Model Railroad Hobbyist RailPro Contributor Needed

[Alan]

The Sergent is cheaper, easier to operate, and is a scale replica yet guys are still reluctant to make the move.

How do you perform remote uncoupling?

Asking because remote uncoupling is a mandatory feature in my application. I have a spur to an aggregate dealer that uses remote uncoupling otherwise operators would have to reach across 7 yard tracks. At another location remote uncoupling is used on two different leads inside a rubber factory building.

[TwinStar]

The Sergent is cheaper, easier to operate, and is a scale replica yet guys are still reluctant to make the move.

How do you perform remote uncoupling?

Asking because remote uncoupling is a mandatory feature in my application. I have a spur to an aggregate dealer that uses remote uncoupling otherwise operators would have to reach across 7 yard tracks. At another location remote uncoupling is used on two different leads inside a rubber factory building.

As far as I know you can't remote uncouple a Sergent.

[G8B4Life]

As far as I know you can't remote uncouple a Sergent.

Remote uncoupling can be done and has been done, though I can't think of where I saw it.  It's not pretty though, it involves a trackside magnet that flips up over the couplers. What can't be done is delayed upcoupling. Unfortunately unlike the prototype once you've lifted the pin (ball in Sergents case) once you take the magnet away the ball will relock the couplers straight away if you didn't move the cars apart.

Edit. I found where I had seen the remote uncoupling. There is an animation on this page: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/1442#comment-11815.
Unfortunately the link given in the post goes nowhere now.

- Tim

[TwinStar]

As far as I know you can't remote uncouple a Sergent.

Remote uncoupling can be done and has been done, though I can't think of where I saw it.  It's not pretty though, it involves a trackside magnet that flips up over the couplers. What can't be done is delayed upcoupling. Unfortunately unlike the prototype once you've lifted the pin (ball in Sergents case) once you take the magnet away the ball will relock the couplers straight away if you didn't move the cars apart.

Edit. I found where I had seen the remote uncoupling. There is an animation on this page: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/1442#comment-11815.
Unfortunately the link given in the post goes nowhere now.

- Tim

That is cool!

[carrson]

As previously mentioned keeping the articles strickley on the topic of Railpro and how it operates and the features it has without comparing and bashing the other manufactures would be best. You want to focus on educating guys like me that do not have or have never operated a DCC system. The individuals with thousands of dollars invested in their DCC systems are not going to switch over so no use trying to convert them. I actually never paid much attention to the DCC articles in the magazine. It just appeared to be too complicated for me. Railpro solved my issues....Just my thoughts...thanks 

[Lee Nicholas]

Bruce payed my layout a visit when he was in Utah last year. It was his first contact with RP and he was impressed to the point he  penned an article for MRP last Oct I believe. I am willing to help where I can.

Tomorrow RMC is doing a photo session on my UCW in conjunction with next years NMRA National in Salt Lake. My layout story will include my conversion to RP and what a great system it is.

Lee Nicholas

[B.Lloyd]

I have and use NCE. I wanted something simpler to use on my small layout and was sold on Railpro. I went to buy system only to find out I can’t buy it in Canada. Is this the same in other Countries. One of the main complaints it is proprietary, but with the licensing not being of great concern a great number of modellers are being left out. Don’t want to be negative but do not like to be excluded either.

[Alan]

It is a radio spectrum governmental certification issue. Small business growing pains, not deliberate exclusion. But exclusion nonetheless.

[KPack]

Out of curiosity, is there anything saying that a person can't just go to the States, buy Railpro, and bring it back to Canada?  I just wonder if the law is that strict that it can't be used at all up there without approval.  I can understand not being able to sell it without approval, but does it also curtail use of it? 

[Alan]

If ICES works like the FCC in the US, an individual may import up to 3 non-FCC certified devices of the same model for their own personal use. Now how they go about enforcing that limit is beyond me. Doubtful they do.

[CPRail]

My father and I have both purchased RailPro from Bill - and we are both born and raised Canucks. Unfortunately, Bill is no longer able to import the RP stuff commercially into Canada due to the certification issues, but I can import it myself directly.

Same issue with paint like Scalecoat or Tru-Color - I have to raid the US hobby shops whenever I visit, or get it mailed to a parcel pick-up place at the border and pick-it up.

[TwinStar]

Sounds like it's easier to get weed into Canada than RailPro.

[KPack]

Lol, well in regards to the original topic, Jacob and I need to get back to writing that article.  Life has pulled me away a bit.  Time for me to get back to it.

-Kevin

[Alan]

Sounds like it's easier to get weed into Canada than RailPro.

Ironically, true. In Canada pot is legal and RailPro isn't. What a world we live in.

[Pequeajim]

I would suggest you frame the article in a "just the facts, maam" style so as not to rile up the DCC crowd. Take great care in not making it feel like us versus them. It doesn't take much to start the negative comments flowing on MRH or any forum. Even though in essence it is a sales pitch don't make it sound like a sales pitch. Remove superlatives from your vocabulary.

Brevity may also work to your advantage. Just take a look at the DCC article in this month's issue. Holy smokes. All that just to play with trains, you've got to be kidding me. If you can write such that a casual reader will get the fact RP performs all the same functions as those described in the DCC article except with no user involvement required then you will have done RP a great service.

RP being a proprietary system with a sole manufacturer and the exclusion of N scale will likely be the most popular objections. Don't hide from them. An effective presentation style is to admit and address the objections early in the article. This approach tends to convey honesty which then carries through the remainder of the article. Much the same way forum members relate to people who admit their mistakes in layout building threads.

If I may add further comment, good presentations often have a common underlying theme throughout their entirety, something to tie the whole article together. Since it is people reading the article and people are emotional it is wise to use a theme that elicits an emotional connection. Ask yourselves "Why did I buy RP?" Drill the answer down to a single descriptive word. That word then becomes the unifying theme of the article. For me personally it was simplicity. Not that I can't understand complexity but rather why should I when the hardware will do it for me. If simplicity is the theme the article would quietly weave simplicity into the phrasing. For example, compare these paragraphs...

"Locomotive advanced settings can be accessed via the wrench icon found on the locomotive screen. This will display a page showing minimum start speed and momentum settings. Select the minimum start speed and adjust the setting up or down by turning the throttle knob. Repeat the process with the momentum setting and then press exit to return to the locomotive screen. The locomotive will now respond to throttle changes based on the settings you selected."

"A locomotive's minimum start speed and momentum can be easily changed with a simple tap of your finger and twist of the adjustment knob."

Well said Alan.  The point I get from your post is that we call model railroading "the great American hobby", so keeping any article or post passive and informative is the best path forward...