The Great Model Railway Challenge

[Bealman]

Yeah, anyway, just finished watching episode 4.

The boring WR modellers produced a bog standard WR layout which did not address the theme.

They should have let the kids win. That would have been a great motivator for young modellers.


from me

As if I'm an expert! 

[JonHarbour]

 I think the Diesel team would have probably won but for their running woes. No doubt the winning layout was of the highest standard of the three but it completely ignored the theme. Still, I enjoyed this fourth install
Ent just as much as the first three.

[ScottishModeller]

I think the Diesel team would have probably won but for their running woes. No doubt the winning layout was of the highest standard of the three but it completely ignored the theme. Still, I enjoyed this fourth install
Ent just as much as the first three.

Hi Jon,

We thought we would win as well...

Running woes - that is an understatement!

I did an interview for the preview show that C5 decided they didn't want in which I went over the potential for failure in the way we were planning on controlling the trains and actuating the points.

I stated that I thought we were building multiple potential fail situations into the control system - and I turned out to be right!

So - how and what?

The layout was to be DCC controlled through a laptop with DecoderPro and PanelPro, then to MERG CBus and actual control via android device with Engine Driver.

Any of you with experience will see what I mean about having buiklt in potential fails!

The way I put it was

One black box, feeding another black box, interfacing with a pc and then android devices all connected via CBus with a virtual controller.

The trains didn't run because the interfaces didn't work properly with each other.

If it had been up to me I would just have had the DCC and put up with it.

So - we failed because we couldn't get the trains to run.

Seems a pretty fair decision!

Thanks

[JonHarbour]

I feel your pain.... working in IT, I fully appreciate how things go when you start to introduce additional potential failure points.

It's great when you have the time to fix stuff - when Microsoft introduced the 'plug and play' term, we all very quickly learnt it was more a case of 'plug and play about'.

[ScottishModeller]

I feel your pain.... working in IT, I fully appreciate how things go when you start to introduce additional potential failure points.

It's great when you have the time to fix stuff - when Microsoft introduced the 'plug and play' term, we all very quickly learnt it was more a case of 'plug and play about'.

Hi Jon,

I have a similar background - I was a certified trainer but not kept it up due to the ridiculous price I would have to pay as an individual, non corporate buyer.

In the end it did work - sort of.

I went round everything including the android devices, turned them all off and then turned them back on in the sequence that they were connected in.

This gave us basic control of the engines, but getting PanelPro to work the points was a no go.

Thanks

[Railwaygun]

I feel your pain.... working in IT, I fully appreciate how things go when you start to introduce additional potential failure points.

It's great when you have the time to fix stuff - when Microsoft introduced the 'plug and play' term, we all very quickly learnt it was more a case of 'plug and play about'.

Plug'n Pray!

[guest311]

just watched tonight's episode on My5, and dare I say it, IMHO, the best so far.

three great layouts, and a worthy win for ...... the winners.

[LeftToMyOwnDevices]

...and I've just watched it on Channel 5+1.

As the credits rolled, I thought I heard the voiceover say:
"...if you would like to appear in our next series..."



Wow...!

I'm sure that, for some of you, that might be a nightmare. 
Hopefully, for others, it might just be a positive thing.

Let the debate continue...!

Charles.

[daffy]

Yes, a better crop of layouts this week and some fine modelling, though some landscaping was  a little .... er..... rough.

The theme was water, which gave the contestants a rather big problem, for as one of the judges said at the beginning, adding a water element takes a lot of time in modelling properly. Not what they had in three days. All in all though they managed the theme well.


If there is another series I would make two pleas to the Producers: scrap the scratch-build challenge; and show us more of the finished layouts rather than so many shots of talking heads.

[Newportnobby]

Not seen it yet, but I would imagine the 'water' theme would be of interest to many of the regular posters on the forum so I hope some good tips/methods appeared.

[ntpntpntp]

Actually fell asleep and missed the end of last night's episode, so will have to play catch-up.

[Bealman]

Yes, I agree with daffy... the scratchbuilding challenge is an unecessary aside.

[MKP]

Not sure if it is made by the same company but seems to follow the same format as this program (and a very similar name):

http://www.studiolambert.com/the-great-interior-design-challenge.html

the also have to do a "challenge"

[joe cassidy]

Hear Hear for scrapping the scratch build challenge.

[guest311]

if they want to keep the scratch build challenge .....

give them a pile of plasticard / plastic shapes / balsa etc, not old shoes or water bottles.

was very pleased to see the comments re the plaster / paint / epoxy water not being viable in 3 days, a warning to those who might think they could make something similar in a couple of days.