Model Railways on Radio 4

[edcayton]

At about 7.45 this morning on the Today programme John Humphries interviewed Peter Snow in his loft where he has a large 00 layout. The usual patronising stuff I'm afraid. He also spoke to the President of the Model Railway Club on their 100th anniversary.

There is a video on the Today website(on the BBC radio 4 page).

 

I'll let you draw your own conclusions!

 

Ed

[Chris Chewter]

Have you got any links or is it easy to find?

[gordon s]

Have you got any links or is it easy to find?

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9251000/9251362.stm

[Pinkmouse]

Listened to the feature, and just watched the video, and I didn't find it patronising at all. A nice little segment showing toy trains are fun, and more people are involved with it than we think. What's wrong with that?

[edcayton]

Thanks for that Gordon, I have "learning difficulties" about links and other basic compute* stuff. I can do quotes now after years of trying!

 

Ed

 

edit * and typing!

[edcayton]

Can I apologise to Danemouth as he actually got in first!

 

Ed

[Chris Chewter]

Listened to the feature, and just watched the video, and I didn't find it patronising at all. A nice little segment showing toy trains are fun, and more people are involved with it than we think. What's wrong with that?

 

I think it could have been the insinuation at the beginning that Snow was even more "bonkers" to have a model railway in his loft, giving the suggestion that adults playing trains was stupid. At least even the interviewer agreed it was nice to watch the trains go by at the end of the interview.

[gordon s]

No problem Ed. It took about 10 seconds to search for it.....

 

If it helps you all you need do is find the webpage you require and at the top of the page you will see the page address which will look something like this....

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?app=forums&module=post&section=post&do=reply_post&f=20&t=26466

 

If you then left click with your mouse, you will see the address will be highlighted in blue. Whilst it is highlighted in blue, right click the address and you will see a drop down menu come up.

 

Left click the word 'Copy' and then go to the place you want to put the link. Once the cursor mark is in the right place, right click and you will see another drop down menu.

 

This time select 'Paste' with a left click and you should see it has attached the link as shown above.

 

If you are still struggling, drop me a pm and I'll see what I can do to help.

[Ian J.]

I didn't find it patronising, but there was (to my ear) a slight undercurrent of 'why?' in John Humphrys' tone.

 

I'm glad such an article has been broadcast on Radio 4, especially something like the Today programme, as it helps to undermine the perception problem that model railways have in this country. However I think it's only a small step on that difficult road.

[Mike Bellamy]

Just watched the video but no sound - cheap work PC

 

More of a train set than an accurate scale model but what the heck - that's what most average enthusiasts have and we can't all aspire to have a layout to 'exhibition standards' (what ever they may be)

 

Any publicity has to be good publicity and the video showed a lot of laughter so they must have been enjoying themselves.

 

Mike

[F-UnitMad]

... there was (to my ear) a slight undercurrent of 'why?' in John Humphrys' tone.

 

Yeah, but he's like that with every interview, isn't he..??!!

 

 

More of a train set than an accurate scale model but what the heck - that's what most average enthusiasts have and we can't all aspire to have a layout to 'exhibition standards' (what ever they may be)

 

Peter definitely subscribes to Model Railways Rule No.1... ("It's my trainset... etc.) a good mix of allsorts on there - Eurostar racing an Alco FA1 by the looks of it... :)

[steam-driven boy]

Hi,

A nice little piece I thought, Humphry's opening gambit typical of the 'style' caricatured so well by the likes of Bremner and Culshaw - Snow's response wondefully warm in the way we see so often from him these days.

The media love lazy hooks to promote their view of the world and it will remain that way I guess, mind you if I had to be stereotyped as a railway modeller I would prefer to see it done this way B)

 

Regards, Gerry.

[CullingworthGNR]

Again, I didn't think it was patronising at all. Peter Snow just seems to enjoy running trains in his loft - and who wouldn't? Very nice to see a light-hearted portayal of model railways in the press, and this seems to be more common these days. I think people are somewhat bored of classifying all railway enthusiasts as 'anoraks' - it's just an old joke that's no longer funny.

 

Great work Radio 4!

[Ian J.]

I just found the longer radio excerpt here

[Kris]

Train set - yes

Fun - yes

 

Peter Snow seemed to be very please with his work and came across as having really enjoyed doing it.

 

 

[Simon_R]

The more 'media and celeb'types that decl;are themsleves enthusiasts the better it is for the future of modelling. Just think what would happen if Cheryl Cole turned round and said 'right pet, better goo, gotta go and finish weatherin my 37 like'

[Guest dilbert]

The usual patronising stuff I'm afraid.

