GMRC Series 2 - Episode 1 - 'The Restless Earth'

[whart57]

14 minutes ago, Hull Paragon said:

 

At the risk of offending almost everyone....................

 

I watched the episode last night. Despite the obviously excellent efforts and skills of the participants, I thought it was awful. (I seem to be in a minority here but there you go). The whole programme seemed to be about special effects.....the railway was secondary. If a programme was made about ship modellers building a harbour with a tsunami feature it would have been no different. In my opinions as a railway modeller it is almost unwatchable. Apart from a few short glimpses there is nothing to help a budding railway modeller and apart from the name of the show, nothing that sells railway modelling as a hobby.....my opinion of course!

 

So I agree with you. The show is supposed to be about model railways....so set challenges that domonstrate this and do away with the trashy 'let's make it exciting' scenario that seems to be endemic nowadays. Lraelsie that in itself, modelling layouts is probably quite dull for a TV audience, but maybe the production team can introduce their own version of 'innovation' to overcome this.

 

OK....now I'll sit back and wait for the flak!!

 

Ray

 

Given that the aim is to draw a million or so viewers to Channel 5 on a Friday night the actual railway will be secondary. If you want MRJ TV then I'm afraid it's for YouTube.

 

But was it that dire? We saw a team of young newbies demonstrate that a bit of intelligence, a bit of research on that dreaded YouTube and a good dollop of lets' give it a go will give good results. As well as demonstrate that last minute adjustments with a jigsaw don't work. But that seascape was pretty damn good and in the end to best railway model went through

 

The challenge for "real" railway modellers is to take the format and meet it without going too far down the gimmick track. The volcanoes might have been the result of a bit of volcano obsession in the emails from the producers (I had those emails too) leading teams to think one was compulsory. Let's see how the others managed in later heats.

 

And after all Bake Off is nothing like one of those Fanny Craddock here's how you make choux pastry jobs from forty years ago either.

[Guest CLARENCE]

Not impressed!

Far too much emphasis on gimmicky special effects - volcanoes, earthquakes etc. and nowhere near enough railway modelling, which the show is supposed to be about.

Too many talking heads having pointless conversations.

I've never been quite clear what the purpose of the programmes is; if it is to entertain the audience, OK, but it didn't really entertain me for long.  I became bored early on. Some of the modelling was very good, but there wasn't enough of it for me.

[sharris]

29 minutes ago, Hull Paragon said:

 

At the risk of offending almost everyone....................

 

I watched the episode last night. Despite the obviously excellent efforts and skills of the participants, I thought it was awful. (I seem to be in a minority here but there you go). The whole programme seemed to be about special effects...

 

In a way I think it's a kind of modelling equivalent of Come Dine With Me - a programme that is, on the surface, a cooking competition, but where non-cooking entertainment value plays a big part too.

 

[sb67]

I'd love to see more "railway modelling" in there but I really enjoyed it. Sat and watched it with the other half and tried to predict the winner but both got it wrong! If it draws people to the hobby, great. Good to see a  Hornby add in there. 

I dont think it gives an accurate representation of the hobby though,  cant help thinking though if people watch it, go to a model railway show hoping to see layouts like that they could be dissapointed.

As I said I liked it, good fun and cant wait for the next episode :-)

Steve.

 

[Bluemonkey presents....]

I also enjoyed watching the episode although I felt that one judge was quite bias towards the eventual winning team even though they had major derailments and similar issues to the others. Both my good lady and myself voiced this opinion very early in the show and it continued throughout.

Overall, reasonable light entertainment of the modelling variety and I am glad James has reduced the amount of puns he constantly bombards the viewers with.

 

Looking forward to the next installment.

[Hull Paragon]

2 hours ago, RLWP said:

 

In my opinion as a railway modeller, I enjoy it!

 

I find it hard to talk about what modelling means to me - it was something likely to get you picked on growing up so I don't talk about it. Here is a programme that, although desperately superficial due to being crammed into a competition format, is still actually about railway modelling. And it is entertaining even if the standard of modelling is often necessarily basic, so non modellers watch it. 

 

If nothing else, it is a starting point for a conversation abut how what I do is different from what is on the telly. I must say those short shots of Clarendon do help illustrate the contrast

 

And I'd still be proud to have made that beach and cliffs 

 

Richard

 

I agree about the beach!

[Neil]

For those not impressed, who think there's not enough 'proper' railway modelling taking place, then please consider the time constraints that we were working under. You'll see me later on in this series, on the 27th I believe, and while I hope you'd consider me to be a 'proper' modeller it won't give any game away if I tell you that the work of mine you see here on RMweb takes far longer to do than the time allowed by the filming schedule.

