WANTED: Model Railway Enthusiasts for TV Opportunity

[tractionman]

Another opportunity for modelling media types...

 

http://www.ehattons.com/NewsDetail.aspx?id=96

 

WANTED: Model Railway Enthusiasts or TV Opportunity

We've recently been contacted by Love Productions who are intending to produce a TV show revolving around Model Railways and constructing a record-breaking model railway as part of the show.

If you're interested in this project then please find the full announcement from Love Productions below which include contact details for the Assistant Producer of the show.

 

MODEL RAILWAY ENTHUSIASTS WANTED FOR RECORD BREAKING CHALLENGE!

 

 

Love Productions London (makers of ‘The Great British Bake Off’ and ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’) are developing an exciting new adventure involving model railways.

 

The adventure will see the construction of the longest model railway track ever built, starting its journey in Liverpool and winding up in Goole.

 

Are you a model railway enthusiast and have a genuine love for all things trains? Do you know someone who is? Have you inspired others with your passion and knowledge for them?

 

We would like to hear from enthusiastic, lively, knowledgeable and chatty characters who would love to get involved in this very exciting new project! If this is you, we welcome your application. All ages and UK locations are invited to apply.

 

 

Please get in contact. We would like to know more about you.

 

Email: holly.newman@loveproductions.co.uk / rebecca.cray@loveproductions.co.uk

 

Telephone: 020 7067 4820

[TheSignalEngineer]

Transmission date 01/04/2017?

[Clive Mortimore]

Liverpool to Goole? I'm up for it but I think there might be a bit of a voltage drop if I use my secondhand HM duette controller.

[HillsideDepot]

Finally Hattons will clear the Hornby Dublo track Norman bought when the factory closed!

[TheSignalEngineer]

Liverpool to Goole? I'm up for it but I think there might be a bit of a voltage drop if I use my secondhand HM duette controller.

If they go via Woodhead I will nip over with my H&M Minor. Small, reliable and still going after about 60 years in use. just need a supply to plug it into.

[alaneggleston]

I wonder if they have approached a certain Mr James May, IIRC he has some experience at a fairly long straight line layout?

[tamperman36]

What they havn't said is it will be built on a narrow boat and travel across the Leeds-Liverpool canal.

 

 But more seriously I could be up for some of this. 

[tractionman]

What they havn't said is it will be built on a narrow boat and travel across the Leeds-Liverpool canal.

 

 But more seriously I could be up for some of this.

 

Or lay some track on a TPX from Lime Street and head over to Goole...

[JJGraphics]

Hope this doesn't turn into another Trainspotting Live sort of program which will take the Michael out of our hobby . . .

[AMJ]

Coast to coast sound like a great run!

 

Should be a Model of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway main line.

 

Probably best to be done as a modular layout.

[Dagworth]

Made by the same company that produced Benefits Street, I wouldn't go near it.

 

Andi

[40F]

I agree with Dagworth one to be avoided at all costs

[Ian Hargrave]

Hasn't an approach along similar lines been made to this forum recently ? I had a telephone conversation with a researcher who'd been tasked with contacting rail enthusiasts.The programme makers were,she told me,making it for transmission on BBC 4.In which case I wonder if it's the one shown this week ?

 

Incidentally,I heard no more on the matter.I have yet to watch the programmes.

[Hroth]

101 miles/2hr 5min via the M62.

From memory, about a week via the Leeds and Liverpool canal.

 

Then there's lots of uphill too....

 

Seems a rather ambitious exercise, given the problems James May had with some locals nicking the power supplies overnight, and no Simon Kohler at Hornby any more to source bulk track!

 

Bonkers!

[Huw Griffiths]

Made by the same company that produced Benefits Street, I wouldn't go near it.

 

Andi

 

Hope this doesn't turn into another Trainspotting Live sort of program which will take the Michael out of our hobby . . .

 

Both of these sound like reasonable concerns.

 

I'm not sure that a lot of substance could be said about these concerns here - but I wonder what reasonable steps could be taken to ensure that these fears aren't fully realised.

