LNER4479

The more you're showing us stuff like this, the more I appreciate your layout. Some of this is top modelling. What a pity the judges, stern Steve especially, didn't pick up on this and give it more credit?

No worries about your comments - Stern Steve alluded to a similar thing. For what it's worth, after 13 years on work, Grantham still needs a general coat of weathering - the buildings, signals, canopies are far too CLEAN compared to contemporary photographs. Clearly not one of our strong points. Re the rocket. NO, certainly no insistence from Pat Doyle or any other person in the production company. But, as explained earlier, we were required to have three animations so the rocket launch was our third. One detail not previously mentioned is that the full title of the challenge for Heat 5 as presented to us was: 'The sky's the limit. The space race. To infinity and beyond'. Hardly surprising therefore that each of us had a rocket / space ship. Part of the inspiration for the rocket on our layout was the thought that the solid rocket motors for the space shuttle were transported to Cape Canaveral by rail. Flying Scotsman in Switzerland? Why not - she's been to most of the rest of the world! Seriously though, the answer for us is simply that model European motive power is bloomin' expensive and would have blown the Gaugemaster budget in one single purchase. Far more useful stuff was available to us from Gaugemaster, mainly the Faller buildings. FS, the three MkIs and the ED were all Railroad items, thus making best use of the Hornby budget.

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. A couple of other details which may - or may not - be of interest: Clearly the editing takes great licence with the recorded material, as of course they are entitled to do in the name of entertainment. The conversation about the relative size(!) of the rockets actually took place on Day 1; the chat with myself and Andrew was actually filmed during the semi-final! Also, we DID test our track before Day 3 - we're not that stupid. Apart from the right hand board, all track was wired up and thoroughly tested back at team HQ as part of the pre-build phase and, being Code 100 on foam ballast (a Grantham trademark) we were pretty confident it would perform. The testing that was shown on the programme took place towards the end of Day 2 when we did a complete dry run through of our planned demonstration, tweaking things as we went. Andrew taking advantage of the hole in Board 1 to install the wiring during pre-build There has been a lot of talk in these threads about the special effects / gimmicks taking precedence over the railway modelling. To clarify therefore that the rules of the competition stated that you were expected to include at least THREE animations in your layout - otherwise you would lose points. So they had to be there. Our three were: the radio telescope; the funicular railway; the rocket launch. I think in our case therefore that only the rocket launch could be accused of being a 'gimmick', although it was of course the climax of the 'story' rather than a random effect. I've certainly seen exhibition layouts with working funicular / cliff railways so nothing novel or 'strained' about that - but it counted as an animation separate from the main railway. Thanks to Phil Parker in spotting how the funicular vehicle was made. That was largely Tom's work, although Andrew insisted in fitting lights in that as well! The vehicle was all made on site at Fawley Hill; we were uncertain whether that was taking pre-build too far so decided to play it safe. Richie was our only unspoken member in the programme; he was largely our buildings meister as well as the unenviable task of making curved platforms out of the Metcalfe kits - he also made the cloud right at the end, which Stern Steve noted in favourable terms. Tom also did sterling work on figure painting which wasn't really featured - this little close up of the beer garden should give you some idea For what it's worth, our six pre-build items were as follows: The main station building (Richie) The Landwasser viaduct (myself) The radio telescope (Andrew) The funicular incline (myself) The funicular top station / winding house (Andrew) The mountaintop space station (Paul) In case you think that Tom wasn't pulling his weight(!) then he was busy figure painting and stock painting as part of pre-build (both allowed for in the rules), three Railroad Mk1s were repainted into our 'Skytrain' livery (which was the same for the funicular car and the (two!) rockets. Hope that's of interest. Partly composed in case others are pondering taking part in GMRC3. Finally (for now) - I think I did mention it earlier but the layout will be available for exhibitions. Despite the speed build, we were careful to watch baseboard joins so it all comes apart successfully. Although we'll retain the GMRC stock for it, I am on the look out for suitable continental stock so that we have a reasonable variety at a show. I would really like to relay the branchline as HOm (meter gauge) as I think that would be more fitting (the real railway over the Landwasser viaduct is metre gauge afterall!). So if anyone has any Swiss / German / Austrian stock they don't know what to do with...

Crikey - she doesn't hang around, does she? https://www.kathymillatt.co.uk/blog/2019/10/05/great-model-railway-challenge-2019-heat-5/

Oh, alright then - here it is in situ As was apparent, this was one of our six pre-build items. You can spend as long as you want on a pre-build in the time before the filming dates but it has to be part of the ordered items / budget. In fact, as Andrew described, the structure was built out of scrap N gauge rail (ie zero cost). He did buy the reflector especially - apparently it is a true parabolic shape so would truly reflect the rays to the receiver. It runs on a circle of track which was a yard of Code 75 which I had to hand. It is powered by a spare 4-wheeled tram bogie which is hidden under the box (Andrew's speciality is tramway modelling - he is the builder of Whitburn Corporation Tramways, which has been on the exhibition circuit for 25 years or more). He took great delight in making the other three bogies with wheels orientated radially. The motor for tilting the reflector is a recycled motor from a kit built loco. So scratchbuilding in its most delightful sense. But for goodness sake don't go on about it too much - I'll never hear the last of it from him...

