Hello all, I hope this finds you well.
My name is Glenn, I’m 28 (29 later this month) and am a Sergeant in the Marine Corps. I’m married to my rockstar wife Heidi and we have a daughter named Harper who will be 2 late this year. I’m currently deployed, and have been since November of last year. I’m from Maryland originally, but live in Southern California.
I have been interested in trains and basically any type of large machinery or equipment, for as long as i can remember. I always loved to help my Grandmom set up the model train set around the Christmas tree every year. My dad has a fair amount of older DC HO scale things, though he never had a layout or really used them in any way, many may not even be assembled kits.
Anyways, I started to really get into the model railroading hobby myself on Father’s Day of 2019. I joined a local club to help them with basically what ever they wanted me to do. So far I’ve been doing electrical work, some scenery work, starting to learn how to fix bad order rolling stock and engines. I think I’ve gotten a great handle on using the JMRI software to adjust CV’s and such so that the engines conform to the clubs policy on scale speeds at certain speed steps. (25SMPH @ step 14 and 50SMPH @ step 28) that way nearly every engine there will behave with one another.
Since then I have been acquiring my own models and rolling stock. I have all Athearn engines and a mix of manufacturers rolling stock. Maybe a total of 15-20 cars?
I have 2 DDA40X’s, 3 SD40-2 “Fast Forties”, 1 SD70ACE, all Union Pacific road names, and mostly well cars for intermodal services. I would eventually like a passenger car set, but they’re very expensive.
I currently do not own RailPro equipment, but do plan on purchasing it within the year. I currently have an NCE PowerCab at home, but no layout or space for one. I run all my stuff at the local club, which also runs NCE.
I want to switch to RailPro because i love the idea of simple consisting and the touch screen with pictures, as well as the ‘seemingly’ simpler installation, when it comes time for my own layout. I am also excited to still be able to run my RP equipped engines at the clubs layout, with either their NCE controllers, using the DCC option, or bringing my own controller and running my engines that way.
I already have some questions about using a RP equipped engine with a DCC controller, and with normal DCC engines, and other things, but I’ll have to figure out where to ask them, or make a new thread.
I apologize for the lengthy post, but I am appreciative if you’ve read it all.
Looking forward to becoming part of the family.
-Glenn
