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MERG West Midlands Area Group (WMAG)

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How do I contact the Area Group

* Replace NN with the number of your area group - get from the AG admin page. Update the contact form title. *

Who is the leader of the group?

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Allan Gardner M6237 - Group Leader

Would you like to join today?

Not a member? then

and sign up to this Area Group. If you are already a member

Select West Midlands Area Group from the drop-down list in Other Area Groups and press the Subscribe to Area Group button.

How do you meet?

Provide meeting details

In normal times we meet at the Birmingham Canal Navigations Society's premises Titford Pump House, Engine Street, OLDBURY, West Midlands B69 4NL.


There is plenty of car parking – mostly on Engine Street, some within the Pump House compound. The address above includes a Google maps link.

All facilities are at ground level.

We meet four times a year in January, April July and October. We hold two meetings on a Saturday and the other two on a Sunday.

GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS ON GATHERINGS AND TRAVEL Due to the restrictions we are unable to meet at the moment. We have a meeting scheduled for October but clearly we remain in uncertain times.

What does the group get up to?

Our days meeting normally starts at 10:00 am and concludes at 16:00.

The day is split into two parts.

The morning session is more formal in so far as we have one or more guest speakers. The topics are far-ranging. Take a look at the next section to see some of our previous meetings.

The afternoon session is informal and generally consists of:

  1. Members working on their current project (normally a KIT). We will do our best to help with construction and problem-solving.
  2. Talking to presenters about the days topic.
  3. Passing the day talking all thing model railway electronics.

We charge a modest £3 for the day which we donate to our venue host for the use of the Pumphouse.

We do not charge for tea and coffee or the various superb cake that is kindly supplied by one of our members' wives.

What Have We Done Previously?

And the Next Meeting?

DateEventDescriptionLocationLink
10:00 14-AprWest Midlands Area Group Spring MeetingDavid Roberts will talk on 'The installation of Digital Command Control (DCC) decoders in locomotives' The discussion will include the types of interface which may be encountered and also look briefly at ‘Stay Alive’ systems and accessory wiring. Some practical examples will be discussed and the talk will conclude with a demonstration of a DCC sound-equipped locomotive. Tony Chamberlain will present,'Shunting' A brief look at shunting with a GWR flavour. Track layouts, methodology of operating Pickup goods trains and various examples. Tony will then follow on with a local focus theme, 'The Enigma of Oldbury GWR'.BCNS, TITFORD PUMP HOUSE, ENGINE STREET, OLDBURTYLink

What is Happening Online?

Zoom online Meetings Currently, WMAG members are participating in the Zoom calls being organised by the nearby East Midlands, Warwickshire and North Oxfordshire and the Virtual area groups.

Some forthcoming activities are as follows: -

East Midlands Area Group

The East Midlands Area Group hosts a very popular call once per month.

DateEventDescriptionLocationLink
10:00 19-MayMERG East Midlands Area Group face to face meeting May 2024Railcom themed meeting including demonstrations and a talk by Michael SmithKingsway Centre, Wellingborough

Warwickshire and North Oxfordshire Area Group

Our colleagues at Warwick and North Oxford AG are holding biweekly virtual meetings on a Wednesday evening. East Midlands AG are also holding monthly virtual all-day meeting. The schedule of both these groups is given below. If you are interested in attending these groups sign up here and select ‘join area group’.

DateEventDescriptionLocationLink

Virtual Area Group

The Virtual Area Group offers short one hour presentations and discussions every week. Active participants call in from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Icelend, UK and USA.

DateEventDescriptionLocationLink
20:00 05-AprMonthly Virtual AG meetingOnline Zoom Meeting

What Local Organisations do we work with?

Link to local model railway sites.

The MERG West Midlands Area Group have attended model railway exhibitions, organised by the following clubs: -

Stafford Railway Circle

Bourneville Model Railway Club

Warley Model Railway Club

MERG West Midlands Area Group

Contact Us

To contact us use the MERG West Midlands Area Group contact form.

For MERG members, you might also like to look at our area group forum.

Co-ordinator

Allan Gardner

MEETINGS

The July meeting of the West Midlands Area Group has been cancelled. See below :

Important information about our next meeting

In the view of the ongoing Coronavirus situation and the advice received from MERG Committee, my WMAG colleagues and I have decided to cancel our meeting on Sunday 12th July 2020.

