GMRC Series 2 - Episode 3 - 'Best of British'

[whart57]

12 minutes ago, Neil said:

We were trying in the sense that we wanted to be satisfied with the work we did, even if we weren't bothered if we won. 

 

I think a lot of the competitors felt that way. You want to be proud of what you produce under the circumstances but you aren't that bothered about beating the other guy

[LNER4479]

17 minutes ago, whart57 said:

 

You want to be proud of what you produce under the circumstances

Yes, the three key words are the ones I've highlighted - well put.

 

As experienced modellers, we took the view right from the outset that we were challenging ourselves as much as anything - challenging ourselves to do something a bit different. There was some opportunity for detailed, time-consuming modelling during the pre-build and we took as much advantage of it as we could, within the confines of the rules.

 

But once on site, it really was a case of do what you can with what you have in the time available. We had an ambitious but achievable plan and - win or lose - were proud of what we ended up with under the circumstances.

 

But more of that anon (Heat 5) ...

[chuffinghell]

18 hours ago, noiseboy72 said:

I think to get more teenagers involved, you'd need to change the filming schedule... Not sure how the 8.00am call time would go down...

 

When my lads were teenagers they were only aware of 8pm, not sure they knew there were two eight o'clocks

 

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by chuffinghell

[Pacific231G]

On 29/09/2019 at 10:07, LocoLadies CF said:

We used settrack and a power rail and the only wiring was to our controller. Once we got the track laid properly and running and the ballast finally dried it ran faultlessly for hours. However.  Kathy really didn’t like it and said we should have wired all the joints. So yes going down that route works buts certainly doesn’t get brownie points from one of the judges. 

Hmmm. Kathy is a very good modeller so well qualified to judge the work of fellow modellers and is also an excellent communicator of modelling techniques (I strongly recommend her blog and videos) However, most of the team members are also experienced modellers  so, though the judges have to make subjective comparisons they're not model railway gurus. I wasn't there of course and I gather that both judges have been very supportive of the teams. Nevertheless the teams obviously had to cut a lot of corners to meet the challenge so it's surely up to them to decide which corners to cut. Wiring all the joints on a Setrack layout would represent a good few hours extra work and extra hours is exactly what the teams didn't have.  Since the LocoLadies' layout ran well it seems that they made the right call based on their own layout building experience.

 

On 29/09/2019 at 11:24, john new said:

 

But as most potential Modellers’ are starters that’s also a good thing. The problem with the GMRC layouts, and 00 in general, is it is too big. Triang knew that when they introduced TT back in the 60s but it never caught on sufficiently in a mass-market commercial sense to oust 4mm. Lovely scale, modelled with it as a boy on the school layout, but already had 00 so stayed with 4mm for personal purchases.

 

 The format works, makes good TV - finescale it isn’t but perhaps “so what” is a fair comment. This might attract newbies, aiming at the top watch-making levels of skill wouldn’t; it would look too difficult to attempt.

I'm not sure about the idea that you start out as a railway modeller with a glorified roundy round train set and then progress. That makes sense if you're building a layout mainly for the kids or grandkids to play with but I can't think of any well known modellers who have followed that route. I do though know several people who, often on retirement, decided to get into or back into "railway modelling" by building something from the Setrack plan book with lots of trains running hither and yon. A large solid layout represents a fairly large investment of space, time and money, so it's not going to be easy to scrap that and move on to the next level so it tends to end up occupying most of a spare room waiting to be worked on - soon.

 

I agree about TT-3. I had it as a kid, and often feel that the intermediate scales - TT and S - are better compromises than O, OO and N. I think the reason it failed to catch on was simply the advent of N scale in 1962- just five years after Tri-ang introduced TT-3- with a lot of trade support from Arnold etc. offering West German build quality (In TT you got E. German build quality!) TT (1:120)  is quite well supported now by Tillig but if you're not modelling Germanophone or Eastern European railways you're rather on your own.  I also didn't think that Tri-ang's build quality did TT-3 many favours though its commercialisation did kick off quite a lot of narrow gauge modelling in OOn3.  

[whart57]

From the TV programme point of view a roundy-roundy has the advantage that it's easy to keep something moving in the background during all the retakes

[john new]

How we started. Train set, even Brio etc., perhaps worth a poll. As an older modeller mine was a trainset, HD 3-rail and Hornby clockwork my train mad grandson, Brio, then OO trainset, now going to be E to E due to space constraints . 

