I just completed the Lionel course from Trainz Academy. I found it extremely beneficial. I have always wanted to go to the Lionel and MTH schools. I am a collector / operator who has done a great number of conversions to TMCC with TAS and ERR products. I started my journey into the hobby with Postwar trains in the mid 1970's. I inherited my father Postwar collection and built upon it. I learned to maintain and repair these trains from the excellent Greenburg repair manuals and help from friends in the hobby. I moved into collecting and operating TMCC and Legacy equipment, but struggled to learn about the technology that makes them work. My friends also did not have much knowledge to share on these newer engines. I joined OGR Forum and that changed everything. This forum has taught me a tremendous amount. I still had a lot of questions that needed answered about these modern trains. When I learned about the classes being offered from Trainz on the forum, I immediately signed up for the Lionel course. I know Mike Reagan. When Mike had Train America in Ohio, I drove up and spent a day with him learning how to use his products and did quite a few TAS conversions. He is a great teacher and I knew I would learn a lot from what ever he would be teaching in the videos from Trainz Academy. I took the course very seriously and took notes like I was back in college. My goal was to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of the modern electronic controlled trains from Lionel. I had a lot of gaps in my knowledge. The course filled in most if not all of these gaps and has given me the confidence to move forward with my work on the repair and upgrades of the modern trains. Am I an expert repair technician now? NO, but I know that I will very quickly advance in my skills. I get way more out of reading the repair posts on the OGR Forum now that I have taken the course. I am not an MTH DCC operator, but have purchased a lot of the Premier MTH engines and have converted them to TMCC. The Lionel course was so good for me I immediately signed up for the MTH course from Trainz Academy. I hope to be able to work with MTH trains in the same manner I can with Lionel now. I want to thank Scott for offering these courses and Gunrunner John for all his support.
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