 

Let's start with the point about Benefits Street. By the time it was transmitted, the concept clearly ended up as a hatchet job:

• Against unemployed people (many of whom - contrary to government propaganda over many years - would dearly love the chance to be paid decent money to work hard, actively using their skills for the benefit of the country).

   

  Unfortunately, successive governments (of various political persuasions) - and certain elements of the media - have found it far easier (and far more enjoyable) to automatically "slag off" anyone at the bottom of the "food chain", than to actually do something about the real underlying issue, the lack of decent jobs.

   

• Against working class people - similar comments apply. Also, very few of the people who set the government and media agendas have a clue what life is really like for a lot of "ordinary" people outside their limited "bubble" - even fewer seem to have any intention of really finding out for themselves.

   

  Please note that I'm not suggesting that everyone in politics or the media are complete **@#~@@!!**s. Far from it, in fact - a lot of them are actually really decent people if you get to know them. It could be suggested that the problem is that a lot of them are insulated from the grinding reality of existence for a lot of people.

   

  Some of them also might not realise that some of the less savoury individuals depicted on programmes like Benefits Street are probably just as atypical of ordinary people as those in the "posh set" who decide what to show on these programmes - or who decide which programme ideas get commissioned.

   

• Benefits Street also ended up as a hatchet job against people from one particular city - from one part of the country - with the result that there were some very public statements made by TV presenters / voiceover artists, refusing to have anything to do with the programme.

   

• I'm not denying that people like the more noxious individuals shown on programmes like Benefits Street or the Jeremy Kyle Show really exist. However, these people are very much a minority - a minority whom the vast, decent, majority of ordinary people, wherever thay come from, do not like and want nothing to do with. I wish all governments - and all sections of the media - would finally take note of this inconvenient truth.

   

  I suspect I might be in for a long wait.

 

So the proposed model railway programme is likely to be made by the same company who made Benefits Street - and undoubtedly other programmes which I would want nothing to do with. Does this automatically mean that this is also certain to be a hatchet job?

 

I'm not convinced - I'm really not convinced - it might be - it might not.

 

Ultimately, I'd expect any programme / series that gets transmitted to have been pitched to someone (perhaps to a committee) working for a broadcaster - either that, or the same guy(s) working for the broadcaster would have approached a production company. Either way, the programme / series would be done to a specified brief, almost certainly to a predetermined agenda.

 

It would be very interesting - and illuminating - if people "in the know", from the production company or broadcaster, were to post directly on sites like this - if they were to clearly set out what what they're looking for, what they're actually setting out to achieve and what (if any) hidden agenda there might be behind this programme.

 

 

Like it or not, there's bound to be a certain wariness - possibly even cynicism - amongst people on sites like this. If (as appears to be the case) Hatton's are involved in some way, I'd imagine they'd want this programme to show the hobby - anyone involved in the hobby - and ultimately their company - in a positive light. I also doubt if Hatton's would have much (or any) editorial control over this programme - but I'm sure they would have sought assurances.

 

Anyone here who could potentially get involved in this project would almost certainly also want assurances - hence my suggestion about the production company and / or broadcaster directly posting here, to allay people's reasonable concerns.

 

 

I wonder if they have approached a certain Mr James May, IIRC he has some experience at a fairly long straight line layout?

 

If I recall, this might have been a very long, almost straight line - with some deliberate zig zagging to increase the distance the model trains had to travel. Even if James May were to be involved in this project, I very much doubt if many of the locos would feature a "realistic chuffing sound".

 

Whoever they intend to have presenting this programme, I'd hope it would be somebody sympathetic to the hobby and all of us involved in the hobby. James May would be good - so would a number of other people (ironically, in view of a certain recent series, Peter Snow or Dick Strawbridge could also be good).

 

I'm sure that a number of people might have their own ideas here - but I suspect that this decision has probably already been made.

 

Whoever they use, I hope the programme shows the technical challenges involved in the enterprise - and how these challenges are dealt with.

[84B Oxley]

I understand they want to do it in O Gauge, judging by the conversation that the company had with the Secretary of the Preston O Gauge Group.

