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Chris Barker (M4638) has arranged with the Southampton Model Railway Society (SMRS) for MERG members to be able to meet at their clubroom. Meeting Venue: Unit 1b, Kemps Quay, Quayside Road, Southampton, SO18 1BZ.

Evening meetings take place on the 2nd Thursday of each month.
Workshop days normally take place on the 3rd Saturday of each month, unless we are representing MERG at an exhibition.

The club room is well equipped with several work benches, an open area with a 50“ screen that can be used for presentations and discussions, plus catering and toilet facilities.
It is situated on the first floor of an industrial unit. Access is by stairs but unfortunately there is no lift.

The meetings are flexible: You can build, test and fault find your electronic modules. Chris can assist you in developing your soldering skills. We can program the PICs used in MERG designs and have some basic test facilities for CBUS modules and DCC loco decoders and accessories. Presentations are welcome, and advice and guidance always available.

The Thursday evening May meeting will continue the presentations and discussions. This time covering the MERG Booster and District Cut Out modules, which was postponed from April.

We are assisting in rebuilding one of the Southampton MRS exhibition layouts to enhance its operational capabilities and possibly add some animations.
All the points have now been converted to servo operation. We are adding ToTIs as we convert the track wiring to DCC. The layout control will be by CBUS and DCC by MERG DCC.
Once we have got it reliably running, we hope to add JMRI on a Raspberry Pi 3B to add smart phone throttle control and a control panel using a tablet.
At the March workshop we agreed to use route selection to control the layout and started the procurement of components and MERG modules for the control system. The new rear section with storage and a reversing loop has added 16 more points to be controlled.

The April 2019 meetings will be on:
The evening of Thursday 11th April starting at 7.30pm. The club will be open from 7pm.
The all day workshop will now be on Saturday 27th April Note change of date. The club will be open from 09.45am.

The May 2019 meetings will be on:
The evening of Thursday 9th May starting at 7.30pm. The club will be open from 7pm.
The all day workshop is to be rescheduled as we are at Expo EM on Saturday 18th May.

The June 2019 meetings will be on:
The evening of Thursday 13th June starting at 7.30pm. The club will be open from 7pm.
The all day workshop will be on Saturday 15th June. The club will be open from 09.45am.

The July 2019 meetings will be on:
The evening of Thursday 11th July starting at 7.30pm. The club will be open from 7pm.
The all day workshop will be on Saturday 20th July. The club will be open from 09.45am.

The August 2019 meetings will be on:
The evening of Thursday 8th August starting at 7.30pm. The club will be open from 7pm.
The all day workshop will be on Saturday 17th August. The club will be open from 09.45am.

The September 2019 meetings will be on:
The evening of Thursday 12th September starting at 7.30pm. The club will be open from 7pm.
The all day workshop will be on Saturday 21st September. The club will be open from 09.45am.

The October 2019 meetings will be on:
The evening of Thursday 10th October starting at 7.30pm. The club will be open from 7pm.
The all day workshop will be on Saturday 19th October. The club will be open from 09.45am.

If you cannot get to the meetings, you can come and meet us at one of the following exhibitions where we will be manning the MERG stand.

Victory MRC Annual Exhibition
Saturday 11th May 2019 10.00 – 16.00
At Admiral Lord Nelson School, Dundas Lane, Portsmouth, PO3 5XT.

EXPO EM Spring 2019
Saturday 18th May 2019 10.30 – 17.30 and Sunday 19th May 2019 10.00 - 16.30
At Bracknell Leisure Centre, Bagshot Road, Bracknell, RG12 9SE.

Worthing MRC Annual Exhibition
Saturday 28th September 2019 and Sunday 29th September 2019
Details tba.

Farnham and District MRC 45th Annual Exhibition
Saturday 12th October 2019 10.30 – 17.00 and Sunday 13th October 10.00 - 16.30
At Alderwood Leisure Centre, Tongham Road, Aldershot, GU12 4AS.

South Hants MRC Annual Portsmouth Exhibition
Saturday 16th November 2019
Details tba.

Contact Chris for more informationvia profile page
Non member enquiries via MERG Area-Groups page
For more information on the Southampton MRS, go to their Web site SMRS website