Great Model Railway Challenge - Channel 5

[JohnR]

I'm pretty sure anyone could stick "static grass" in google and come up with the answer. Thats the difference between 2018 and 1977 and Bob Symes. Back then, Bob HAD to explain everything - because it was the only way people could find out. 

[57xx]

I know someone who was on scrapheap challenge; they said that the teams were told what their design was going to be at the start.

 

That's exactly how it was for the studio based series - the expert wasn't there to "guide", but dictate the design. On the roadshow and last series based on the roadshow format, however, it was entirely down to the teams to design their own device. We had to submit our plans to the production team for approval prior to the start, in what sounds like a similar process to GMRC. You also had to supply our own scrap! Any "safety" mods were done on the morning of the day of the competition.

Edited November 12, 2018 by 57xx

[MarkSG]

One thing I liked was Scrapheap challenge which used to include graphics to illustrate the concepts of how each contraption was supposed to work. Didn't they also allocate an 'expert' to each team to point them in the right direction (probably essential as some of those challenges might have been lethal without some guidance!) ?

 

 

Its been said on here before that despite appearances, the show was actually heavily scripted.

 

The same is true of Come Dine With Me, which I've been a contestant on. The competition element itself is real, but a lot of the banter is prompted or scripted. Although CDWM has no on-screen presenters, you have an off-screen interviewer who is consistently feeding you a line to respond to, and if you say something off-camera that the production team think would make good TV, you will be asked to repeat it with the camera running so that the other contestants can react.

[RJS1977]

Perhaps one thing that the series missed was to have a voiceover or line from a presenter/judge at the end of each episode saying "If you'd like to know more about model railways, take a look at our website," and a page on the C5 website featuring a more in-depth look at the techniques employed, links to Kathy's blog, unused footage etc.

[Pacific231G]

Perhaps one thing that the series missed was to have a voiceover or line from a presenter/judge at the end of each episode saying "If you'd like to know more about model railways, take a look at our website," and a page on the C5 website featuring a more in-depth look at the techniques employed, links to Kathy's blog, unused footage etc.

 

Unfortunately, all that would cost the production company time, rather a lot of time for a decent in-depth website, and therefore money which won't have been be in Ch 5's budget for the show. Unused footage would have to be edited so you'd need to employ a cutting room and a director for a number of days to put it together and it wouldn't in any case have been shot with that in mind.Trying to make additional content from footage that didn't make the cut is a thankless task but shooting specifically "how-to" pieces is quite painstaking for both the person demonstrating and the people producing it and is a somewhat specialised area of production (and possibly rather a lost art) . It would be virtually impossible in the middle of a fast moving competition environment so would need its own separate shoot. .

 

For part of my TV career I directed  and produced programmes for BBC education that, if not accompanied by a book, were invariably supported by a free fact sheet (some of which I wrote) To be brutally honest I'm not really sure how useful they were and an actual beginners' guide to railway modelling online or in print would be a very ambitious undertaking (though maybe not impossible for the second series given the higher than expected audiences) .

 

Television seems, in general, to be better at introducing a concept and inspiring interest in it than in explaining it in any depth, especially when it comes to how to do something. It would though be interesting to know (though we never shall) whether for its audience size the two episodes of the 1975 Model World  series devoted to railway modelling, which did set out to introduce and explain the hobby to an interested audience, actually inspired more or fewer people to take up the hobby than GMRC. Those two episodes of Model World are widely available on YouTube so you can judge for yourself. Having watched it again after many years I have my doubts.

 

I strongly suspect that exploiting the benefits of this series to our hobby will be mainly up to us in a lot of different ways but that discussion probably belong in the A New Hope Great Model Railway Challenge Benefits topic rather than this one.

Edited November 13, 2018 by Pacific231G

[Erictheviking]

Perhaps one thing that the series missed was to have a voiceover or line from a presenter/judge at the end of each episode saying "If you'd like to know more about model railways, take a look at our website," and a page on the C5 website featuring a more in-depth look at the techniques employed, links to Kathy's blog, unused footage etc.

That is certainly a good suggestion. Maybe the producers will take that on board, if not for now, certainly for series two. It should be relatively easy to develop the links and monitor the site.

[SDJR7F88]

Here's a few photos taken at the end of day 3, during the Grand Final, showing all 5 Layout in Order from Left to Right

 

. Basingstoke Bogders

. Fawley Flyers

. Railway Video Division (Our Team)

. Strangers on a Model Train

. Aberdeen 

 

I've also just started a topic on our Teams Cold War Themed Build, "Melton Down" for those interested.