Phew! Glad that's over ... thanks for comments so far. Well done to M&GN and Railway Sleepers as between us we seemed to conjure up the highest-scoring heat. We were subsequently told that we had scored the highest of all the heat layouts and that we scored a perfect 10 for functionality. However, didn't know about the other 10 for build quality; made up about that so take a bow Paul, Tom and Richie who worked their magic on the blank scenic canvas. Andrew's wizardry soldering pieces of N gauge rail has already been (deservedly) well highlighted. I have a comprehensive sequence of pictures of the build from the bare boards first arriving to taking part at Fawley Hill. Happy to post some of these but I'll be holding a few back for the BRM guys as there's talk of a further article after the one in the issue about to come out. I've also taken some pictures of the layout with continental stock on, as a conversation with 'Stern Steve' led to a slant on the layout for Continental Modeller, no less!

Buckle up - here we go!

Well said that man! EXACTLY the ethos behind Team Grantham's involvement in this year's competition. Judge for yourself tonight how well we did in that context...

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.

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!

Yes, was a pleasure to host Howard Smith & Debbie Wood to team HQ and was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, reliving our GMRC Heat 5 experience. Looking forward to my sub. copy hitting the mat. Will be able to comment a lot more and post an odd photo or two this time tomorrow.

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...

RT now on the stands reads as follows: Unusually in such genial competition (moved unceremoniously from its usual home on Friday), there's tension between team members in the final heat. "We're falling behind time!" says a worried captain. "It will be ready when it's ready", says a modeller, with barely concealed annoyance. But even little spats like this do little to ruffle the cheery calm as Team Grantham, the Railway Sleepers and Muddle and Go Nowhere build layouts on the theme of "The Sky's the Limit". There are too many weak and smutty puns from the presenters, but forget them and take delight in a model parabolic telescope. [Alison Graham] Team Grantham? That would be us then! I might at one stage have said something about falling behind? If I did, then it will have added to the drama the production team so craved. Alison Graham certainly likes the programme and has unfailingly given it a plug each week. Good for her! Win or lose, we were proud of the layout we built (which is destined for an exhibition future). Can't wait to see how it comes across on the programme.

I overwhelmingly agree with you but of course the way the scoring works places equal emphasis on creativity, build quality and functionality. So a team has to balance all three to give a good all round performance. Spend TOO long getting it running perfectly and you might compromise build quality. To take slight issue with your final comment, Trainmen of Kent did score a perfect 10 for their operation so that's one (so far) that has run reliably.

Interesting conundrum that - there's logic that says a 'good' episode 3 would be reflected in better viewing figures for episode 4 ... But if they're counting catch up figures as well ... It's likely (is it not?) that semi-final and especially final viewing figures would be higher anyway. Or does that logic not work either?(!)

Right O' Way for Grantham at Spalding See you there

Clicking on the link just gives the message: OOPS! Looks like we’ve misplaced that page or it does not exist anymore. Is that just me?!

Certainly! From left-to-right: Richie Mason - new member of the team, specially recruited for GMRC. Established a name for himself as buildings man Tom Dewdney - usually to be seen manning South Box at exhibitions. Scenery man, particularly people and animals YT Andrew Burchell - usually to be seen on the main control panel. Electrics / electronics guru Paul Bolton - also usually to be seen manning South Box. Scenery team leader and also no slouch in the buildings department, the Lee & Grinnling Malsters warehouse building being his most distinctive feature on Grantham And not forgetting ... Harvey! Head of Security (he bites yer ankles)

Ah yes ... I wondered who would be the first to spot that ...

Why, on My5 catch up immediately after the programme has aired, of course! https://www.channel5.com/show/the-great-model-railway-challenge/

ATTENTION EVERYONE! They've changed the transmission date - Team Grantham's appearance in this year's Great Model Railway Challenge will now air THIS SATURDAY, 5th October at 8pm on Channel 5. I promise I won't mention it again ... much ... on this thread again.

And the rest! You can multiply that three-fold because it is not only your filming that is disruptive but also when the team next door to you is also being filmed ('cos you equally can't be doing any hammering, banging, drilling, etc during those times either). One of our team lost a whole hour simply because he left his desk in the adjacent work room only to return to find the camera crew had plonked themselves there to filum the guy working next door! We found that the 'golden time' was the first hour (from 8am) when they let you in but were still busy getting themselves set up and also the last two hours as they effectively packed up for the day at 6pm but you could carry on till 8pm when the caretaker threw us out! So, effectively, it was two disrupted 12 hour days (say 9 -10 hours effective modelling time) plus 2-ish hours on Day 3 until they said 'step away from your layouts!' After which, they allowed you one hour fettling time, ie no more building but 'adjustments' were OK (also useful as rehearsal time). That probably explains how Cambrian Coasters short circuit magically disappeared.

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?

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) ...

Nice going, Barry. Good to see the newly tracks already full of stock. Tracklaying pleasure was all mine. Looking forward to next session when we should break out into the daylight and make a start on the running level trax - provided you've got all the wiring done and tested