Railway modelling program

[Roger O]

I’ve followed the railway modelling program on the tv, I get the feeling that the presenter are out to make fun of the hobby like a program a while ago about the caravan owners.
Wouldn’t It be nice if they could make a program of our hobbies without the need to turn us into an embarrassment.
Roger o

[teedoubleudee]

Agreed Roger. The sycophantic way the presenters do their job does no good for the program. I feel the two judges try to balance it out but sometimes get caught up in the mania. I guess the producer's view is that they want to provide "entertainment" rather than a dull (to most) how-to lesson on building model railways. I still watch it as I have seen some bits I like and might even incorporate in my own layouts (spaceships and dinosaurs aside).

[Tricky Dicky]

Yes this year's challenge has taken off where last year's final finished and fantasy layouts are all the rage. I can only recall two layouts that modelled a particular place namely the Dutch flood and the Alpine layout. It seems the "animations" are overshadowing the actual railway aspect of layouts despite Steve Flint occasionally trying to bring the focus back to reality and reminding us it is a model railway challenge. I still watch and enjoy it but admit I am not learning much and I also feel the move to bring ever more amazing features is affecting the quality of modelling elsewhere. Then again we have to reconcile that to make a programme to appeal to the masses it has to entertain more than educate.

Richard

[IanS]

I have seen every episode so far. I too feel the animations, especially the electronic ones, detract rather than enhance the layouts.

As has already been said, it is a Model Railway Challenge, not a Hobby and Railway Challenge.

More emphasis on the modelling and less on the electronics which somehow just 'appear'. Setting up and testing, I believe for some of them, must have been done outside the 3 day period filmed, even if they were only tested as proof of concept before the 3 days.

How much 'off the shelf' electronics were used is not explained, it's simply this does that.

The inclusion of the motorised vehicles (other than trains) is not explained in great detail either, other than for example, 'the radio controlled car is on tracks'.

Professional filming enhances the show however, where some of the gadgetry used is not shown, except maybe in fleeting fashion, such as the flying Ford Anglia. It was actually on a pole on a wagon parallel track to the viaduct, sandwiched between two locos.

[RAF96]

You can write to these people and tell them exactly what you think of their shows - see ‘viewer feedback’ on each channel’s webpage.

I wrote to Ch5 about the abysmal 1st Series of GMRC and they said they had passed my comments to the show producers. Obviously Series 2 had already been filmed as there wasn’t much change as a result.

[glencairn]

You can write to these people and tell them exactly what you think of their shows - see ‘viewer feedback’ on each channel’s webpage.

I wrote to Ch5 about the abysmal 1st Series of GMRC and they said they had passed my comments to the show producers. Obviously Series 2 had already been filmed as there wasn’t much change as a result.

--- so they changed the viewing day from Friday evening to Saturday!

Glencairn

[IanS]

You can write to these people and tell them exactly what you think of their shows - see ‘viewer feedback’ on each channel’s webpage.

I wrote to Ch5 about the abysmal 1st Series of GMRC and they said they had passed my comments to the show producers. Obviously Series 2 had already been filmed as there wasn’t much change as a result.

--- so they changed the viewing day from Friday evening to Saturday!

Glencairn

Fortunately the 'series link' feature picked that up and recorded it for me.