Edited September 30, 2019 by john new

[Pacific231G]

9 hours ago, whart57 said:

From the TV programme point of view a roundy-roundy has the advantage that it's easy to keep something moving in the background during all the retakes

Good point  (anyone remember the Blue Peter model railway?) I'm now thinking that, rather than implying that this competition is the pinnacle of the teams' model railway achievements, it's more like one of those competitions where you set teams of high end professional engineers improbable tasks like building a bridge out of matchsticks that will carry a Sherman tank.

 

I think the competition works alright as a TV format- though series three will need some new ideas-  but it would be good to know rather more about each team's modelling in "real life" to show what they- and by implication the "average enthusiast"- can achieve when not building a complete layout in three days.

 

If you were televising a national ploughing competition (I'm not pitching that as an idea!) you'd surely film introductions to the competitors on their own farms and learn what challenges they face  with different soils and odd shaped fields and why it's important to get the furrows just right (I'm really not pitching this as an idea not even for CountryFile!) and I feel that back-story element that lets us know and therefore care who the competitors are to add depth to the actual competition itself is something that's rather missing here.    

Edited September 30, 2019 by Pacific231G
clarification

[RLWP]

37 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

If you were televising a national ploughing competition (I'm not pitching that as an idea!) you'd surely film the competitors on their own farms

 

which is the opposite of how actual ploughing matches are staged?

 

Richard

[LMS29]

Interesting discussion between competitors and those trying to rationalise what it was like taking part in GMRC.  The challenge to me was using the modelling skills I have to do something new within a set time scale, with limited materials and in a a totally different setting and still achieve the best model railway that I could. Yes, I was aware that I was competing against other modellers and I did want our team to be successful, but that was not what motivated me, it was testing myself under these conditions.  I am limited as to what I can say at the moment but suffice to say I did keep a couple of momenta for my display cabinet. 

 

A camera team did visit us in our usual haunt and did see some of the exhibition modelling the team had done, it will be interesting to see how much is shown during the introduction.

 

Tom

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, john new said:

How we started. Train set, even Brio etc., perhaps worth a poll. As an older modeller mine was a trainset, HD 3-rail and Hornby clockwork my train mad grandson, Brio, then OO trainset, now going to be E to E due to space constraints . 

That put me in mind of the Hornby ad that popped up during one of the breaks.

[whart57]

2 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

I think the competition works alright as a TV format- though series three will need some new ideas

 

 

People will no doubt get the chance to bend Knickerbockerglory's ears at Warley next month.

 

 

[Penlan]

On 29/09/2019 at 16:01, LocoLadies CF said:

Come and see us at Warley if you are going and Chrissy will show you how she made (the Lifeboat) it work!! 

I look forward to it 
I thought the Crochet tree's were inspirational, what a pity they were dismissed so easily.
The Judges probably have never been to Westonbirt Aboretum in Autumn. 
They were certainly just as 'realistic' as some items seen on other layouts.
 

[LNER4479]

Looking ahead at the TV listings, there appears to be a switch next week with Heat 5 shown as airing on Saturday 5th at 8pm with the first semi-final on the following Saturday 12th...

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/g28n22/the-great-model-railway-challenge-episode-guide/

 

Channel 5 hoping for a bigger audience on a Saturday night?

[Pacific231G]

7 hours ago, RLWP said:

 

which is the opposite of how actual ploughing matches are staged?

 

Richard

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough Richard and I've edited the post for clarity.  I was referring to pre-filming the competitors in their normal working environment  before the actual competition so that we know who they are and a bit more about them. The actual ploughing competiton itself would of course be in one location, quite possibly with an audience, and recorded multi-camera. I've just been looking at a 1987 edition of One Man and His Dog from when it was a stand-alone programme and they had about four minutes of introduction for each competitor filmed on their own farms.

 

We know that background filming has been done by Knickerbockerglory but it doesn't seem a very major part of the edited programmes. That's naturally more difficult with a team, especially a scratch team,  than with individual competitors and I have seen it done really badly (on a pilot for a family quiz/challenge programme that I sincerely hope received a decent burial) 

Edited September 30, 2019 by Pacific231G

[RJS1977]

To be honest, I find extended "Let's meet the competitors" sequences rather tedious - it's not what I tune in for.

