Great Model Railway Challenge 2019

[Camster]

this is why we need to offer constructive comments and encourage all & sundry to watch - the publicity may support the future of our hobby. We need more new members ( AKA Addicts) and all the publicity we can get.

Yes I agree because my wife and I were motivated to join the hobby by this programme and have spent the time since then Reading, YouTubing and Building. The N Gauge Forum has been a wonderful resource, with friendly and knowledgeable members.
The layout does appear to be taking longer than 3 days (!) but we wouldn't have thought of modelling without the inspiration of the TV programme.
Sandy

[daffy]

Time to tune in for the 8:00pm start on Channel 5.

[RailGooner]

Well...

[spoiler]
The novice team, The Train Set, were the runaway winners for me.
[/spoiler]

[Invicta Alec]

We all agree that the hobby should be fun. No question about that but fitting volcanos near a row of Metcalfe terraced houses takes things to ridiculous levels.

Not the right way to promote model railways to newcomers in my view.

Yours grouchily

Alec.

[Philip.]

Well...

[spoiler]
The novice team, The Train Set, were the runaway winners for me.
[/spoiler]

My thoughts too. I enjoyed it though, would've liked to have seen more trains running and playing a bigger part in the layouts.

[RailGooner]

  Yeah but they all, bar the winner, had trouble running trains.

One thought struck me after the results: Have a single novice team who compete in every heat up to the 1/4 finals. They have a pass through to the 1/4 finals, from which point they can be eliminated. It'd be interesting to see how they did/didn't improve along the way. I know it's early days and I'm not criticising here - I enjoyed tonight's show very much - just a thought.

[weave]

Thought I'd do some modelling tonight, as been a bit lapse recently, and watch it tomorrow but have just sliced the side of my finger off with a craft knife so will watch it now as bandaged myself up and presumably need to keep it upright for a while.

Sorry for sharing that but the wife's been working long hours, is asleep and I didn't want to wake her. Just wanted to share to ease the pain a bit. They should have had the cameras here  . Will comment soon.

Cheers weave 

[zwilnik]

I enjoyed it a lot. Likewise I think the newbies punched well above their weight.
For those that worry about the correct type of brick pattern a house near a volcano should have. I'd like to point out the beneficial effect Thomas the Tank Engine had on the hobby, despite being a little bit unrealistic

[daffy]

I enjoyed the fun, have got used to the judges and presenters, and enjoyed quite a bit of what I saw.
It's prime time TV after all, so must include: inanity, jeopardy, stupidity, awful puns, and a liberal dose of affected amazement.

All in all, not that bad. And good to play 'spot the things I saw at Fawsley Hall earlier in the year'.

And @weave , hope your finger stops throbbing/bleeding/hurting soon.  

[Graham]

as a bit of light hearted entertainment I thought last year's series was ok, will look out for it on the web as like last year's show I can't see it being broadcast down under.

[Bealman]

Yes, me too. I also watched every episode of the last series, and found it entertaining enough if you don't take it seriously. Certainly no worse than a lot of the other stuff that's dished out on a daily basis.

[weave]

This one was a bit too 'Michael Bentine's potty time' for me. I liked Michael Bentine's potty time but, once again, this programme doesn't know what it is. They concentrate 98% on the gimmicks, which is great and I liked them, but then criticised them for a poor railway that hadn't really been mentioned.

I laughed when the female judge, sorry forget her name, who had only really mentioned the gimmicks (except for digging up one team's ballast with her fingers - it's temporary for gawd's sake!), said towards the end 'this IS a model railway competition after all' or something like that.

Still watchable with a pinch of salt.

Cheers weave 

PS Thanks @daffy, still hurting but finger eventually stopped bleeding. Bit light headed so will review what I've just said above in the morn 

[kirky]

I think we're all agreed, it is ultimately aimed at the non-modeller. Therefore it puts entertainment ahead of modelling. And as Steve Flint pointed out in an editorial in The Modeller last year, the programme reached many many times more people than The Modeller ever could.
Watched about 2 thirds of it last night on catch-up until the ch5 catch-up thingy died. Interestingly Mrs Kirky watched it with me. Never in 25 years of marriage has she even bothered to ask about anything to do with trains - I smply get a patronising 'thats nice, John'. But last night she asked 'What's all this about ballasting? Why is it important to get that right?
She soon fell asleep once I started talking about correctly scaled 2mm ballast grains and having a bag of terrarium sand in my stash.

A last word on presenters; for me there is only one person to present it - the one and only @Ben A . It would bring a certain amount of much needed gravitas to the programme. However, I imagine its way to trivial for Ben.

[monkey_brains]

A last word on presenters; for me there is only one person to present it - the one and only @Ben A . It would bring a certain amount of much needed gravitas to the programme. However, I imagine its way to trivial for Ben.

And I wonder what the BBC would have to say about him moonlighting for another channel - great idea though!

[emjaybee]

This one was a bit too 'Michael Bentine's potty time' for me. I liked Michael Bentine's potty time but, once again, this programme doesn't know what it is. They concentrate 98% on the gimmicks, which is great and I liked them, but then criticised them for a poor railway that hadn't really been mentioned.

I laughed when the female judge, sorry forget her name, who had only really mentioned the gimmicks (except for digging up one team's ballast with her fingers - it's temporary for gawd's sake!), said towards the end 'this IS a model railway competition after all' or something like that.

Still watchable with a pinch of salt.

Cheers weave 

PS Thanks @daffy, still hurting but finger eventually stopped bleeding. Bit light headed so will review what I've just said above in the morn 

Michael Bentines Potty Time, THAT'S what it reminded me of. As I watched, it kind of had that familiar feel. All that was missing was the funny voices.

Thanks for clearing that one up in my head.