Bill,
Wow! I haven't been this unimpressed with a product in a long time. I
will qualify my statements by saying that I have had DCC, specifically
Digitrax, since the very beginning. So I have seen the DCC growth and
been through the fires. RailPro looks like a good idea on the surface,
but what a completely arrogant sales pitch in those videos on their
website.
Let's just start with price. they are in no way comparable in price to
DCC. A non-sound module from RailPro is $49.99. I can by a TCS or even
a Digitrax decoder for around $20.00. Now that's for a 2 function
decoder, but even still, the lighting effects with DCC are a lot better
than what I saw in their demo. Not only that, but what if you have an
engine that isn't DCC ready. The way it looks, you're screwed. I will
say that the automatic speed matching is a pretty neat feature.
However, it doesn't take a lot to figure out how to speed match with
DCC. My friend just did about 40 locomotives in a day or two. Not only
that, but he also found some units with problems that he didn't know about.
For all the bashing of DCC they did in the video's they never one time
mentioned how to control momentum, or how to change the address on a
locomotive. What if I don't have a unit that is commercially
available. As meany of you know I'm building a Milwaukee Road GP20.
Didn't see that they mentioned getting a photo of that on the screen or
any other engine that isn't commercially available.
This sound very proprietary and I don't like that at all. That's the
great thing about DCC. Yes it can be a bit complicated if you choose to
get into all the dark dirty secrets of the CV's. I choose to do that,
because I like to do those things. Not only that, but Decoder Pro does
a lot of this for you and it's almost all drop down selections.
When it comes to sound, there is no comparison to DCC. Soundtrax
Tsunami is probably the best on the market. There are other sound
decoders out there in DCC that are good too. All are better than what I
heard from the module in the video. For the money they want, it's not
going to be a choice for me. I would like to see it in real operation,
but I'm not impressed at all.
Michael Ostertag
On 8/25/2012 11:48 AM, Bill Lane wrote:
This is the first I have heard of RailPro.
I am by far not suggesting that improvements are not possible at this
point. But after watching the clip on the RailPro website I got the
feeling that they think they have worthy features that DCC does not
have. Rail Pro spent plenty of time knocking DCC. I did not see
anything that would sway me to their direction even if I was not
established in DCC.
Load sensing? That is what you are supposed to do - is RUN your train.
3 big detractors right off...
I am not a fan of touch screens. They get greasy looking -- yuck.
I could be wrong but it seems once you start off with their system
they are the sole providers of possible proprietary components. That
right there would be a deal breaker for me. I don't want to be chained
to one company. If they go belly up 5 years down the road you have
worthless items and have to swap out for something else.
I have serious doubt they will have a profile shot of K4 5495 or most
other of my locos in their photo library. I don't need ColorForm fun
to run my trains.
I think it would take a substantial improvement or have new features
to move the masses away from DCC at this point. It is great for an
innovator to swim against the tide of what is considered to be the
well established standard, but for me RailPro is not it.
Thank You,
Bill Lane
Modeling the Mighty Pennsy & PRSL in 1957 in S Scale since 1988
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