MERG South Hampshire (Southampton) Area Group

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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.

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.
At the August workshop we continued adding and wiring the MERG modules to the scenic section. We started setting up the point servos, using the FCU.

Scheduled meetings

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.

The November 2019 meetings will be on:
The evening of Thursday 7th November starting at 7.30pm. The club will be open from 7pm.
The all day workshop is moved to Saturday 23rd November as we are at an exhibition on Saturday 16th November.

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

The January 2020 meetings will be on:
The evening of Thursday 7th January starting at 7.30pm. The club will be open from 7pm.
The all day workshop will be on Saturday 11th January. The club will be open from 09.45am.

The February 2020 meetings will be on:
The evening of Thursday 6th February starting at 7.30pm. The club will be open from 7pm.
The all day workshop will be on Saturday 15th February. The club will be open from 09.45am.

Exhibitions

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.

Andover MRC Open Day
Saturday 31st August 2019 10.00 – 16.00
At The Lights, West Street, Andover, SP10 1AH.

Worthing MRC Annual Exhibition
Saturday 28th September 2019 and Sunday 29th September 2019
At Durrington High School, The Boulevard, Worthing, West Sussex, BN13 1LA.

Farnham and District MRC 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 10:30 - 16:30
At Admiral Lord Nelson School, Dundas Lane, Portsmouth, PO3 5XT.

Southampton MRS Exhibition
Saturday 25th January 2020 10.00 – 17.00 and Sunday 26th January 10.00 - 16:30
At Barton Peveril College, Eastleigh, SO50 5ZA (Satnav use SO50 5BX).

Basinstoke MRS Exhibition
Saturday 14th March 2020 10.00 – 17.00 and Sunday 15th March 10.00 – 16.00
At Aldworth Science College, Basingstoke, RG22 6HQ.

Portsmouth Model Railway Exhibition
Saturday 4th April 10:30 - 18-00 and Sunday 5th April 10:30 - 16:30
Mountbatten Leisure Centre, Portsmouth, Hampshire, P02 9QA
To be confirmed.

Contacts

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