 

 

[sharris]

The rather more haunted wing of Freeview appears to have a few craft channels. For those wanting a more serious approach to railway modelling, I wonder if there would be scope there for a series - of course we would need some of the 'I want a finescale modelling programme' chaps and chapesses to do something about it, sell them the idea and make the programme.

[caradoc]

2 hours ago, Budgie said:

 

I thought that yesterday's episode showed that the ethos hasn't really changed since the previous series. As I see it modellers build layouts that depict either a real scene or a freelance scene that is a real scene in the modellers' imagination. What we have had up to now is scenes that are fantastical and not real. For example, we don't have active volcanos in the UK, and we don't get many earthquakes and sinkholes that affect the railway.

 

One of the judges is the editor of the Railway Modeller. I mention this as RM has published many "plans of the month", and it seems to me that the challenge would be better if the teams were given a selection of these plans and told to choose one to model. This way we would see how people build models that could go on the exhibition circuit, and be exhibited for several years. A good example of what I am thinking of is "Recycle by Rail" in the October 2019 issue of RM, even though that is in N gauge, and the challenge seems to be all in OO.

 

I'd be interested to hear what other folks have to say about this idea.

 

We do not indeed have active volcanos in the UK, but for me (and it seemed most of those there) the stand-out moment of the whole programme was the eruption of the Train Set's volcano ! And I agree it was unfair that they got marked down on the Scratchbuild challenge when they used the tutu so effectively.

 

I can't help thinking that a serious programme designed to suit railway modellers would not entertain the general public and would therefore simply not be made.

 

[sharris]

9 minutes ago, No46 said:

I am glad James has reduced the amount of puns he constantly bombards the viewers with.

 

I can't remember the exact content of the previous series - maybe Pun Traumatic Stress Disorder has wiped it from my memory, but last night's programme seemed quite liberally peppered with puns to me, with the teams getting in on the act too.

 

Maybe the judging should have a pun quality section too.

[TravisM]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

I notice pre-built houses seem To be standard Metcalfe  , if you're going to pre build then you should have "finescaled" the pre build.. This is a modelling competition.. 

 

Metcalfe was one of the approved suppliers for the buildings.  All I can say is that if I never see another Metcalfe kit, it won’t be a moment too soon as I spent most of the 3 days building them lol.

[sharris]

This may have been asked in the last series, I can't remember, but may I ask of anyone who's been involved this year - regarding the pre-builds, is there a fixed budget and timescale you're expected to keep to for these parts to ensure a level playing field in this respect?

[AY Mod]

18 minutes ago, sharris said:

seemed quite liberally peppered with puns to me

 

They're actually auditioning for hosting Dragons Den and Homes under the Hammer.

[caradoc]

Maybe I'm easily amused, but I enjoyed the puns, and the humour and general good-naturedness, throughout the programme.

[BlackRat]

A serious prog about railway modelling......... followed by watching paint dry.

 

Its about entertainment pure and simple and they need to cater for a 'mass' audience, the bigger the audience the more they can charge for adverts.

 

Id love to see a prog on what appeals to me, but it's not going to happen.......even on the satellite channels....although we have got near to it with Modeltown etc.

[whart57]

1 hour ago, sharris said:

This may have been asked in the last series, I can't remember, but may I ask of anyone who's been involved this year - regarding the pre-builds, is there a fixed budget and timescale you're expected to keep to for these parts to ensure a level playing field in this respect?

 

Not as such. After last year's "this entire street is one item" evasion the rules state what is acceptable - one house, one warehouse, one mine building etc - but in practice the judges went - in our experience anyway - for the spirit rather than the letter of the law. You are asked what your pre-builds will be about a month before recording and you can negotiate. For example we agreed with the producers that if we connected two cottages with a shed then it would be one pre-build instead of two

 

This year too the pre-builds were vetted on the first morning of recording and weren't allowed on the layouts until the producers approved them

 

Regarding budget you have limits set and you can't go over them. That's for cash though, no-one is measuring how much time goes into making the pre-builds. In our case it was quite a bit

[Neil]

1 hour ago, sharris said:

This may have been asked in the last series, I can't remember, but may I ask of anyone who's been involved this year - regarding the pre-builds, is there a fixed budget and timescale you're expected to keep to for these parts to ensure a level playing field in this respect?

 

Budget: There's a total budget which has to cover the whole of the layout so what you allocate to pre builds has to be subtracted from that which you can use to buy in stuff to use on the day.

 

Time: No restrictions placed though all teams are given the theme to work to at the same time so it's up to the amount of time that you feel able or want to devote to this part of the build.

 

 

[noiseboy72]

I can only directly speak for Heat 5 - which we also competed in, but all 3 layouts were proper layouts, with excellent scenic construction and good running characteristics - I don't think any of us had a derailment during the presentation stage, but 2 of them were pure fantasy and the 3rd a fictional location, but slightly more probable! 

