Channel 4 model railway challenge

[MJI]

Fun episode and I feel that some editing may have not been kind to team C leader.

 

Well done to all.

 

Nice to see some young engineers and modellers, good for the future.

 

How many RMWEB members in the end?

 

I did once see Dick Strawbridge in Worcester!

[bimble]

congratulations to all involved, I certainly enjoyed watching the show and am glad that Silver Lady got to the end!

 

So... where next??

[Colin_McLeod]

Aberdeen? )

[Jenny Emily]

 

 

So... where next??

 

Somewhere warmer, with less midges and more 5* hotels please.

[Huw Griffiths]

congratulations to all involved, I certainly enjoyed watching the show and am glad that Silver Lady got to the end!

 

Yes - but which one?

 

Joking aside, they clearly had at least 2 of these - as shown when they had them on parallel tracks, with a rope and pulley between them.

 

To be honest, the program showed one of these locos getting such a hammering, with so little down time, that (however good the things are) at least one operational spare (perhaps more) would make a lot of sense.

 

 

So... where next??

 

Somewhere warmer, with less midges and more 5* hotels please.

 

My thoughts exactly - although, at the other extreme, I can think of some countries where a number of people would have difficulty coping with the heat. As for the hotels, I suspect that, at a push, some people might be prepared to accept 4* hotels.

 

However, your comment sums up my reasons for not applying for this series.

 

Saying that, I enjoyed watching the programmes.

 

 

Regards,

 

Huw.

[rockershovel]

I don’t see why there SHOULDN’T have been at least two locos. Real world railways have fleets, operational reserves, maintenance schedules and banking locos for steep gradients, don’t they?

 

I didn’t apply for this because (a) it passed me by completely (2) I have a long-standing aversion to Scotland’s infamous midges (3) the same goes for its year-round “liquid sunshine”.

 

It would have been too much of a “busman’s holiday”, I think. I’ve had past experience of former professional riders in my Vintage Racing life and sometimes it works out, but often it doesn’t and I suspect I would have soon found myself at the wrong end of the scale. If I was undertaking that much unpaid work, so someone else could make a profit, I’d expect reasonable accommodation and somewhere to dry my boots between days. It looks like the sort of experience sometimes described as “character forming”...

[45156]

Well it's over, for better or worse, and of course the result was an open secret.  It did keep me watching  though my wife thought it a bit pointless.  Gave her time to catch up on her reading.

 

I thought it was a mixed bag, but generally enjoyed it a lot.  I do agree with the many comments that the edit was a bit anti some of the participants.  However, such is TV life.  A big well done to all concerned.

 

The special build team really did a fantastic job all round and their constructions were very well done indeed. 

 

I was a bit mystified by the use of the battery shunter, as it was evident that there were two Silver Ladies in the equation, and the second could easily have been kept in steam as a substitute.

 

And at last the final epsode featured Jenny and team a lot more, and went some way to redressing the balance.

 

Perhaps we can move on now to arguing about something else

Edited February 5, 2018 by 45156

[45156]

ps - didn't they all look kn@ckered at the end.

[rockershovel]

ps - didn't they all look kn@ckered at the end.

to quote the Duke of Wellington, or possibly Napoleon, “nothing wears out an army, so much as hard living”.

[Andrew P]

CONGRATULATIONS to Jenny and any others from the Team that may read this.

 

Thoroughly enjoyably TV viewing, and a great ending, (did we ever expect less). 

[Colin_McLeod]

I have just watched the final episode and really enjoyed it.

 

Congratulations to everyone involved

 

 

 

So... where next??

Forget my previous suggestion. I think the clue is in the music at the end: "Over the sea to Skye"

[PhilJ W]

Somewhere warmer, with less midges and more 5* hotels please.

Someone mentioned Malta near the beginning of this thread, if that is chosen I would like to put my name down please. (But not in mid-summer TOO darn hot) spring or autumn would be best.

[Tim Hall]

Someone mentioned Malta near the beginning of this thread, if that is chosen I would like to put my name down please. (But not in mid-summer TOO darn hot) spring or autumn would be best.

 

Don't stand still in Malta, you'll get shot. Their record with shooting/ trapping migratory birds etc is terrible, and nothing would persuade me to visit there.

[Pacific231G]

 

 

Somewhere warmer, with less midges and more 5* hotels please.

Congratulations to all of you and it was good to see more of you and your team in the final programme Jenny.

 

I really enjoyed the final programme last night- I've enjoyed the whole series- and the relief and triumph of the whole team was palpable.

 

I do have to admit to rather cynically wondering just how absolute the final deadline really was. If the loco had reached the outskirts of Inverness by the end of the day would that really have been a case of "oh dear we failed" and trudging home in a forlorn sort of way or would there have been constant reference to an absolute deadline a day later?

It was fairly obvious that the intention had been for Silver Lady (singular or plural) to make the entire run pulling some kind of train but the train got abandoned very early on and I assume the use of the battery-electric was simply to get enough miles in to keep to some kind of schedule.

 

The other thing I wondered about more practically was why the special build team and perhaps even the track laying teams didn't each have a "contractor's loco" (i.e. a battery electric) to test their work for derailments etc.before Silver Lady actually used it on the through run. I think that did happen with the trestle but not the spiral - unless of course it did and we didn't see it for reasons of heightened drama. 

 

I'm tending to see this series as very much a one-off and I don't think sequel series would have anything like the same impact. Building the world's first really long distance model/miniature railway is very different from building the second or third. After all,everybody watched Apollo 11 but before Apollo 13 went pear-shaped viewers in America were complaining that live coverage of the mission was replacing repeats  of the Lucy Show.", So would "Last year we built a railway across 75 miles of the Scottish Highlands, this year we're going to try to build a 90 mile line where no railway has ever been before, facing most of the same challenges and a few new ones" float your boat?  It doesn't mine.

