Jump to content
 

Little Trains & Big Names with Pete Waterman


montyburns56
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Gold
4 hours ago, dagrizz said:

Yes I thought he'd bought the Lionel company but the website doesn't mention it. I don't know what the current situation is with the company or Neil Young's layout.

 

Graham

 

If you dig down a bit into the timeline, it says:

 

"A reinvigorated Lionel started off the 1990s with the reissue of the legendary No. 700E locomotive. In 1992 Richard Kughn and rock musician Neil Young, an avid model railroader, created Liontech, chartered to develop exclusive new model train control and sound systems. Liontech's RailSounds II™ debuted in 1994 on the Santa Fe Mikado. This all-new digital system captured a real-life Mikado's actual sounds, and propelled Lionel to the forefront of model train technology."

 

https://www.lionel.com/articles/timeline

 

Ol' Neil talks a lot about his trains and Lionel in his autobiography Shakey, including the big barn where it was all housed, but that was just before the end of his then marriage so I don't know how much of it still exists.

  • Like 4
  • Thanks 1
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Just caught up with the second episode.

Fascinating and far more of a personal interest than I new before watching it.

A great uncle worked for Trinity House from around 1901 and was employed working on the sluice at Bexhill.

Long ago, when looking into family history, my mother and her sister told me about a visit to see him and his family at the coastguard cottage where he lived. This account included a section about being locked in the train for the journey back to London. Talking with my sister we worked out that this must have been around 1916 or 17 and of course during the previous war to the one in which the layout is set.  

Bernard

  • Like 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

My late father-in-law was in Bexhill with Spike Milligan before they were all posted to North Africa.  Mrs 5050 has Spike's autograph on a regimental re-union dinner menu, held each year in Bexhill.

 

Anyone remember the Goon's episode - 'The Phantom Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea'?  All relating back to their time in Bexhill.

  • Like 11
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, 5050 said:

 

Anyone remember the Goon's episode - 'The Phantom Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea'?  All relating back to their time in Bexhill.

 

Yes, that was the first episode of the Goons that I heard.

 

I was just thinking that had Eddie's layout been set in WW2 rather than WW1, perhaps Minnie Bannister, Henry Crun, Constable Seagoon, and a mysterious figure walking the cliffs with a gas oven (Lady Docker?) could have been included....

  • Like 5
  • Funny 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, 5050 said:

My late father-in-law was in Bexhill with Spike Milligan before they were all posted to North Africa.  Mrs 5050 has Spike's autograph on a regimental re-union dinner menu, held each year in Bexhill.

 

Anyone remember the Goon's episode - 'The Phantom Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea'?  All relating back to their time in Bexhill.

The Batter Pudding episode is possibly one of the most famous Goon Show episodes..?

I first came across it in a book of Goon Show scripts that a school friend had, apparently it's quite rare & valuable these days*.

Just my opinion, but the Goon Show is better heard, than read. 😉😁

 

*Edit - the book, that is. 🤦‍♂️

Edited by F-UnitMad
  • Like 6
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

The Batter Pudding episode is possibly one of the most famous Goon Show episodes..?

I first came across it in a book of Goon Show scripts that a school friend had, apparently it's quite rare & valuable these days*.

Just my opinion, but the Goon Show is better heard, than read. 😉😁

 

*Edit - the book, that is. 🤦‍♂️

 

Although having heard many episodes of the Goons, when I read scripts of episodes on the (now defunct) goonshow.net site, I naturally read them in the characters' voices.

  • Like 3
  • Agree 1
  • Round of applause 1
  • Funny 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, RJS1977 said:

 

Although having heard many episodes of the Goons, when I read scripts of episodes on the (now defunct) goonshow.net site, I naturally read them in the characters' voices.

Yes, "but"... it was the book of scripts I came across first, mid-1970s; I had no idea what the voices sounded like at that point, being too young to have heard the show 'for real'. 🙄 

  • Like 1
  • Friendly/supportive 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
1 hour ago, F-UnitMad said:

The Batter Pudding episode is possibly one of the most famous Goon Show episodes..?

I first came across it in a book of Goon Show scripts that a school friend had, apparently it's quite rare & valuable these days*.

