The Great Model Railway Challenge

Started by Newportnobby, September 22, 2018, 08:53:44 PM

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guest311

perhaps instead of the scratchbuild challenge, spend the time each episode on simple tutorials, ie track laying, dc electrics, basic landscaping, card / plastic building kits etc.

Bealman

Managed to watch the final episode of the show this morning. Must say I quite enjoyed it. If you take it as a bit of lightweight TV, I feel it's very watchable.

As Steve Flint notes in the December RM, an audience of 1.3 million is a ten fold increase on the magazine's best ever circulation figure.

As I write this, I'm aware that the Warley show is on this weekend - if I was there, I'd definitely take a look at the two layouts from the show. Looking forward to reports from forum members who attend!  :thumbsup:
Vision over visibility. Bono, U2.

Graham

managed to get to Warley, thought the efforts of the teams were pretty good given the very short amount of time they actually spent making them. Haven't seen the final couple of shows yet, but as has been stated not a bad piece of light TV. Given the crowds of youngsters around the show layouts i would dare to say this was good for the model railway industry/hobby.

TrevL

On the whole, I enjoyed the series, but for one thing, that Tim Whatisface came across as a pain in the a***.
I made the mistake of googling him and it appears he is a very clever man.  He should stick to what he is clever at and leave presenting to someone else.
Cheers, Trev.


Time flys like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana!

Skyline2uk

Righto

Having power-watched the entire series in a couple of days and read this thread end to end this evening, my thoughts as follows:

(*Only my thoughts, I have no idea of general viewing preference*)

I was very very weary of even giving this a go. This hobby means a lot to me, and I am not about to watch it get mocked on TV.

However my father in law (with whom I have built a round the ceiling Christmas Railway again this year) watched and enjoyed it and was keen for my views.

On the whole, good modelling and creative thinking. The judges were consistent and the best layout appeared to win each time*

I didn't like the "jokes", I wasn't keen on the presenters and actually I must be honest in saying "don't expect perfection after three days!" to the judges (respect them as I do).

To be critical of the "rough edges" was just daft. Two of the teams (actually the Winners and mentioned close second) produced layouts that I would struggle to achieve in 2 years and wouldn't feel hard done by paying to see.

My teeth were on edge when I kept seeing people under the boards with soldering irons....especially whilst in a hurry!

Agree with the general feeling on scratch build challenge. Overall pointless and didn't add anything. Needs changing or scrapping.

Would probably watch a second series, even if the format is identical and presenters the same (can mute or fast forward on catch up).

Skyline2uk

*Having read the entire thread I am saddened and annoyed to hear that the rules may not have been applied as consistently as the show would have us believe. I too thought the 6 item limit was broken in episode one, to hear what others got up to without punishment makes me a bit  :veryangry:


honk843

I do agree with a lot of what has been said before particularly the demonstration aspect which other people have also mentioned to me. Perhaps an explanation of other (non-OO) scales would also help.
Although I was not a member of the team, as I do N gauge and it was clear that OO was the scale of choice within the rules, I am a Missenden regular and having been since and heard Barry Cousens defence of the situation, I understand that although it was the first to be shown the episode involving Missenden Modellers was the last to be filmed. Again there are I understand seven pages of rules (I have not seen them) but understand there is no definition of what an item is within the six item limit. There is however a very fixed limit to the cost of the project and their layout was about £200 under budget, so they felt that they had not really cheated, as they were still within budget. As a viewer I really did not appreciate the complexity of their layout involving things like moving derricks on the boats in the harbour or the shuttle unit making the shunter on the dockside go back and forth. Four of the team are member of MERG and the electronics were therefore pretty special I believe. The editing of the program is the all in the end and in that regard Barry felt he was well stitched up.

However I understand that the Missenden website took more hits within 24 hours of the show being broadcast than the previous year. I believe the layout is scheduled to appear at various shows across the country next year ( I don't have dates etc.) and they are unlikely to appear again particularly since Kathy MIllatt is signed up for the Spring Weekend at Missenden 2019.

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