Jeff

[Pacific231G]

I heard about this rather half baked (pun intended) idea a day or so ago. The production team on James May's Toy Stories just about got trains running on 16.5mm gauge track to make a journey of ten miles on a former railway trackbed - which by definition is fairly flat. According to Rebecca Cray's original e-mail they were planning a route of 160 miles for "the longest model train track ever built" using "canal paths" between Liverpool and Goole. As anyone who's ever walked along a canal knows towpaths tend to get rather steep when they cross bridges and at locks but they're "eager to speak to passionate train enthusiasts and hope to gauge their interest" Calling them railway enthusiasts might be a good first step.

To be fair to her, this sounds like a researcher who's been asked to do develop an idea someone has had to make a programme in which a bunch of enthusiasts build the longest model railway ever and that's probably all she knows so is trying to find out more. By today they've learnt to call us "model railway enthusiasts" so that's progress. Love Productions make Great British Bake Off and Great British Sewing Bee so I'd guess this idea fall more into that category than Benefits Street and is likely to have an element of competition.  Look for lovable British eccentrics rather than a hatchet job especially as they'll be looking to do more than one series but this looks like early development to me so may not get much further

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

A very simple analysis. The proposed 100mile+ distance combined with the low speed of a small scale model poses the major problem, assuming one could afford the track, and the very well engineered locomotive to sustain that length of run with decent reliability. An O gauge model maintaining 2mph - continuous express running -  will need in excess of 48hrs running time. And that's with layout quality track laying as a pre-requisite, as it won't take many derailments to damage a model mechanism to the point it needs repair. If the track is to be laid fairly roughly then maybe a third the speed is practical. A perfect run end to end - no hold ups, mechanical failures or any other problems - will take a week of 24/7 operation...

 

This would be a model railway 'iron man' event. Wake me up when it's over.

[pointstaken]

Extracting the oui-oui ?

 

Dennis

[Hroth]

Its a bit impractical to use canal towpaths.  Via the Leeds and Liverpool there's Foulridge tunnel, which is without a towpath.  Via the Huddersfield Narrow there's Stanedge tunnel, without a towpath.  The only canal I don't know much about is the Rochdale, which doesn't appear to have tunnels but has lots of locks, which indicates steep gradients.  The Leeds and Liverpool is not without steep inclines either, I'd love to see a "controlled" descent of the Bingley Five Rise staircase - there could be an almighty pile-up at the bottom!

 

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-and-river-network/leeds-and-liverpool-canal

 

Towpaths are also often in a poor state away from population centres, if not a narrow track alongside the waterway, they are often overgrown and in some places almost awash from runoff in deep cuttings, if not subsiding into the waterway....

 

And, of course there's the other towpath users to consider.  Apart from moored boats, there'll be dog walkers, hikers, mountainbikers and coarse anglers to contend with, as well as funny goings on under bridges.

 

Looks like initial research to go one better than the James May programme.

[Will J]

Interesting (noting the prophecies from RMWeb a couple of weeks back about a Great British Train Off' or similar....!)

 

I'm convinced model railways can work as a creative subject for mainstream TV, to sit alongside all the baking and sewing. It is interesting that they are, at what is presumably an early stage, going for the mega-long stretch of track side of things. I do wonder about this, to better reflect the modelling habits of the nation a programme might better look at micro-layouts on a budget, in the kind of small space most of us deal with.

 

The risk seems to be that a 'layout' of X-miles long along an abandoned railway / towpath tends to serve up a Greggs pasty of a modelling spectacle. If you want a signature show stopping 'bake' to show off the hobby, surely better to focus on small, perfectly formed layouts.

 

Interesting anyway, will get in touch!

[rue_d_etropal]

In O gauge it has got a better chance(especially if using coarse scale), but the Rochdale Canal has some very steep , but short inclines. I used to live next to it. When it was mentioned that Preston O gauge group had been approached the name that jumped out to me was Pete Waterman. I will have to do some asking around when I get back to UK, but that won't be for a few weeks. 

