GMRC Series 2 - Episode 4 - 'Uncharted territory'

[AY Mod]

 

 

Friday 04 October 8pm - 9:15pm Channel 5

 

 

From Radio Times

 

"There’s more than a whiff of hubris in the modelling shed as a captain makes big promises for his team’s layout, only for his smug certainty to be punctured as the heat enters its closing stages.

Meanwhile, another captain is dismissive of the wacky Scratch Build Challenge, which is understandable enough, as it’s a mad diversion. But he must pay the price for such arrogance as gimlet-eyed judge Kathy Millatt gives him one of her withering looks.

There are no truly gasp-inducing builds from Who’s Counting Rivets, the Titfield Thunderbolts and the Three Millers, whose builds must feature the theme of Uncharted Territory, though elements of each, notably a submerged railway track, raise cheers and much admiration.

It’s a friendly contest, with some genial inter-team bartering when supplies run low, and a moving moment when an indomitable team captain reveals a difficult early life.

 

SUMMARY

Three more teams of the UK's most talented railway modellers compete for a place in the semi-finals. A combo dubbed Who's Counting Rivets hopes to impress the judges with a layout featuring gadgets galore, pyrotechnics and a multitude of mini-animations. Retired traditionalists the Three Millers plan to re-enact a dramatic railway scene from 1950s Holland, while the Titfield Thunderbolts attempt to stage an action adventure in the jungle involving a plane crash and a volcano. Presented by James Richardson and Tim Shaw."

 

 

[whart57]

The inspiration for the Three Millers layout can be read elsewhere on rmweb:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/125424-overseas-railways-worth-modelling/&do=findComment&comment=2828722

 

[MarkSG]

Well, that was pretty good. I thought the best team won, as usual. But I was impressed by the Dutch flood layout (3 Millers) - not just for the pretty audacious concept of actually flooding the track, but because they'd made a real effort to be consistent all the way through with their theme. The buildings were typically Dutch, the scenery was appropriate. Even the loco and rolling stock were correct, at least as far as I could tell. The water-based functionality aside, that was probably the closest we've seen so far to a normal exhibition quality layout. I'd love to see it in action.

 

I thought the jungle layout (Titfield Thunderbolts) was a bit too scattergun for my tastes - there were some nice individual ideas, but it didn't really hang together as a whole. I wonder if that's something of a typical problem for teams that have been formed just to take part in the series - with no experience of working together, it becomes something of a "design by committee" layout that tries too hard to fit everybody's ideas in.

 

The deep mine layout (Who's Counting Rivets) won because pretty much everything worked and the trains ran flawlessly. And some of the detail modelling was well up to exhibition quality as well. It didn't have any single "wow" factor animation, but maybe it was the better for it - it just had lots of things that did what they set out to do. And the mine was a great idea - instead of building up, get the level differences by going down.

[LNER4479]

Yes, I was quite taken by the Dutch flood layout in the end as well, some good modelling aside from the spectacular effect. If only he'd thought of using the vanes of the shuttlecock to make a sails of a windmill...

 

[Phil Parker]

The BRM episode synopsis is now on World of Railways:

https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/reviews/Others/the-great-model-railway-challenge-series-2-heat-4-uncharted-territ

 

I think I might have got the best screenshot of Steve yet...

[davefrk]

Would I be at risk of being called a 'rivet counter' if I asked why the smoke was coming out of the 'lighting up' chimney instead of the side chimney on the Crosti 9F?

 

Dave.

[russ p]

I'm afraid I don't really get this show with apologies to any contributors which may be on here.

We don't normally build special effects into layouts,  nor do we immediately destroy our layouts when complete.

It maybe for some but I can't stand shows with false jeopardy on them.

I watched it tonight but think that will be it be the last, 

Shame really as it could have been a decent program  getting new people into the hobby 

[Phil Parker]

1 minute ago, russ p said:

We don't normally build special effects into layouts,  nor do we immediately destroy our layouts when complete.

 

Dave Rowe used to build all sorts of special effects into his layouts. He even wrote a book about it. And who said the layouts are destroyed? It's going to be tricky to get them to shows if they are.

