RailPro > RailPro Specific Help & Discussion

Long Term Prospects of RailPro

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dfischer71:
I am very much interested in using RailPro and am impressed with everything I see on the website plus what I have seen on this forum.  I noted with interest the threads concerning market share.  RailPro share is basically minuscule and apparently the company is very small.

I love private companies, including the small ones like RailPro.  In my opinion, it appears to be thousands of times better than ANY DCC system I have seen.  But, investing in RailPro and designing my layout around it is a BIG step.  There are no guarantees in life, but does anybody have any inside information or insight into the long term prospects of the company?  I'm just hesitant because where would I be if I set up using RailPro and he sold the company or it went under?

All that aside, I'm probably going to do it anyway!  Just a little leery at this point...

Thanks.

G8B4Life:
Hi dfisher71 (sorry, we don't know your first name yet),

Welcome to the user group.

Ring Engineering has been around for 11 years, his RailPro system I don't know how much of that but it is in it's second generation so I don't think Ring is going anywhere soon. I can understand you being hesitant, heck I'm probably one of only two people in this country using Railpro so I'm even more stuck if things went bad, but after reading everything I could and watching Kevin's videos (another shameless plug) I still jumped straight in; I saw the benefits outweighed the risks in spades.

As for market share, well yes that isn't in our favour right now, but the more users we and the more we get it out there in the public and modellers eyes get the stronger our position will be.

Designing your layout for RailPro wouldn't really be any different than designing your layout for DCC or even DC. The track wiring should be virtually the same for RailPro, DCC or DC. If you ever had to change systems then adding anything extra that another system might need should be fairly simple if the layout design is well thought out.

- Tim

KPack:
D (name??) - a very valid question, and one that I'm sure most of us have considered at one point or another.  Being a small operation there is always the possibility of failure of one kind or another.  Thankfully Ring Engineering has a successful track record behind them that gives confidence.  They've been around for over 10 years.  Much of that was with their EOT devices and power trucks, which successfully built the business up enough to allow Railpro to be possible.  If you listen to an old model railroad podcast where Tim Ring was interviewed, he states that Railpro was always the original goal of the company, but they needed a successful product first to allow Railpro to be developed.  Hence the EOT devices, which have been very successful. 

Railpro has been out now for several years and has only gotten better.  There is constant improvement.  The fact that Ring is actively working to make new products and release new features for Railpro shows that there is a plan and there is drive. 

I can't predict the future and so I can't say for certain whether or not something will happen to Ring Engineering.  But the bottom line is this:  if for some reason Ring Engineering went away, would I regret buying Railpro?  The answer is absolutely not.  Railpro is the best money I've spent in the hobby and has brought me far more enjoyment than DCC ever did.

-Kevin

William Brillinger:
dfischer71, Welcome to our little group!

Kevin and Tim's posts are very typical of how the RailPro owners I have met feel about the product. And I feel the same way.

It's hard to estimate the size of the RailPro user base since Tim Ring has not shared this info with us and since we have a very small reach as a group. I know there are many others out there who are not members here. 

I think the best way to ensure that RailPro continues to advance is for it's users to do what they tend to do.. rave about RailPro and it's features to potential users.

One day, maybe Ring Engineering will promote this forum as a place for their customers and then we might get a little better idea of the number of users RailPro has. Who knows?

Alan:
Layout design is no different for RP as for DCC so no worries there. If Ring ever does go belly up then my plan is to quickly grab a few more controllers and a box full of modules. Life goes on.

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