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Table of Contents
MERG related courses
If you know about any other relevant courses not listed here, please add them.
Note that you do not have to be a MERG member to come on these courses.
These courses are organised by a group of MERG members for the benefit of other MERG members and railway modellers in general. Your booking is directly with the course organisers, not with MERG itself.
PLEASE NOTE that all course dates are provisional and dependent on the Covid situation, and will not take place until it is safe to run them again. You will see that some dates for spring 2021 have already been put back by a month or two. However, with the Government's lockdown timetable appearing to be on schedule, there is perhaps light at the end of the tunnel and we hope to be able to welcome you back on face to face courses before too long.
All bookings for courses that have been postponed with be honoured for the re-scheduled course, or any other course if you prefer to come on a different one at that time.
If you already have a booking for any course, you will be contacted directly by email about the arrangements and dates.
The dates below are all confirmed for 2021, with the venue already booked, but may be postponed if it is still not considered safe.
Introduction to CBUS
26th to 28th June 2021 (Rushden)
(Postponed from March 2021 and again from May 2021)
The course will take place in the “Goods Shed” meeting room at the Rushden Transport Museum & Railway, Rushden Station, Northamptonshire.
For those just starting out in CBUS, this weekend course will take you from first principles through building CBUS kits to setting up CBUS operations.
This course assumes no previous knowledge of CBUS.
Click below for more details:
Introduction to CBUS weekend course details
More CBUS
17th-19th July 2021 (Rushden)
(Postponed from April 2021 and again from early June 2021)
This course is for those already familiar with the basics of CBUS, who would like to take it further.
Particular emphasis on configuring CBUS in FLiM and using the universal CANMIO firmware.
The course will take place in the “Goods Shed” meeting room at the Rushden Transport Museum & Railway, Rushden Station, Northamptonshire.
This course assumes that you have attended the Introduction to CBUS course, or that you already have a good understanding of the basics of CBUS, building modules and getting them working.
Bookings are now open.
Click below for more details.
More CBUS weekend course details
STARTING OUT WITH JMRI PANEL PRO
24th to 26th July 2021 (Rushden)
(Postponed from June 2021)
The course will take place in the “Goods Shed” meeting room at the Rushden Transport Museum & Railway, Rushden Station, Northamptonshire.
JMRI is free software that you can download to control your model railway.
The course assumes no previous knowledge of JMRI and takes you through from first principles.
Bookings are now open
Click below for more details.
Starting out with JMRI Panel Pro course details
Weathering
14th - 16th August 2021 (Rushden)
Although weathering is not really a MERG/Electronics subject, it is included here because it is one of this series of courses being offered at Rushden. It is being offered simply because lots of people want it, and it always gets overbooked when offered at Missenden.
The course will take place in the main “Goods Shed” area at the Rushden Transport Museum & Railway, Rushden Station, Northamptonshire. This is a large area with good ventilation for the use of airbrushes.
This is a weekend course for those at any skill level with weathering, including complete beginners.
Bookings are now open.
Click below for more details:
JMRI Part 2 – Blocks, Routing, Logic and Signalling
4th-6th September 2021 (Rushden)
This is part 2 of our three JMRI courses.
The course will take place in the “Goods Shed” meeting room at the Rushden Transport Museum & Railway, Rushden Station, Northamptonshire.
This is a weekend course for those already familiar and competent with the basics of JMRI.
As a pre-requisite you should have attended our introduction to JMRI Panel Pro course, or be fluent with drawing a layout diagram in the Layout Editor, setting up turnouts & sensors, turnout feedback, linking from a Layout Editor Panel to the physical layout & the basics of train detection.
Bookings are now open.
Click below for more details:
JMRI Part 2 – Blocks, Routing and Signalling course details
JMRI Part 3 – Automation with scripts and the Dispatcher
6th-8th November 2021 (Rushden)
This is part 3 of our three JMRI courses.
This is a weekend course for JMRI power users who want to take it on to partial or full automation.
The course will take place in the “Goods Shed” meeting room at the Rushden Transport Museum & Railway, Rushden Station, Northamptonshire.
As a pre-requisite you should be a fluent JMRI user, having attended our Introduction and part 2 courses, or be comfortable with setting up panels in the Layout Editor, blocks and train detection, pathing and signalling.
Click below for more details:
JMRI Part 3 – Automation with scripts and the Dispatcher course details
3D Printing courses
Missenden Railway Modellers weekends
The Missenden Railway Modellers Weekends are workshops with expert tutors from MERG on hand. The Autumn weekend every October includes electronics classes that come with expert MERG tutors, covering all aspects of electronics for model railways including CBUS.
The Summer School and Autumn weekends are provisionally planned to go ahead.
Dates, Bookings and more details are via the Missenden Railway Modellers website.
Missenden Railway Modellers weekend