Good, good I'm learning 
thank you!
Okay, so it sounds like you're saying I heard wrong - and in fact these devices are pretty much all the same. So I guess I should just look up instructions or a tutorial for ESP8266? That's what seems to come up generally when I type NodeMCU into Google. Like I said, I have zero knowledge or experience with this stuff.
Would you agree that it will be perfectly possible to control it through a Raspberry Pi? Or alternatively do you think it might be simpler to try to connect the tracks directly to their battery and the Raspberry Pi without using the NodeMCU at all?