 

Programmes like Bake-Off, Strictly and Get Me Out of Here, work long term because, although the challenges don't fundamentally change, it's a different small group of people who viewers come to know facing them each time. To repeat this format you'd probably need to find a completely different challenge that twenty or thirty people coming at it from different directions could tackle.  

Edited February 5, 2018 by Pacific231G

[Tricky Dicky]

Well they saved the best till last. It was good to see Jenny and her team perform at last and "anyone who can breathe" has got to be the defining comment of the series.

 

Jenny, I would get yourself a projector and screen put a presentation together and get round a few model rail shows, you should be able to make a bob or two out of it especially if you can get hold of any out takes.

 

Well done to you and the crew.

 

Richard

[Mike Storey]

Perhaps the sequel should involve a team of fully grown adults, split into four teams, who have to wire up a layout in DCC, using all the available, but different, best practice suggestions, but also including people who don't want to do it. It shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks. The opener, and probably a further three episodes, will be the team building necessary to agree what control system to settle on, and the finale will be the fault finding, where they discover they have each used a different set of protocols and interfaces, but it all has to be working by the time the community hall opens at 10 am for the WI.

 

Should have enough drama, bust-ups and potential for interesting characters. I have not worked out yet as to how to introduce annoying insects (spiders this time perhaps?) or horrendous working conditions...... a roof leak, or busted kettle, maybe.

[sp1]

Perhaps the sequel should involve a team of fully grown adults, split into four teams, who have to wire up a layout in DCC, using all the available, but different, best practice suggestions, but also including people who don't want to do it. It shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks. The opener, and probably a further three episodes, will be the team building necessary to agree what control system to settle on, and the finale will be the fault finding, where they discover they have each used a different set of protocols and interfaces, but it all has to be working by the time the community hall opens at 10 am for the WI.

 

Should have enough drama, bust-ups and potential for interesting characters. I have not worked out yet as to how to introduce annoying insects (spiders this time perhaps?) or horrendous working conditions...... a roof leak, or busted kettle, maybe.

That wouldn’t work- surely DCC only requires two wires......

[Mike Storey]

That wouldn’t work- surely DCC only requires two wires......

 

Oh yeah. Forgot.

[rockershovel]

Regarding testing the level and alignment, that seemed to be abandoned at a very early stage. The “grading spoon” was a neat idea though, walking in front of the loco holding the (apparently rather springy) track in place..

 

I expect Roundhouse wanted the original loco to make the full trip, for advertising reasons.

[Pacific231G]

Regarding testing the level and alignment, that seemed to be abandoned at a very early stage. The “grading spoon” was a neat idea though, walking in front of the loco holding the (apparently rather springy) track in place..

 

I expect Roundhouse wanted the original loco to make the full trip, for advertising reasons.

If they'd done the whole thing with a battery electric it just wouldn't have been the same and for me when they did do that the whole quest went temporarily a bit dead. It was the sight of the little steam loco chuffing its way up the Great Glen that really pulled the whole thing together for me.

[Reorte]

If they'd done the whole thing with a battery electric it just wouldn't have been the same and for me when they did do that the whole quest went temporarily a bit dead. It was the sight of the little steam loco chuffing its way up the Great Glen that really pulled the whole thing together for me.

Using a battery electric for more of it would've probably been more difficult for keeping it supplied with charged batteries. Steam probably was the most practical choice.

[Jeff Smith]

Perhaps the sequel should involve a team of fully grown adults, split into four teams, who have to wire up a layout in DCC, using all the available, but different, best practice suggestions, but also including people who don't want to do it. It shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks. The opener, and probably a further three episodes, will be the team building necessary to agree what control system to settle on, and the finale will be the fault finding, where they discover they have each used a different set of protocols and interfaces, but it all has to be working by the time the community hall opens at 10 am for the WI.

 

Should have enough drama, bust-ups and potential for interesting characters. I have not worked out yet as to how to introduce annoying insects (spiders this time perhaps?) or horrendous working conditions...... a roof leak, or busted kettle, maybe.

Mike - unfortunately I don't think that would work as the general viewership would not understand and/or identify with the problems let alone the solutions. This programme was sold on a combination of zanyness and curiosity; 'so this is what those crazy model train people get up to...'

[Pacific231G]

Using a battery electric for more of it would've probably been more difficult for keeping it supplied with charged batteries. Steam probably was the most practical choice.

Errr. How many charged batteries do you think the cameras and portable lights were using? If your answer is lots and lots you're not underestimating too badly. 

Thinks, a steam driven camera battery charger, now there's an idea  

Edited February 5, 2018 by Pacific231G

[Reorte]

Errr. How many charged batteries do you think the cameras and portable lights were using? If your answer is lots and lots you're not underestimating too badly. 

:scratchhead:Thinks, a steam driven camera battery charger, now there's an idea  

I'm assuming that there was a lot that wasn't filmed (even though a lot more would've been filmed than shown), and that the greater (but certainly not all) proportion of the filming was in the more easily accessible from a road locations.

[Guest]

Looking at the BARB figures, the series (up to Episode 4/5, figures for the final episode aren't in yet) lost a million viewers between Episodes 1 and 4. It started with a high of 2.24 million and then steadily declined.

 

Episode 1/5: 2.24m

Episode 2/5: 1.58m

Episode 3/5: 1.46m

Episode 4/5: 1.27m

 

I agree that there must have been many, many more hours recorded than was actually shown, but I do think the makers got the balance right. More/longer episodes would have just lost more viewers. I kind of enjoyed it, but for me it did get a bit "meh" towards the end. Just my opinion, and I'm genuinely delighted so many of us seemed to like it.

Edited February 5, 2018 by Pete 75C