 

2 minutes ago, russ p said:

Shame really as it could have been a decent program  getting new people into the hobby

 

It's getting people into model railway shows - once they are there, it's down to us to get them into the hobby.

[LNER4479]

19 minutes ago, russ p said:

I'm afraid I don't really get this show with apologies to any contributors which may be on here.

We don't normally build special effects into layouts,  nor do we immediately destroy our layouts when complete.

It maybe for some but I can't stand shows with false jeopardy on them.

I watched it tonight but think that will be it be the last, 

Shame really as it could have been a decent program  getting new people into the hobby 

Aw c'mon - you can at least watch just ONE more (then you'll have seen all the teams). I'd love to say that Heat 5 is a good one ... but I'm in it, so I can't say that!

[russ p]

13 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

 

Dave Rowe used to build all sorts of special effects into his layouts. He even wrote a book about it. And who said the layouts are destroyed? It's going to be tricky to get them to shows if they are.

 

 

It's getting people into model railway shows - once they are there, it's down to us to get them into the 

 

 

I hear what you say Phil,  but kinda or reminds me of kids in the 70s who had a train set but weren't really interested in railways and spent the time playing with it ramming stuff across the track, ones that longed for anything battle space inside of some like the triangle OLE system for instance. 

As I said some people like this stuff , all down to personal choices I don't want to start an argument over it

[russ p]

1 minute ago, LNER4479 said:

Aw c'mon - you can at least watch just ONE more (then you'll have seen all the teams). I'd love to say that Heat 5 is a good one ... but I'm in it, so I can't say that!

 

I'll come clean the only reason I watched it is because I'm in hospital and there are only 12 channels on the massively over priced TV

[Professor Yaffle]

2 minutes ago, LNER4479 said:

Aw c'mon - you can at least watch just ONE more (then you'll have seen all the teams). I'd love to say that Heat 5 is a good one ... but I'm in it, so I can't say that! 

But you could, go on, go on. go on

 

[RJS1977]

One thing I've noticed is quite a few layouts (including last week's winner), but by no means all, seem to have a branch line or siding leaving the baseboard about halfway down the right hand side - is there any reason for this?

[Pacific231G]

I was a bit underwhelmed this evening though all three teams can be congratulated for overcoming or setting themselves major challenges. 

The Crosti boilered  9F with smoke coming out of the wrong orifice didn't bother me particularly but after someone mentioned it from the titles I  now can't not notice it.

 

The three Millers layout was well modelled and it was good to see a scene that was authentically  somewhere other than Britain. I believe the train was also authentically Dutch. I have though seen at least two exhibition layouts where OO trains ran through water so that alone wasn't breaking as much ground as everyone seemed to think. Getting the tide effect to work and the gates to both work and seal properly was an achievement but I rather agreed wih Kathy that it was a bit of a one trick pony. It struck me as something that would make a good working diorama for a show rather than a complete layout but full marks to them for taking a real historic event and portraying it pretty accurately. The team captain (?) did explain well about the water having much greater resistance than the motor though I did hold my breath slightly wondering whether the coloured "dirty" water might have had a lowered electrical resistance. 

 

There were some nice touches on the Titfield Thunderbolts' layout. Though I think the AAIB would have classified the Tiger Moth crash as unsurvivable it worked well as an effect. I did think the Vosper Thorneycroft vessel that became HMS Thunderchild in Ep. 2 would have made a better escape craft than the Clyde Puffer whch seems to be ubiquitous on model railways though never in reality- a Clyde Puffer on a jungle island?  However the whole thing seemed like a jumble of unconnected events that didn't really tell a story. Our heroes survive a plane crash then used a train that we hardly saw again to get to a port wih some treasure that came from somewhere while, for no apparent reason, a battle was raging between a trainload of Nazis and a trainload of our lads on a jungle covered island that had somehow acquired a lot of British standard gauge railways. 