 

That's one of the reasons I feel short-changed by the current version of "The Crystal Maze" - several minutes of inane chatter with the contestants at the start of the programme, then some Zones only have two games in them.... :-( 

[chuffinghell]

9 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Looking ahead at the TV listings, there appears to be a switch next week with Heat 5 shown as airing on Saturday 5th at 8pm with the first semi-final on the following Saturday 12th...

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/g28n22/the-great-model-railway-challenge-episode-guide/

 

Channel 5 hoping for a bigger audience on a Saturday night?

 

I hope the series link on my SKY* box picks that up

 

(*other equally over priced TV subscription services are available) 

[RedgateModels]

Youview has it covered, well my phone app seems to recognise the extra episode on Saturday and is set to record .....

[Phil Parker]

9 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

We know that background filming has been done by Knickerbockerglory but it doesn't seem a very major part of the edited programmes.

 

Cue people whinging that all the "people stuff" eats into the modelling content. You could easily lose half the show to the backstories if every team member gets only 90 seconds.

 

49 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

To be honest, I find extended "Let's meet the competitors" sequences rather tedious - it's not what I tune in for

 

There we go. I'm inclined to agree with @RJS1977 we are enjoying the modelling. You can get glimpses of the competitors from the interviews and little snippets, but it's the modelling and competition that counts.

 

[john new]

1 hour ago, RJS1977 said:

To be honest, I find extended "Let's meet the competitors" sequences rather tedious - it's not what I tune in for.

 

That's one of the reasons I feel short-changed by the current version of "The Crystal Maze" - several minutes of inane chatter with the contestants at the start of the programme, then some Zones only have two games in them.... :-( 

Similarly with Pointless, I'm not really interested in the contestants, just want to have a go at home at answering the questions

Edited October 1, 2019 by john new

[Hroth]

51 minutes ago, john new said:

Similarly with Pointless, I'm not really interested in the contestants, just want to have a go at home at answering the questions

 

Where Pointless is concerned, the first round gets watched with the mute button engaged, I'm not particularly interested in what the contestants do with their lives.  Its a quiz show!

 

The GMRC doesn't really need home environment chat either, there's enough off-modelling talk while the build is going on, with the production company egging the spokespersons to make grandiose statements about how well they'll do, though its not as tedious as the bragging that goes on with The Apprentice!

 

All in all, I'm enjoying the second series of GMRC.

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by Hroth
Applying a missing "l"...

[Matt C]

Come on then Andy, Phil your missing a trick here !  YOU guys could do some background  interviews for those competitors who frequent RmWeb and post em up in the relevant episode, post airing might bring in some new members to RmWeb if word got around ? 

 

Hat, Coat, Gone   

[Penlan]

I'm currently wiring up a through fiddle yard over 4 baseboards with 21 points, 2 Barry slips and 12 through roads with three further sidings - which includes 17 switched sections........
If my wife ask's me once more, why am a taking such a long time on the wiring, when those on GMRC can complete everything in three days, I will, I really will 

Edited October 1, 2019 by Penlan

[iL Dottore]

Some utterly superb modelling going on in Episode 3. But do the presenters have to be so dismissive of anything that lacks an all singing, all dancing, all exploding  "animation"? I wonder how Steve Flint and/or Kathy Millat (both superb modellers in their own right) would react if their work was rated as "OK but lacks excitement..." as they so cavalierly describe some very good modelling efforts (assuming that what we see on screen is not edited down from a more nuanced assessment). Now I understand the need to make the show appealing to a wide audience, but the BBC2 show "The Repair Shop" manages to attract audiences without dumbing down and resorting to reality TV parlour tricks.

 

And, as I am in "Mr Grumble" mood, can forthcoming episodes (or failing that, the next series) minimise or do away with the interminable filler shots?  Too many are repetitious (how many times do we need to see a diesel shunter???). And as the programme is (ostensibly) about Railway Modelling, why not have a short (1 minute?) segment about a modelling technique - such as static grass laying (infinitely more interesting than yet another shot of a Peacock).

[Penlan]

11 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Channel 5 hoping for a bigger audience on a Saturday night? 

At 8pm?
Not in our matriarchal household, it's going to be strictly tuned into BBC1.
I suppose I could watch elsewhere.

(Or continue wiring the fiddle yard )

Edited October 1, 2019 by Penlan

[RLWP]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

 would react if their work was rated as "OK but lacks excitement..."

 

I'm sure they would say - 'yes, you're right'

 

They are not entering a competition on a TV show

 

Richard