So our next meeting should be Saturday 10th October (but note the weasel word indicating lack of certainty!)

We shall, like many others, monitor the situation and decide whether future meetings will take place nearer the time.

About Titford Pump House.

Titford Pump House, Engine Street, OLDBURY, West Midlands B69 4NL.

Google Map

There is plenty of car parking – mostly on Engine Street, some within the Pump House compound. The address above includes a Google maps link. All facilities are at ground level.

This quarters topics:

None - as the meeting has been cancelled.

The rest of the programme has been left unchanged, so that the format remains for future meetings.

Programme

10:00 Coffee & Registration

10:15 Welcome Introduction: Allan Gardner

Housekeeping: Fire exit & procedure, First aid, Toilet, Dishwasher.

Other matters

10.30 Talk 1

11:30 Refreshment Break

Tea, Coffee, and cake.

11:45 Talk 2

12:15 Talk 3

12.45 Discussion: Any Questions and any Answers!!

Opportunity to discuss things further from this morning sessions.

13:00 Lunch

Bring your own or eat loads of cake!

For Saturday meetings, there are nearby sandwich shops - for Sunday meetings, if you haven't your own sandwiches, you will need to head in to Sainsbury's in Oldbury.

13:30 Practical Workshop Session 1

Our usual informal session. Chat to colleagues or work on your current project. We will do our best to help with construction and problem-solving. Bring your own tools etc.

14:30 Refreshment Break

14:45 Practical Workshop Session 2

Continuance of the practical session

15:45 Clean up, Wash Up and close

Interested in attending?

The meeting is open to all MERG Members.

To give us an idea of numbers, could you let us know you are coming by contacting me allanhgardner@gmail.com or use the MERG contact form above.

We will need a contribution of £3 to cover the costs of the meeting.

Meeting dates for 2020

The dates below are for the quarterly meetings for 2020.

  • Winter - Sunday 12th January
  • Spring - Saturday 11th April (This meeting was cancelled)
  • Summer - Sunday 12th July (This meeting was cancelled)
  • Autumn - Saturday 10th October (With a bit of luck, this meeting will go ahead)

We have booked the Titford Pump House for these dates.

Format of Future Meetings

We are seeking views from members with regards to the structure and format of future meetings.

The areas we would welcome comments on are:

  1. Fixing dates for the next year
  2. Saturday or Sunday
  3. Venue
  4. Meeting format
  5. Speaker and contents

If you have a view on any of the above, please share with the co-ordinator using the contact form above.

Previous meetings

January 2020

David Roberts gave two talks.

John Fletcher talked about 'My MERG Journey'

October 2019

John Gowers came and talked about the mechanics of a steam engine. Capturing real sounds and applying them to your model railway

Inserting sound chips in locos and how to use them effectively.

July 2019

Electrostatic Discharge: What it is and Why it is Important. David Roberts

David will explain to us what Electrostatic Discharge is, how it is caused and the damage that it can cause to modern electronic devices and systems. Simple and affordable measures to mitigate the problems will also be described.

The Theory and Practice of a Simple MERG Kit: David Roberts

Some of us assemble kits without knowing very little about the types of components used and why they are important. David’s presentation will consider a simple MERG kit – the CANACT – look at the components used and explain why they are chosen and how it works.

April 2019

What is Arduino and what can it do for railway modellers

Tony Chamberlain and Dave Thomas will present all things Arduino

October 2018

‘Wiring and Power supplies for the Railway Modeller’

We were delighted to welcome David Roberts as our keynote speaker on that occasion.

David gave two talks in the morning.

The first one, focused on wiring for the railway modeller and included

• Theoretical aspects of electrical wiring • Design & Implementation of electrical wiring • Examples of wires, tools and terminations

His second talk was Power Supplies and explored:

• History • Direct Current (DC) Supplies • Linear Mode Supplies • Switch - mode Supplies • Sources of Power Supplies • Commercial Devices • Surplus Computer Supplies

July 2018

Howard Watkins as our keynote speaker.

The theme of our meeting was ‘Back to Basics’

AM - Two talks given by Howard included

- Theory and practise of Soldering. - Tools and Supplies - Component recognition - Using LEDs

PM - Practical 'HANDS ON' session to include an opportunity to build a track tester,

public/westmids.1596454796.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/08/03 11:39 by uppermill

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