[Huw Griffiths]

I'm surprised this one has gone quiet for the last couple of days.

 

OK - some people might find a programme like this of interest - some might not - but it still surprises me that nobody seems to have had anything further to say since Friday.

 

What also surprises me is not seeing any posts in this thread from the production company directly. After all, if this project is a "go-er" and if they're seeking participants from across the country, I'd have thought they'd be trying to create a "buzz" on hobby forum sites - trying to actively engage with sites like this one (and as many members as possible). Obviously, this might still happen - time will tell ... .

 

What are my thoughts? Assuming this goes ahead, I suspect the brief might change radically. 100+ miles of canal towpaths - complete with uneven surfaces, sudden changes in level (locks, bridges), likely gaps (canals go into tunnels etc)? Yes. Right.

 

 

Although there'd be nothing to stop any programme footage being heavily edited highlights, there's still a lot of "stop - start" - "crawl" - "stop again, while somebody removes muck from the wheels and motor" - "start again" - "stop again" - "retire to the pub" type stuff.

 

Please don't get me wrong - it could be very interesting to watch - it could be boring "train wreck" telly.

 

Taking part could also be fun (if tiring) - it really depends on how the production company goes about things. After all, I can't see many people being prepared to throw whole weeks of their precious free time at something like this unless they feel there's something in it for them. It is, of course, possible that this "something" might just be the chance to get to know a number of like minded people.

 

 

This brings me to what such an enterprise might be like as viewing - especially as a series - especially if further series are projected. I could imagine some people viewing the first few minutes of the first programme, out of novelty value, to see what it's all about - then turning over - with some perhaps returning at the end, to see if anything different happens. Think "CE does TopGear" - think "Trainspotting Live".

 

 

The suggested alternative brief - of building microlayouts or modules on a sensible budget - could be rather more watchable. It could also be rather more interesting to take part in - especially if the microlayouts were required to be able to be joined together (so based on a standardized modular concept - similar to NTrak, but almost certainly larger).

 

For each programme, give each team a brief - build a mainline section - build a station - build a depot - build an industrial area. Perhaps each programme could reflect what the same 2 or 3 "resident" teams build in a day / weekend - with each team's modules being tested at the end of each programme and joined up / tested together in a sports hall, for the season finale.

 

Just for the sake of argument, you could have team A (in blue sweatshirts) told to incorporate "toys" at every stage (moving road vehicles - depot featuring turntable and traverser) - while team B (in green) go all out for scenery / realism.

 

A further tweak could see some extra time being allocated to allow the teams to ensure their modules blend together as a united whole. Don't worry - there is madness in my method - sorry, it's supposed to be the other way round ... .

 

Done properly, in addition to generating a watchable TV series, something like this could also generate a couple of modular show / display layouts - a way of drawing people in to see layouts "off the telly". If you have both at the same show, you could even have a bit of a contest, judged by the show visiting public, for which yields the better layout - "toytown" or "realism". If you ensure that neither layout features anything too fragile or difficult to set up, you could also allow for visitor operation.

 

 

Would I be interested in either concept? If it's the long drag, I might be. If it's microlayouts / modules, I almost certainly would be. In practice, it all depends on production company plans and details of exactly what's involved. Would any production company be interested in working with me? Who knows?

 

 

I do, however, stand by my suggestions that I think it could make sense for someone from the production company to directly engage with sites like this one - preferably this site. I'm not completely convinced by the initial concept - but I'm sure that, with input from railway modellers, some very watchable series could result. Time will tell.

 

 

Huw.

[ELTEL]

I must say that I have only have read the header and a few quotes (which was enough)

 

Who's is going to benefit from this probably not he railway modeller or the club.

 

As they say on a well known to programme

 

Count me out!

[rue_d_etropal]

Knowing the area, having lived up here for many years, and have had contact with some of the model railway clubs which would be near the route, I would suggest the local clubs were contacted and involved. Have seen occasions where some official is not aware of a local club, and almost steps on toes. I could see most clubs along this corridor being happy to cooperate, it just needs the nod. Showing local clubs working like this could add an interesting community feel to the program.