The Great Model Railway Challenge

[ScottishModeller]

Hi all,

That's it - everyone must know that there will be a second series by now........

Diesel Dynamos intend to take part again.

I had a thought about an entry in N Gauge as well, but will have to wait for the producers response before getting into that any further.

But, 'N Gauge Crusaders' seems to have a nice ring to it!

Just saying........................................

[Philip.]

I enjoyed last nights heat, any of the 3 layouts would have been worthy winners, some good modelling on show even if the English Channel looked more like a scene from Doctor Who!

I'd be happy to keep the scratch build challenge if they were to use, as someone else posted, stuff modellers would actually use.

Hopefully the producers will learn from this series and make Series 2 more flowing and less rushed, also show a little more modelling going on.

A 6 out of 10 from me, plenty of promise, but lots of room for improvement.

[austinbob]

Reluctantly... Watched it last night as couldn't find anything else I wanted to see.
Reluctantly... Found it quite enjoyable.
Reluctantly... Might watch it next week.

[zwilnik]

I'm enjoying it so far but can see a few game design flaws they need to sort for the next series.
Firstly, keep the scratch build challenge as it does show the regular viewer that you can create interesting models or features from household scrap. It may be worth tuning the items given to them so that only one is a radically odd or funny one but it *is* meant to challenge the modellers to think on their feet. What they have to do though is make the scratch build challenge *Mandatory* ie don't do it and you lose, either by automatic disqualification or doing a scoring system that makes it critical for a final score.
On the scoring point they also have to be more strict with the rules. It may require them to be defined a bit better but "6 prebuilt scenic items" can only be a max of 6 and can't be the entire trackbed with wiring and ballast if that skews the game.

[Newportnobby]

Having watched the latest show this afternoon I thought "At last - they're being a bit more serious about things" but the appalling puns and ghastly 'jokey' music just don't promote the programme properly IMHO. I also think any team taking the stance of "We'll see if we can get things running but if not it doesn't matter. It'll be a strike day" just takes the pibiscuit.

[Bealman]

Having read comments about the sctatchbuild challenge, yeah.... if it was stuff like plasticard, brickpaper, etc they were provided with, instead of the current nonsense items, then it could be worthwhile.

However my core assessment (which is worth nowt) is it's a bit of a waste of time.

[Graham]

Seems for once, we have the advantage here in Aus!

Fed up with getting messages like you can't see this cos you're not in the UK.

Well it's coming through loud and clear on YouTube! 

Just tried to follow the link and looks like it is blocked. Any other suggestions?

cheers
Graham

[Bealman]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+great+model+railway+challenge

Jon's link worked fine....

How's this?

[Graham]

great thanks, managed to get 1,2 & 4 but cant find 3 yet.

will keep looking.

cheers
Graham

[Bealman]

Yeah, I'm not a huge YouTube user, and therefore not tuned in to the quirks of the medium.

I'm currently hoping I can access episode 5, which apparently is an improvement on the rest.

[Philip.]

A good end to the series I thought and the winning layout was brilliant. One thing I was impressed with, was the consistency of the judging, they got it just about right every week (maybe the only hiccup was Fire and Ice week)

Loved the 800s journey through all the layouts too. I've increased my score to 7/10 and will look forward to Series 2.

[guest311]

I agree, though I was pi annoyed by one of the talking heads repeatedly referring to 'narrow gauge' instead of 'N gauge', but I guess you can't expect too much from them, spend most of the time making awful puns.

[Philip.]

I agree, though I was pi annoyed by one of the talking heads repeatedly referring to 'narrow gauge' instead of 'N gauge', but I guess you can't expect too much from them, spend most of the time making awful puns.

I think it was the 2 clownspresenters that kept calling it narrow guage, I'm sure the judges said N gauge, but yes, that was a minor irritation 

[daffy]

A worthy winning team, and some fine modelling from scratch by all the teams.

But for me the whole episode was marred by a team of presenters who had, maybe at the instigation of the director, decided to adopt an entirely negative approach to proceedings. So we had comments throughout about teams being behind schedule, not doing this, not having done that, and even stopping everybody at one point to inform them of the presenters concerns.

And then when we got to the final run through, the whole thing was hurried, with scant views for we the viewers of the fine layouts created, and too many shots of presenters reacting with delight to the passage of the through train.

All in all, some really good modelling, but zero points to the presenters.
Hopefully Series 2, which I look forward to, will adopt a better approach.

[bridgiesimon]

I agree, though I was pi annoyed by one of the talking heads repeatedly referring to 'narrow gauge' instead of 'N gauge', but I guess you can't expect too much from them, spend most of the time making awful puns.

That was doing my head in as well.

I thought that the final was the best round of the lot! less nonsense, less edited to show off arrogance etc and showed a little mode model making, though still not really enough. I thought that the right team won, their ideas and the way it was produced was superb!! (me being very careful to express my opinion without giving away anything to those not watched it yet!)

Best wishes
Simon