer]

Hello everybody, my name is Mel and I am from Chilliwack BC. I have been a happy owner of RailPro for a little over two years and I love it. I have built three layouts in the last 35 years all of which were DC.

Over the years I saw so many model railroaders on various forums and groups that were having so many problems with DCC.  Even today it seems that there is just as many problems with DCC as there was say ten years ago. One would think that after 20 to 25 years these manufacturers would have their act together. Not so. It is obvious that age does not make technology better, it only becomes redundant. It was because of this that I did not purchase a DCC system. Model railroading is supposed to be fun.

Then several years ago I read about RailPro on Model Railroad Hobbyist which really got my attention. The rest is history, RailPro certainly puts A TON OF FUN in this hobby.

It is too bad that all model railroaders can't have a  " hands on experience" with RailPro. This system will sell itself.

Mel

 

[nodcc4me]

Howdy gents. I'm Al from NY. I became interested in trains when I was very young, thanks to my Dad. Four years ago I decided to build an HO layout, so I joined a club to become a bit more informed about the build. The club's HO layout is DCC. I soon found out about all of the problems as mentioned by others. Then I discovered RailPro, read the few reviews that I could find, and had to have it. I set up my layout and have enjoyed using RP ever since. After showing RP to the guys in the club, three of them have started using it and a couple more are considering it. Aside from the previously mentioned benefits, Tim Ring has been excellent to work with. He is very concerned about his customers and will go out of his way to help solve a problem.


I look forward to sharing experiences and offer whatever help I can here.

[yvesmary]

Hi guys

My name is Yves and I'm from Ponoka, Alberta. I'm a couple of miles east of the Edmonton-Calgary CP mainline and like to run down when I hear on my scanner that a train is coming and take pictures. I'm collecting locomotive and rolling stock photos like I used to collect hockey cards.

I'm building a two-level layout powered with an NCE DCC system. I like the fact that RailPro can run on it and while I toyed with the idea of converting totally I'm sticking with NCE for now. I have a Rapido TurboTrain and some hi-rail vehicles that aren't suited for RailPro. I've installed LM-2S modules in a couple of locos and you sure can't beat the consisting aspect of it. I tried doing it with DecoderPro and what a nightmare that is. I've bought a lot of locos with DCC but will eventually yank the decoders out and switch to RailPro.

I hope to see this forum grow and that members will post more installation photos/videos especially with hard-wired examples.

I would like to see an N-scale version module even if it didn't have sound that would fit in something like my Walthers powered American Crane.

Cheers,
Yves from Ponoka

[Robert]

Am hailing from the Decatur, Al area and am a DCC user with N scale. Have recently been dabbling a bit with HO. Two
of the HO locos are DCC equipped but due to some issues with my 'wireless' DCC system, particularly address holes
have been reading up on RailPro trying to decide if it is the right system for me to use on the HO side.

[roofintrash]

Hi guys. I'm Rick from northwest Indiana. Got back into the hobby after a 25yr absence and after tons of research decided to go the railpro route. So far I couldn't be happier.

[Prostreetamx]

Hi, I am Richard from Las Vegas,NV. I am not retired but as an electrician I have been into trains since I was a teenager (53 now). I got into electronics and electricity due to my interest in trains first. This has even helped me in my current career as a trade show electrician since I can fix stuff and do hook-ups of customer equipment due to my background with electronics and LED installs related to my hobby. I started building my current 20x20 double deck modern HO BNSF layout a few years ago with the full intention of running Digitrax DCC. I bought all the books and only had a few DCC parts to start with. After doing a lot of research and watching some DCC YouTube videos, I decided that a 20+ year old tech that was very complicated to program just wasn't for me. I decided of RailPro about 3 years ago but waited until last year to start buying the equipment. I waited to see how it would work out with all the bad reviews from guys who didn't even have it. They were concerned about the touch screen, picture files and such. These were not an issue for me at all. I have 8 modules so far and one HC-2 controller with a goal of about 25 to 30 RailPro equipped engines. Been buying mostly new engines so far for conversion and haven't started on my older units yet. Using sound in every unit so far. Can't seem to find any Model RailRoaders in the Las Vegas area other than the G scale guys. Will need a few operators once the layout is finished. Have most of the track down.