Our Story….

            My infatuation with model trains and my brother, Mike’s, history of working in the actual railroad industry have fueled our desire to bring our first product, the EOT device, to model railroaders. 

            My history with model railroading began at the early age of eight, when my parents purchased my first HO scale train set for my birthday.  From that point forward, I was hooked on model railroading.  Thirty years later, I still have that train set and I set it up around the Christmas tree during the holiday season.  I ran the locomotive that came with my first train set so much, that I completely wore the teeth from the drive gears within the unit.  Since then, to save a piece of history and to solve my worn out locomotive problem, I purchased a hobby grade unit, equipped it with a DCC decoder, and modified the drive train until my vintage locomotive body fit.  Now my nearly 30 year old unit runs like new again!

            About 2001, I purchased some very nice late model diesel locomotives.  As much as I like cabooses, it would not have been prototypically correct to have a caboose behind these late model locomotives.  Because of this, my search for an EOT device began.  This search resulted in a futile attempt to satisfy my desire to have a prototypically accurate, easy to use and easy to install EOT device.  Everything available at the time required car modifications that would make that particular car a permanent End of Train car!  I was also unhappy with the physical size (too large and not to scale) of the available EOT’s.  Being an electrical engineer by trade, I conceived the idea of a truck mounted electronics package to pickup electricity from the track to flash the light. This idea would solve the problems of car modification and making the unit easy to install. 

            This is where my brother Mike comes in.  Although Mike has an educational background in both electrical and mechanical engineering, he has spent the majority of his career in the mechanical end of the engineering spectrum and has refined his skills within the mechanical areas.  Mike’s mechanical models, drawings, tooling and production expertise helped bring the existing EOT into production.  Mike has worked in the railroad industry since 1988 with 17+ years of exposure to railway technology as we know it today.  Mike’s experience in the railway industry since 1988 has included working in the research and test areas for the Association of American Railroads (AAR) as well as other product development and business development areas within the railway supply base.

Some of the original EOT prototypes that could have worked better!

           After realizing we had achieved my vision with our first reliable, working model of the EOT device, it was obvious that I would not be the only model railroader with these wants and desires.  Easy installation, accuracy, and reliability had been achieved to my satisfaction for my own trains.  When I was satisfied with the accuracy and operating characteristics, we knew we had something others would want.  Therefore, we incorporated Ring Engineering on March 24^th, 2004 and began selling our EOT in September 2004.  Thanks to our local hobby shop owner, Larry, we were able to get our first units into the hands of model railroaders.  Since then we have made our End of Train Device available online to make it possible for anyone in the country to purchase.  Many model railroaders have enjoyed our End of Train Device and we are sure you will too.

            In closing, we have big plans for Ring Engineering, so please check back to our web site frequently.  Our intentions are to continue to develop and release innovative and high quality products for model railroaders.

Yours truly,

Tim Ring                                             Mike Ring

President and CTO,                          Vice President

Ring Engineering, Inc.                       Ring Engineering, Inc.