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GMRC Series 2 - Episode 5 - 'The Sky's the Limit'


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If you enjoyed our layout, please check out our website - www.mgnr.uk We've put plenty of pictures and some behind the scenes gossip on there along with some information on the team members etc.

 

We're open to exhibition invitations and have a couple in the diary already. You can also see the layouts at Rocket Railways in Grantham. This is a new railway shop opening on 26 October with a small exhibition and some of the team will be there, operating the layouts and chatting to visitors.

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8 hours ago, MarkSG said:

Quite apart from the fact that it all ran flawlessly, I was impressed that the Alpine layout included actual shunting and meaningful train movements rather than just running things round in a circle.

What you didn't see in the demonstration for New London, after the passenger train arrived it uncoupled and ran round it's train, all without the aid of the hand from the sky. I'll admit we did chicken out trying to shunt the freight in the goods yard (Ran out of time to fit and set up the uncoupling ramps!), but it does work as small shunting layout. Albeit one on a different planet!

 

Jonny, team M&GN

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12 hours ago, BlackRat said:

Who'd have thought it......... a model train show........Saturday night........prime time t.v.

 

That HAS to be a good thing.

Not sure about that, in our house the viewers dropped from 4 people to 1 (just me in the kitchen).
In my mind I thought the show was aimed at the wider public, to create more interest in the hobby, but I feel with this time slot (8pm Saturday) it's those who are already in the hobby who will watch.
Just a point of view.

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Prefer it on Friday, so watched this morning.

 

Was worried about disk space as well.

 

Recorded on +1 as SD and with 3% of HDD on Strictly need to be careful.

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1 hour ago, Penlan said:

Not sure about that, in our house the viewers dropped from 4 people to 1 (just me in the kitchen).
In my mind I thought the show was aimed at the wider public, to create more interest in the hobby, but I feel with this time slot (8pm Saturday) it's those who are already in the hobby who will watch.
Just a point of view.

And they put it up against Strictly come Dancing! Mind you on Fridays it was up against The Great British Bake-off which topped the viewing charts for Friday and it acquited itself well. This coming Friday it would also have clashed with the UEFA 2020 qualifying match, the Czech Republic v. England, that also may have prompted the decision to change the day.

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15 hours ago, Andymsa said:

 

It was announced at the end after the program

 

Missed it as I went  put the kettle on/open a beer.

 

Watched on catch-up, best episode yet and the best layout won, ad it was nice to see the wildcard too as all three really were the best we had seen yet.  Well done guys n gals.

 

Loved the radio telescope.  Donk approved.

 

 

JD.jpg.da6eaa16c85f3a415ee10523a2698009.jpg

 

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12 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

She's surely had months to put the blogs together. Once it's all over I'd be interested to read some of Kathy and Steve Flint's own thoughts about the competition.

2 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Exactly the opposite, in fact!! We were actually one of the reserve teams, not having made it to the initial selection of teams for this year's GMRC. The format was originally only going to have 12 teams but then two Quarter Finals, a semi final (where only one team would have been eliminated) and a final with three teams in. But there was then a change of heart, Quarter Final 1 was converted to Heat 5 and Quarter Final 2 into the first of two Semi Finals. This had a slightly unfortunate consequence for us as the winners of Heat 5 as I will relate following next week's show. I'm not sure whether the two other teams in Heat 5 were also on the 'waiting list' or whether they spread the other two teams around in other heats.

 

 

 

That's very interesting and thanks for that insight.  Pure luck then that your runners up were the highest scoring (or perhaps evidence that the fates smile on producers who put railway modelling on TV without sneering)

Clearly the criteria for selecting teams wasn't just modelling ability or you'd surely have been in the first cut.

I await your next revelation with interest :D

Edited by Pacific231G
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I turned on the watch a TV programme.. 

 

And found.... 

 

 

 

Railway modelling.... 

 

 

 

Wow.... 

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Having been put through the torture and agony of watching Britains Got Talent with Sarah before GMRC the deal was that she watched episode five with me afterwards....assuming I hadn’t put my head in the oven during BGT

 

Towards the end of the episode Sarah said and I quote “if Team Grantham don’t win I won’t be watching it again”

 

So well done team Grantham, not only for a superb layout....with shutting!...but for giving me a bit of company for the next episode

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4 minutes ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

Just a heads-up — the announcement after the end of the programme stated the first semi-final next week is on Saturday again, but at 7.45pm.

Now that we know from LNER4479 that the slot occupied by heat 5 was originally going to be the first quarter final, the change to Saturday makes more sense. The idea presumably was that the greater drama of the quarter final -final rounds warranted a more prime time slot. I'm not sure how true that is  for this competition as, unlike Bake-Off, viewers haven't  got to know the team members well enough to be really rooting for them.  I don't think there's much they could do about that in a team based art/craft/skills competition like this where the cakes probably are more important for viewers than the bakers. 

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I'm pleased the Muddle and Go Nowhere team got the wild card slot, I liked their approach, made a change to see a red layout, and I think they might have won any other heat, even allowing for the fact Steve and Kathy seemed to have found points unused from previous heats to spend. But guys, you were a bit blatant about using Channel 5's money to buy stock for your own layouts .........

 

Team Grantham deserved to win on the grounds of that radio telescope and the fact they actually did some shunting. Good quality build, reliable running but I'm afraid a bit bland for me. And you didn't need the rocket - was that Pat Doyle's insistence?

 

One gripe for all teams - and I suspect I know the reasons - and that is all that British stock. Flying Scotsman in Switzerland? Pre-Group locos shunting on Mars (where the thin atmosphere would make interesting physics for steam engines)? A 1930s express in Space City?

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