24th to 26th July (Rushden)

(Postponed from 2020 and June 2021)

As the lifting of lockdown restrictions proceeds, it became clear that we cannot run this course on the original 2021 dates we had originally hoped.

So we have taken the difficult decision to reschedule it yet again to the date in July as shown above. This is after the date when the government hopes to have lifted all restrictions, so we are all hoping we can run the course then, and look forward to welcoming you back at face to face courses.

The course will take place in the “Goods Shed” meeting room at the Rushden Transport Museum & Railway, Rushden Station, Northamptonshire.

Any bookings for our 2020 course that we were not able to run at Rushden, will be honoured for this course in 2021. If you already have such a booking, you will be contacted by email with latest updates.

JMRI is free software that you can download to control your model railway.

This course assumes no previous knowledge of JMRI.

The course will start with arrivals from 4pm on Friday evening and then takes place over the weekend (Saturday and Sunday).

We also have an optional follow-on practical workshop day on Monday 26th July. This will be a practical workshop day for you to apply the knowledge learnt over the weekend. You can work on whatever you wish, with assistance from the tutors, such as working on your own CBUS implementation or revisiting certain course subjects.

Topics covered will include:

• Downloading and installing JMRI
• Getting JMRI connected to your layout
• Managing JMRI profiles - and where JMRI puts your files
• Monitoring messages
• Overview of JMRI - the various components
• Where to find help and documentation
• Driving trains with JMRI throttles and wireless devices
• Designing a layout diagram and control panel using the Layout Editor
• Setting up control of turnouts & signals
• Detecting sensors
• Using internal sensors for control
• Placing sensor icons on the layout diagram
• Turnout feedback
• Customising icons for your layout diagram
• Using other devices, such as Ipads, tablets etc, to access the control panel
• Setting up Blocks and Routes
• Block detection and train tracking
• Demonstration of Signal mast logic – automating the signals *
• Demonstration of automatic running *

* These two topics will be covered in detail in the follow-on JMRI courses.

Please note that this course does NOT cover programming locomotive CVs using Decoder Pro. For that, see the Introduction to DCC course.

Bookings are open.

You can download more details and the booking form below:

Starting out with JMRI Panel Pro course 2021 details

Enrolment form for JMRI intro course 2021

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.

Link to Courses index