 

The winning layout worked but I still felt I was just seeing trains running in circuits rather aimlessly and a few special effects. There was some good modelling on it. I liked the workshop particularly, and thought the judges were a bit harsh about the lack of subterranean railway action. If you were building the whole layout, including  baseboards, from scratch then that could and has been done  but, starting with the supplied 10x5 flat baseboard, would have made doing much more than what they did do beneath ground level very tricky. A mining railway would have required a complete sub baseboard and I think they would have run out of time. Of the three I think that layout deserved to win but I still felt it wasn't really telling a story.

 

Only the Dutch scene really told a story but it was a very simple story that cried out for further development. Rather than just running between the dykes across the scene the train might at least have been seen delivering vital supplies and returning with survivors, perhaps shuttling between stations separated by the flooded section. A second narrow gauge railway couild also have run along the dyke to bring in bulk materials for its reconstruction. Tipping skips perhaps?    

Edited October 4, 2019 by Pacific231G

[BlackRat]

We don't build 'special effects'?

 

The trains and stock move, some now have sound, lights which alter depending on direction of travel, opening doors, smoke, inertia effects etc.

 

Signal arms move up and down, light up, colour aspects change.

 

Pantographs can be raised or lowered, and power switched between the overhaed and the track.

 

We can have cars, buses, lorries, motorcycles and even bicycles all moving around the layout one way or another.

 

Moving ships, working water wheels, windmills, cranes ice skaters and swimmers.......

 

All readily and easily available....and that's before we start scratching anything!

 

Compared to any other sort of modelling even fairly basic layouts are full of special effects.......

[noiseboy72]

7 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

One thing I've noticed is quite a few layouts (including last week's winner), but by no means all, seem to have a branch line or siding leaving the baseboard about halfway down the right hand side - is there any reason for this?

Well spotted. If you remember last year all the layouts in the final had to link together? This year if you made it to the final, your 3 layouts had to link together. You therefore had to build an exit at a mandated point on the right of your board on the heat layout.

[noiseboy72]

9 hours ago, russ p said:

I'm afraid I don't really get this show with apologies to any contributors which may be on here.

We don't normally build special effects into layouts,  nor do we immediately destroy our layouts when complete.

It maybe for some but I can't stand shows with false jeopardy on them.

I watched it tonight but think that will be it be the last, 

Shame really as it could have been a decent program  getting new people into the hobby 

With regard to your comment about dismantling the layout after the heat, many of the layouts have survived from both series intact or rebuilt into new layouts of a similar theme, but a more transportable shape and size.

 

Our heat layout is now in the care of a local model shop, will be exhibited a few times and may well become the first layout for a new model railway club. I doubt any layout ended up entirely in the skip!!

[jcm@gwr]

9 minutes ago, noiseboy72 said:

With regard to your comment about dismantling the layout after the heat, many of the layouts have survived from both series intact or rebuilt into new layouts of a similar theme, but a more transportable shape and size.

 

Our heat layout is now in the care of a local model shop, will be exhibited a few times and may well become the first layout for a new model railway club. I doubt any layout ended up entirely in the skip!!

 

Sorry to disagree, but at least one from the first series has been scrapped.

 

[noiseboy72]

24 minutes ago, jcm@gwr said:

 

Sorry to disagree, but at least one from the first series has been scrapped.

 

Are you saying that all the track, boards, stock, buildings and scenic items went in the skip with nothing salvaged? I find that hard to accept.

 

I know that the Titfield Thunderbolts did dismantle their layout at the end of the heat, but parts were salvaged by other teams at that point and much of the stock and other items found homes on the team's own layouts. 

 

Let's be honest, that's the fate of most layouts sooner or later. Recycling has always been a big thing in the model railway world!

[andyram]

Interesting to read the comments about the episode as one of the “non-speaking” members of the Titfield Thunderbolts. Firstly, the branch line alluded to above  was a requirement of the show. The idea is that any semi final and final layouts bolt together to form a continuous run.

 

 As regards our layout, we suffered because of the spread out nature of the team of strangers we were. The prebuild track sections were laid by only three team members. They were responsible for the helix which was far too tight for the train to traverse. An 0-4-0 may have managed it but the captain wanted to stick with the Jinty.
 The original track plan was much simpler but the captain altered it to the more ambitious layout to include the flyover (ski-jump) and the helix. These were the areas that cost us valuable time during the first two days and left some of the scenics to be completed in a rush. A few of the team had argued this case in the build up to the show, feeling the plan was over ambitious. We knew that it would be spectacular or a crash and burn, sadly the latter became the case with the layout drifting away from the computer game theme.

