The Biggest Little Railway in the World

[PaulCheffus]

Of dear! Why, oh why, oh why do program makers have to persist with showing 'coming up' scenes from an entire series at the start of the first episode?

Hi

I think its part of the general dumbing down of things and they (the producing company) seem to feel that if they don't do this we will loose interest after five minutes.

The Michael Portillo railway journeys waste so much time showing whats going to happen in this episode followed at the end by what will happen in the next episode (this is then repeated at the beginning of the next episode). Complete waste of program time in my opinion.

Cheers

Paul

[Newportnobby]

In this first episode if they'd cut out all the dross about various folks' modelling history and worked hard on the 15 minutes left, it might have been half way decent. As far as I can see it can only get better so I'll watch the next one (that's really put the mockers on it now)

[PostModN66]

Considering that there were so many professional engineers about that truss bridge was an awful design.   I got twitchy as I was watching it, like I did when "Mythbusters" were building a model "suspension" bridge, which looked like one but wasn't one!

....why didn't they ask ME   

Cheers Jon 

[daffy]

Eventually finished watching it - it was so easy to get distracted and do other things - and I have to say it moved me to laughter and tears. For all the wrong reasons. And the preview of the next episode did nothing to persuade me to highlight it in the schedules.

[Skyline2uk]

For better or worse I may end up hiding behind the sofa during the next episode....

I am sure I caught s glimps (during the aforementioned "previews"  ) of "Silver Lady" sinking upside-down in the canal?

If that does happen (and given the awful idea of it being plonked on a small boat it might well), surely that's the end? If they simply replace the loco it's not at all in the spirit of the task and I will call time on the show.

Skyline2uk

[Newportnobby]

You missed the bit where they stated "Silver Lady" was amphibious

[Skyline2uk]

You missed the bit where they stated "Silver Lady" was amphibious

Must have....silly me, that chap from Roundhouse was clearly on a sales pitch....

Actually, saying that, the Roundhouse rep strongly reminded me on that scene in "Apollo 13" when mission control turned to the "Gremlin boys" (Grumman Aircraft who built the lunar module) wondering what the machine would do and they said "we can't make any gaurentees"....

Translation

"You're all nuts and don't blame us if it goes bang"

Skyline2uk 

[silly moo]

I watched the first episode last night, I haven't decided whether I like it or not so I will watch the second episode before I come up with an opinion.

I'm not sure how they will sustain interest through five episodes. The scenery is lovely though.

[Komata]

Umm, doesn't the phrase 'The 'Biggest Little Railway in the World' actually (and properly IMHO) belong to the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch? They have used that phrase as their 'Gimmick' for many years. 

If that is the case, is it feasible that there could be a case for Copyright infringement by its use in this series?

Just wondering.

Thanks.

[Dorsetmike]

For those that missed it you can still see it on channel 4 catch up

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-biggest-little-railway-in-the-world/on-demand/64921-001

[Tank]

I quite like it, and am looking forward to the next episode.    I do wish that they'd used proper track - although I imagine that the costs would have gone up a lot!

[Graham Walters]

Underwhelmed...

...I'm not sure I found it THAT exciting.

I felt that custom extruded plastic track with a rubber grip strip on top wasn't really in the spirit of building a 'Model railway'. Whilst a number of the volunteers seemed to want to go for a real-life method of getting a train on a boat, I thought it a bit petulant for one of the project leaders to have a minor tantrum and insist on a derek. Did any regular rail service ANYWHERE in the world use a derek to load trains?

As for the single span bridge of the canal? That had fail written all over it from the start, there's a reason rail bridges don't look like that in real life.

I'm really hoping that it improves so the general populous don't look at railway modellers even more like grumpy oddballs.

Plywood cut to look like a truss, in the pouring rain, yes that was bound to work,especially on a 14mtr span with no central support, I'm no bridge specialist, but I even rubbed my chin thinking about that one.

[Graham Walters]

Considering that there were so many professional engineers about that truss bridge was an awful design.   I got twitchy as I was watching it, like I did when "Mythbusters" were building a model "suspension" bridge, which looked like one but wasn't one!

....why didn't they ask ME   

Cheers Jon 

That partw was the best, they put the 'real' engineers together, and then completely forgot they needed to build a bridge, which required real know-how and not modelling know-how, the phrase 'resources and how to use them' comes to mind

[stevewalker]

For better or worse I may end up hiding behind the sofa during the next episode....

I am sure I caught s glimps (during the aforementioned "previews"  ) of "Silver Lady" sinking upside-down in the canal?

If that does happen (and given the awful idea of it being plonked on a small boat it might well), surely that's the end? If they simply replace the loco it's not at all in the spirit of the task and I will call time on the show.

Well, if it did go in, they might fish it out, clean it up and carry on running it - that would not only be acceptable, but would mimic real life (Tay bridge and No. 224)!

[Skyline2uk]

For better or worse I may end up hiding behind the sofa during the next episode....

I am sure I caught s glimps (during the aforementioned "previews"  ) of "Silver Lady" sinking upside-down in the canal?

If that does happen (and given the awful idea of it being plonked on a small boat it might well), surely that's the end? If they simply replace the loco it's not at all in the spirit of the task and I will call time on the show.

Well, if it did go in, they might fish it out, clean it up and carry on running it - that would not only be acceptable, but would mimic real life (Tay bridge and No. 224)!

If they did that sir, agreed, a resurrected "Silver Lady" would be quite poetic.

Skyline2uk