railpro control

[SteveLI]

railpro control users' opinions

[lifeontheranch]

Totally satisfied user. Works as advertised.

[tloc52]

Former user saving up to start it again. The best control, sounds are ok.

TomO

[SWA737]

 I have operated both Digitrax and NCE and will never go back to either one. I have been a RailPro user for just over a year now and it is fantastic.  If there is a downside though, it is, you have to use Railpro's decoders. They are direct radio control and does not use a local net of any type. Extremely reliable but a little time-consuming and a bit pricey to install the decoders.  With that being said, if you have DCC ready locomotives, you can simply install their decoders for pretty much the same price as standard decoders. My problem was, I already had DCC decoders and had to pull them out of all 26 engines and purchase and install the new ones. 

[SouthPenn]

I have been using RailPro for about a year. It's great. I kept almost all my DCC locomotives DCC using an NCE control system. You can run RailPro on a DCC system. I have converted some of my permanent consist to RailPro. Consisting with RailPro is excellent.

I 

[Paul3]

I tried it at a train show and I don't like the throttle.  The knob is on the bottom of the throttle, and last I checked my thumbs point up.  This means the throttle is all but impossible to use one-handed in a comfortable fashion, given it's size and heft.

I also don't like that there is no reversing button; it's all touch screen.  This means that one has to look at the throttle every time you reverse direction.  Not much of a problem if you are a roundy-round type of operator, but for a switching layout (or operation), it would be annoying.

The graphics are rather crude, and at the time, one had to send pictures of your locos to RailPro to get them to appear on your throttle.  I think I heard that you can do it yourself now.

The cost of their receivers are rather pricey at $60 ea. without sound, and their stationary receivers are also a bit high at $80 ea. for 4 switches. 

I was impressed with the consisting.  The control was excellent.

I think it's a great thing to have in addition to a DC or DCC layout.  If one had a large layout with a lot of engines on the track, I would think scrolling through all the locos or switches trying to find the one you want would be a pain vs. just punching in the DCC address.

[SteveLI]

thanks for the input. I'm just one guy with a few locos on a private layout, so the extra cost of the decoders isn't so bad. It looks much simpler than dcc and all the programming. I'll be sure any additional locos I buy are dcc ready. Thanks again.

[SteveLI]

thanks. The consisting seems to be the real standout feature since info is flowing in both directions.....constant speed is maintained on multiple locos.

[SteveLI]

thanks