 

[Robin2]

 

 shooting specifically "how-to" pieces is quite painstaking for both the person demonstrating and the people producing it and is a somewhat specialised area of production.

Phil and Howard have done some very good work on the DVDs that accompany BRM.

 

...R

[Ian Morgan]

There was a lot of 'over the shoulder' filming, and Q&A interviews going on in the 'Art Room', so there should have been plenty of material to produce 'how to' and background articles. Indeed, we were told that 'behind the scenes' videos would be made available. However, I doubt that there would be the money or time available to make that happen. Now, if we could get hold of that footage, there are enough amateur editors in the rmweb community ....

[Phil Parker]

The problem with a backup website is it costs money, and if done professionally by a TV company, quite a bit of money. They aren't going to be happy handing a load of footage over to amateurs either - there needs to be an element of control so nothing they aren't happy with occurs. All that money has to be recouped, probably through advertising and they aren't set up to sell online adverts to a sector they aren't familiar with. The producer's job is to make a profitable and entertaining TV show. Anything else is our problem. Ch5 are very unlikely to develop a website for this, it takes a media organisation working in the sector. And isn't out of the question.

 

Of course, as Robin says, you could watch several years of "how to" videos on BRM DVD's. And there is also the World Wide Web which is home to more than a few instructional guides.

[Pacific231G]

The problem with a backup website is it costs money, and if done professionally by a TV company, quite a bit of money. They aren't going to be happy handing a load of footage over to amateurs either - there needs to be an element of control so nothing they aren't happy with occurs. All that money has to be recouped, probably through advertising and they aren't set up to sell online adverts to a sector they aren't familiar with. The producer's job is to make a profitable and entertaining TV show. Anything else is our problem. Ch5 are very unlikely to develop a website for this, it takes a media organisation working in the sector. And isn't out of the question.

 

Of course, as Robin says, you could watch several years of "how to" videos on BRM DVD's. And there is also the World Wide Web which is home to more than a few instructional guides.

Love Productions do have a website for The Great British Bake Off  https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk but GBBO averages just over 6 Million viewers compared with just over 1M for GMRC. Even so the website doesn't include video (though there are links to the spin-off Extra Slice programme which I've not seen)

The website itself is mostly recipes (not surprisingly) biogs of the contestants, photos of cakes sent in by viewers (including a fairly detailed model of Carlisle Town Hall!) , and a shop selling the books they've  produced to accompany each series. 

[steve1]

Please can we shut this thread down now? The programme is finished. There can't be anything useful left to say, surely.

 

steve

[Colin_McLeod]

I disagree. Why shut down a thread just because the programme is over. It will naturally go quiet in time like many older threads.

 

Anyone who is bored with it can ignore it.

 

 

 

Edit for typo

Edited November 13, 2018 by Colin_McLeod

[Huw Griffiths]

Please can we shut this thread down now? The programme is finished. There can't be anything useful left to say, surely.

steve

 

I'm not so sure about that.

 

After all, a number of people here have been talking in terms of putting together teams for next year's series - while others might still have questions about what would be involved.

 

These two are not necessarily unrelated - for instance, without decisions / clarification about whether entries will be allowed, based on scales / gauges other than OO and HO, there would be little point in anyone assembling or joining teams consisting only of people who haven't modelled in any scale other than N or O.

 

If entries in other scales are given the OK, I'd look forward to seeing what these people / teams achieve. If not, a number of these people have already shown themselves to be excellent modellers who'd be actively welcomed by teams who routinely model in OO and HO.

 

I suspect that some of these people would also make excellent team leaders, regardless of what scale(s) they normally work in - the only issue being that, if restricted to a scale they don't have much to do with, they might not personally have much stock of their own to use in any "challenge" layouts.

 

 

So has this thread run its course? I suspect not. Even if it has, it wouldn't be long before new ones appear about next year's challenge (which is probably already closer timewise than this year's) - or about forming teams, checking rules etc..

 

 

Huw.

Edited November 13, 2018 by Huw Griffiths

[Nimbus]

There can't be anything useful left to say, surely.

Well, the surviving layouts have yet to be shown in public exhibitions. Reports of the public reaction will surely be of great interest.

 

The Nim.