 

Just watched the video on the BBC site... Peter Snow seems to have an eclectic range of interest, but I found his answers and comments were well delivered - he was calm, there was that sense of nostalgia of his early childhood (first trainset) and he was not embarassed by his hobby... dilbert

[Tim Chambers]

Considering the BBC's usual contempt for all things railway(especially the model sort) I have to grudgingly concede that this was a cut above the norm- "lighthearted" most certainly, but "patronising" I think not.I only shouted at the radio once(a record in itself) when Humphries referred to "toy railways" but immediately followed by Tim Watson referring to "model railways".

[Pacific231G]

I heard the piece on Today this morning and have just watched the video - which is a different part of the interview.

 

I thought the Today piece was good for us. Though it's thankfully starting to change, the public perception of the hobby may still be a bit one of rather sad men who've never grown up but here were two normal, articulate people, a well respected and intelligent televison presenter and a professor to give the lie to that.

 

If Peter Snow's layout is basically a large trainset for his collection to run on that's probably more typical of what's actually in people's homes than what appears at exhibitions. Tim wasn't given much time but he said the right things about the range of interests encompassed by a hobby which is an art as well as a science.

 

The banter between Humphries and Snow is exactly what you'd expect when one senior journalist interviews another about their personal passions and I think the emphasis on Why? was a slightly in joke going back to lesson one for new journalists.

 

The hundredth anniversary of the MRC, I didn't realise it was today, seems a good peg to raise public awareness and presumably it was an MRC press release that triggered the interview and if so congratulations to them for that.

 

I don't think it's fair to accuse the BBC of contempt for railways when you think about programmes ranging from Great Railway Journeys to Monsoon Express and, admittedly some time ago, they've even made programmes for adults on building a model railway.

[Trevellan]

I interpreted the "bonkers" remark as banter between old friends. Overall, I thought it was a warm and generally positive piece.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Lovely to eavesdrop on two great gentlemen having a conversation. Even better that they were talking about model railways in such a positive and enthusiastic way. I don't think Peter Snow could be negative about anything though.

 

Brought a smile to my face and warmed up a freezing cold day.

[hmrspaul]

Strange discussion to wake up to but I agree nicely done. Unfortunately Tim Watson didn't get much time, but what he said was very succinct and accurate - typical Tim, and incredible modeller.

 

I was interested in the suggestion that there are 100,000 people in this country that are 'into' model railways? I wonder how accurate the trade thinks this is? I am aware of several people I know through my non railway interests (through work mainly) who have model railways that are similar to the eclectic mix that Peter Snows' represented.

 

Paul Bartlett

[Mallard60022]

Strange discussion to wake up to but I agree nicely done. Unfortunately Tim Watson didn't get much time, but what he said was very succinct and accurate - typical Tim, and incredible modeller.

I was interested in the suggestion that there are 100,000 people in this country that are 'into' model railways? I wonder how accurate the trade thinks this is? I am aware of several people I know through my non railway interests (through work mainly) who have model railways that are similar to the eclectic mix that Peter Snows' represented.

Paul Bartlett

 

I thought the item was friendly and useful as a positive plug for 'toy trains' being fun and a relaxing thing to do.

Re the above number. I'd say there were maybe more altogether who 'play trains', but maybe less that actually have (or are part of a club that has) a serious 'model' representing a railway. Difficult to say!

Altogether a good little start to the day and Humphries was actually enjoying it I think (probably makes a nice change from having to 'grill' pompous persons on the programme).

Happy birthday MRC.

36E

[Southall]

Have just viewed the video (did not hear the broadcast) and to me it comes across as a good bit of banter between old mates. Not exactly fine scale or prototypical, but sure it hits the spot for Peter Snow without requiring the time he most probably does not have.

 

My guess is that this item would meet 99.9% of the general public’s perception of toy trains/railway modelling, probably based on a childhood exposure many decades ago.

 

I just wonder what it might do for the hobby if ‘Joe Public’ was exposed to a cavalcade of railway modelling to the quality seen here on a daily basis?

 

Richard

[Jol Wilkinson]

Strange discussion to wake up to but I agree nicely done. Unfortunately Tim Watson didn't get much time, but what he said was very succinct and accurate - typical Tim, and incredible modeller.

 

I was interested in the suggestion that there are 100,000 people in this country that are 'into' model railways? I wonder how accurate the trade thinks this is? I am aware of several people I know through my non railway interests (through work mainly) who have model railways that are similar to the eclectic mix that Peter Snows' represented.

 

Paul Bartlett

 

If 20,000 went to Warley (an auditable figure), then 100,000 nationally might be realistic - less than 20% of the modellers that I know went to the NEC. There is of course, no accurate way of identifying the number of people that are into railway modelling.

 

How would you conduct a census of all the possible "into-ers". The person that buys a magazine but doesn't actually do any modelling, the trainset owner, the collector of old models, the model makers who kit/scratch build their models, the RTR enthusiast, etc.

 

The number isn't too important, it's the image we portray that is. Fortunately Tim Watson came over as a rational and intelligent person while John Snow, already well known to most people, showed his enthusiasm in a most adult way.