Just my opinion, but the Goon Show is better heard, than read. 😉😁

 

*Edit - the book, that is. 🤦‍♂️

 

I think I might have owned that book at some point, although I doubt I still have it. My dad had some Goon Show tapes which we'd listen to on car journeys.

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, Dorkingian said:

 

The Izzard bits seemed to lack quite a bit of model railway detail though, not least how they made the snow.

I too would've preferred a little more info regarding the actual modelling, rather than the history behind the reason for the build, but nevertheless i enjoyed the show and both eddie and pete were likeable. 

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Dorkingian said:

 

The Izzard bits seemed to lack quite a bit of model railway detail though, not least how they made the snow.

I've just caught up with this episode, which had a lot of interesting history in it,  and I also wondered what they made the snow from.  Anyone have any ideas?  It looked very good. However I didn't realise the second layout was N gauge for a while, it is to a very high standard.

 

Re The Goons, I spent a lot of my childhood repeating lines like "he's fallen in the water" and "you dirty rotten swine" etc etc due to the Goons being a significant influence.  It was a long time later that I realised that the show contained a lot of dubious old army style jokes.  Grytpype-Thynne (Sellers) sells Seagoon a useless aircraft that Neddy for some reason wants to fly from Lyle Street in Soho.  The punch line being  "If you can't get off in Lyle Street, Neddy, you can't get off anywhere".   And a notorious gag where Eccles is fired from a circus cannon, having been told "it's your turn in the barrel"  - OK I'll stop there.  

Milligan was absolutely brilliant , his book "Puckoon" is worth a read if you can find it.  imho.

 

Finally, a very funny Eddie Izzard sketch is "Death Star Canteen".   Darth Varder tries to get lunch...  it's on Youtube, watch the Lego version!!

 

  Also there were some good trains in the program. I'll stop now.

 

 

Edited by railroadbill
  • Like 3
  • Funny 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, railroadbill said:

Grytpype-Thynne (Sellers) sells Seagoon a useless aircraft that Neddy for some reason wants to fly from Lyle Street in Soho.  The punch line being  "If you can't get off in Lyle Street, Neddy, you can't get off anywhere".  

 

 

Not quite. Neddie built the aeroplane in a garage of Lisle Street (hence wanting to take off from there). Grytpype-Thynne sold him the air to fly it in!

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

 

Not quite. Neddie built the aeroplane in a garage of Lisle Street (hence wanting to take off from there). Grytpype-Thynne sold him the air to fly it in!

Brilliant! Thanks for that, I've found the episode, got it on tape, "Wings over Dagenham" 1957, and found the script on thegoonshow.co.uk.    There's some good gags in it!

Going to have to listen to this later. 

 

 

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Dorkingian said:

The Izzard bits seemed to lack quite a bit of model railway detail though, not least how they made the snow.

The wife's reaction to the first two: "This is as good as 'Gone Fishing'". It's not solely about railway modelling, which is the enabling vehicle for the conversations, which may well be about broader experiences.

  • Like 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
16 hours ago, railroadbill said:

Finally, a very funny Eddie Izzard sketch is "Death Star Canteen".   Darth Varder tries to get lunch...  it's on Youtube, watch the Lego version!!

 

 

"You'll need a tray......" 😃

  • Funny 9
Link to post
Share on other sites

Pete Waterman's Leamington Spa layout was interesting to see. He made a comment about it being good not to be able to see all the railway at once. Just like the real thing. 

Also the 3d printing and laser cutting being used for the big WCML layout for Chester cathedral was interesting. An hour well spent!

  • Like 1
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Sir Rod, 78

Pete Waterman, 76

Francis Rossi, 74

Jools Holland, 65

Eddie/Suzy Izzard, 61

 

I don't think this show does much to dispel the prejudice that model railways are only for old men.

 

Except for Eddie/Suzy Izzard, who's not quite so old, and is genderfluid.

  • Like 2
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I’m not up to date yet but I really enjoyed the Jools Holland programme. I couldn’t understand his layout at first as it seems to be a mish mash of scenes but once explained all became clear and it goes to prove that there is no right or wrong way to go about railway modelling. 

  • Like 1
  • Agree 8
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...