 

All the layouts we competed against featured effects that could be rapidly reset and none of them would disgrace an exhibition hall - certainly given the time allowed to build them. We made a point of producing a layout with a track layout that should be recognisable to many, even if the setting is not quite so ordinary...

 

I am hoping the first episode was a little more gimik focused than the rest of the series just to lure the casual viewers in. That being said, as a 10 year old, who wouldn't have wanted a volcano on their trainset  

[phil gollin]

.

 

Maybe someone with YouTube (or similar) can confirm something for me.  After the first marks were handed out the scientific team got very poor marks for "creativity".   At the final score time the mark seemed to have been increased - without the reason being revealed ?????????????????

 

.

[noiseboy72]

18 minutes ago, phil gollin said:

.

 

Maybe someone with YouTube (or similar) can confirm something for me.  After the first marks were handed out the scientific team got very poor marks for "creativity".   At the final score time the mark seemed to have been increased - without the reason being revealed ?????????????????

 

.

I'm assuming the erupting volcano was taken into account!

[TravisM]

As to budgeting, we (Corby Steelmen) we’re given spending amounts with manufacturers and retailers, eg; Hornby, Bachmann, Gaugemaster, Metcalfe, Peco etc plus £100 overspend to which you had to provide receipts if used.

[phil-b259]

5 hours ago, CLARENCE said:

I've never been quite clear what the purpose of the programmes is; if it is to entertain the audience, OK, but it didn't really entertain me for long. 

 

The purpose of the programme is to get Mr and Mrs Average (whose only experience with model trains may be a Hornby train set several decades ago) and their kids if they have any to tune in so advertisers can sell them stuff!

 

Channel 5 exists to make money for its shareholders - it does this by putting on programmes that appeal to as broader field of tastes as possible. Detailed stuff about railways (be it in model form or indeed the prototype) is generally not interesting to most of the public and any such programming on mainstream TV has to be done under the guise of light entertainment (with the focus very much on entertainment for the masses) rather than a course by the Open University.

 

Its sobering to consider that this year 6 million people tuned in to see 'Love Island' - a programme with zero substance to it! You are NOT going to get such folk to tune into a model railway programme which is 'faithful' to the hobby and yet THOSE are the people Chanel 5 needs to persuade to tune in - not the thousands of UK modellers. Dress it up as a 3 day challenge in the same vein as Bake Off has done for years now then they might.

 

Yes I would have loved to have seen more of the programme concentrate on the actual modelling - BUT in todays multi channel TV world the editors / producers know that if folk get bored then its always easy to switch over and find something else to watch - be that being broadcast at the time or an offering from the Likes of Amazon, Sky or Netflix which can be instantly streamed to your TV. Low viewing figures = low advert revenue = programme is unprofitable to make / continue with.

 

 

 

[noiseboy72]

43 minutes ago, jools1959 said:

As to budgeting, we (Corby Steelmen) we’re given spending amounts with manufacturers and retailers, eg; Hornby, Bachmann, Gaugemaster, Metcalfe, Peco etc plus £100 overspend to which you had to provide receipts if used.

The budget was generous - and you wonder what the Train Set spent theirs on, given they had 1 operational DMU and little else to show. I think we managed 5 locos, 2 coaches, 9 goods wagons and a couple of guards vans with the same money!

Edited September 14, 2019 by noiseboy72

[john new]

6 hours ago, whart57 said:

 

Given that the aim is to draw a million or so viewers to Channel 5 on a Friday night the actual railway will be secondary. If you want MRJ TV then I'm afraid it's for YouTube.

 

But was it that dire? We saw a team of young newbies demonstrate that a bit of intelligence, a bit of research on that dreaded YouTube and a good dollop of lets' give it a go will give good results. As well as demonstrate that last minute adjustments with a jigsaw don't work. But that seascape was pretty damn good and in the end to best railway model went through

 

The challenge for "real" railway modellers is to take the format and meet it without going too far down the gimmick track. The volcanoes might have been the result of a bit of volcano obsession in the emails from the producers (I had those emails too) leading teams to think one was compulsory. Let's see how the others managed in later heats.

 

And after all Bake Off is nothing like one of those Fanny Craddock here's how you make choux pastry jobs from forty years ago either.

Concur. None of the layouts would be my personal first or second build choice as I’ve no space for multiple layouts but (a) I enjoyed it as entertainment and (b) if I did have space it would be interesting to have a go at a small, fun, layout like those.

[icphotos]

Enjoyed the show, and more importantly my wife and son also enjoyed it. Hopefully it raises the profile of the hobby in the same way Master Chef and Bake Off saw an increase in home chefs and bakers. 

Maybe not the format for purists, but the fact they have got a second series commissioned means they are doing something right!