[TheQ]

Please can we shut this thread down now? The programme is finished. There can't be anything useful left to say, surely.

steve

Steam railways are finished, should we shut down all related threads?

[pmorgan_cym]

OK, you're a purist

 

 

Playing devil's advocate a bit here, I think the Fawley team did a good job of making a layout that would appeal to purists, at least of a certain ilk, but not necessarily to the wider modelling public.

 

Why not? Because what they made, both times, was, essentially, an MPD. Certainly, the modelling itself was top notch. But even without the gimmicks necessary for GMRC, an MPD is, in my opinion, a little bit of a lazy option. It's easy to make it look good just by packing it with locos, but at the expense of operational interest.

 

Now, before everyone screams at me for dissing MPDs, I should point out that that's purely a personal opinion, and I'm well aware that others will differ. I've never really found MPDs all that interesting, but I know that some people really love them.

 

However, in the wider context of what appeals to the show-going public, I'm not sure that MPDs are the big hitters. To be sure, they will appeal to some. But they don't tend to attract the big crowds of, say, a Gresley Beat, a Penhallick or a Burntisland. Operational interest and a lot going on is what creates a crush at the barrier, just as much as detailed modelling.

 

(Incidentally, although GMRC is a world away from the finescale approach of Burntisland, I think that Burntisland is, in many respects the type of layout that lovers of GMRC would also love. Because it has plenty going on, not just trains moving but also, in the lingo of GMRC, animations. And it also demonstrates that finescale modelling and an eye for putting on a show are not mutually exclusive. Which, I think, is precisely the point that GMRC is trying to make).

[RJS1977]

The problem with a backup website is it costs money, and if done professionally by a TV company, quite a bit of money. They aren't going to be happy handing a load of footage over to amateurs either - there needs to be an element of control so nothing they aren't happy with occurs. All that money has to be recouped, probably through advertising and they aren't set up to sell online adverts to a sector they aren't familiar with. The producer's job is to make a profitable and entertaining TV show. Anything else is our problem. Ch5 are very unlikely to develop a website for this, it takes a media organisation working in the sector. And isn't out of the question.

 

Of course, as Robin says, you could watch several years of "how to" videos on BRM DVD's. And there is also the World Wide Web which is home to more than a few instructional guides.

 

Non-modellers who want to make a start in the hobby after seeing the programme won't have easy access to several years' worth ot back issues of BRM DVDs....

[Hobby]

I am sure they'll find one of the several hundred alternatives on the 'net!

[Pete the Elaner]

Non-modellers who want to make a start in the hobby after seeing the programme won't have easy access to several years' worth ot back issues of BRM DVDs....

Aren't the DVDs included when you subscribe to the online edition & choose the option of accessing all previous editions too?

[Robin2]

Non-modellers who want to make a start in the hobby after seeing the programme won't have easy access to several years' worth ot back issues of BRM DVDs....

That represents a business opportunity for BRM. IMHO there is a lot of very good material prepared by people who knew what they were doing and who are good at teaching via video.

 

...R

[LocoLaurie]

Backstories: This message is really to the Teams. We were all filmed before the show, and these Backstories were going to be used on the show originally. But now they are due to be published on the Channel 5 web site I think Pat said.

 

http://www.channel5.com/show/the-great-model-railway-challenge/ 

 

But does anyone know where they are please? 

 

Laurie  

p.s. here is our own 3 min video made during that backstory filming featuring Bryher and Marko: 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by LocoLaurie

[57xx]

Please can we shut this thread down now? The programme is finished. There can't be anything useful left to say, surely.

 

 

But.. but... it's only just got it's own section on the forum!

[KarlW]

My father and I loved all of the episodes of the show - it's actually inspired me to take up the hobby again! I'm looking forward to seeing some of the layouts in person at Warley, and I loved seeing models from my other hobby (that being Warhammer 40,000) being used on the Team Steampunk layout - I'm hoping that some of my painting/scenic skills I've picked up from that will translate well to my first proper layout.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Lets compare the net positive and negative effects of this programme numerically.

 

Lets have two columns -

 

How many people have joined or re-joined the hobby because they were inspired by the programme - lets call that the positive column

 

How many established modellers have abandoned the hobby because they were so disgusted by the programme - lets call that the negative column.

 

 

My father and I loved all of the episodes of the show - it's actually inspired me to take up the hobby again! 

 

Post that up as one in the positive column!

Edited November 14, 2018 by TEAMYAKIMA