 

 I was very pleased with the scenic work having completed much of it with the volcano completed on day 1 along with the main cliff area. The dock and the industrial area completed on day 2. Harun’s excellent scratchbuilding helped the effect too. Interestingly, we were told that the final marks left us one point adrift of the winners with only the functionality score costing us. That was presented very differently in the show where only provisional points were shown. 

 The reason for the British stock was because partly to fit in with the storyline. The 00 Jinty was in weathered WD livery so we chose it to fit the gun battle scene. The captain also required an off the shelf matching N gauge model. The Southern Pacific was simply chosen because of its name “Sir Francis Drake” which fitted in with the computer game story - the search for the lost treasure of the explorer of the same name.

 

 Ultimately the experience was fantastic. Despite only meeting as a team of six the night before, we have become good friends. A few of us are planning a new exhibition layout based on the Huntley and Palmer factory. Hopefully we will get that done in a year although geography is against us.

 

 Although I remained hidden for much of the show, I was pleased the shop was featured. A lovely shot of the outside as well as some interior views.

[noiseboy72]

Looking at the layouts in this episode, we really liked the dutch layout. It was proper modelling with a twist! I gather the operation of it was quite slow and this probably went against them, along with their approach to the scratch build challenge. Whose Counting Rivets really did show how technology can enhance a layout, but had great build quality, so were the rightful winners. The Thunderbolts had a creative theme and storyline, but I think were hamstrung by a lack of coherent planning and some dubious track laying. 

 

All in all, another enjoyable heat and the right team won

[andyram]

Just now, noiseboy72 said:

Looking at the layouts in this episode, we really liked the dutch layout. It was proper modelling with a twist! I gather the operation of it was quite slow and this probably went against them, along with their approach to the scratch build challenge. Whose Counting Rivets really did show how technology can enhance a layout, but had great build quality, so were the rightful winners. The Thunderbolts had a creative theme and storyline, but I think were hamstrung by a lack of coherent planning and some dubious track laying. 

 

All in all, another enjoyable heat and the right team won

See comments above and I agree the correct team won.

[PhilJ W]

Three very good layouts but the best layout won.

[Dunsignalling]

I did watch the first series and I've been trying really hard to get into this one. However, ten minutes in last night, I lost all interest and switched over to a repeat of Train Truckers on the Yesterday channel.

 

Sorry, but I'm beginning to think that one series of the GMRC may have been enough. All I can see on the horizon is ever-weirder items being thrown in to perplex the scratch-build challengers and teams coming up with increasingly arcane animations/gimmicks to amuse the judges. The railway aspects seem to be in danger of becoming an afterthought.

 

Next week, instead of watching,  I'll be starting to saw up half a dozen old Hornby coaches (not clerestories) for an arcane project of my own. It definitely won't be a spectator sport, or finished in three days but, if it works, I'll start a thread about it on here.

 

So, the programme will be encouraging some modelling after all.....

 

John     

Edited October 5, 2019 by Dunsignalling

[LNER4479]

43 minutes ago, andyram said:

Interestingly, we were told that the final marks left us one point adrift of the winners with only the functionality score costing us. That was presented very differently in the show where only provisional points were shown. 

 

In which case, you must have missed the final scores chart, which was only on screen for a few brief seconds (as it has been for all episodes):

 

Heat 4                                                                Provisional                                                                              Final

WCR            8              0              6                              14                     8              0              6              8              22

3 MIllers     7              0              7                              14                     7              0              7              7              21

Titfield        7              2              4                              13                     8              2              4              5              19

 

As you can probably tell, I've been keeping a close watch as I was genuinely interested in how the scoring was worked. You can see that there was one adjustment from provisional to final and in other episodes some of the scores have been adjusted more than this.

Edited October 5, 2019 by LNER4479