The great model railway challenge

[Rawners]

Managed to watch the recording last night, got to agree, the best model won. Seen far worse Railway theme programmes. Gardeners world on later this week so may be able to watch this weeks modelling live.

[Pedros]

As a programme, I thought it had merit. In some ways, it sort of goes against the type of modelling many of us do, in that it's often the constructing work where the enjoyment is and that tends to take as long as it takes. Not many of us, I venture to suggest put a time limit on things, at least not so tight a one.

It's right that the know-it-all type will always show their hand and the female judge who butted up against that was an integral part of the programme. But that sort of thing, really is only to be expected and indeed would make the show more interesting to those with no, or only a passing interest in railway modelling. To be fair, a show that simply filmed interminable track laying and scenery construction would pretty soon get boring. Enjoyable to do, but not so much to watch.

As a summary, I thought it had merit in that it showed what can be achieved and the interest that can be added to layouts. Some inevitably will pick up on the nerdy side of things, but I also believe it may well encourage more to have a go.

The only problems I have are:
1. I can't seem to find out where the full size giant shoe covered in grass is located. Maybe it was at Grassington railway station, now a housing estate.
2. Not sure where the Ravenglass and Exdale Railway is. Could be near the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway?

[Stese]

Pedros,

i'd assume your comment regarding the shoe is tongue in cheek... as many model railways don't represent real locations...

otherwise, my thoughts on the programme... somewhat interesting, but totally missable if something else was on.

[Pedros]

Tongue firmly in cheek.

[Stese]

Glad to hear it!

[LC&DR]

I finally watched episode 1 last night (Wednesday 10th) on Channel 5 repeat and was mildly interested in the show. It was what I would have expected from a TV competition loosely based on a Great British Bake-off / Scrapheap Challenge formula. I think I preferred it to the previous Biggest Little Railway challenge (Channel 4 last year). I thought it represented railway modelling reasonably well and the final heat winner was the one I would have expected. The Missenden team appear to have got their just desserts for bending the rules to breaking point, and the group cobbled together from previously un-associated individuals came out on top. Seems fair to me! One thing that did please me was that I did not detect any derision of the hobby per-se. Although the task topics could be considered a bit silly they were approached in a sensible modelling manner, and the standard of modelling appeared to be good. The next episode will be watched.

[Tricky Dicky]

I agree the correct layout won and the judges were correct to judge the Missenden one on what was produced on the day. I believe the group are responsible for running modelling courses and probably saw this as an opportunity to advertise their business, their arrogance may back fire on them.

Richard

Just to put the record straight, I have since found out the Missenden group were a group of attendees of the Missenden courses and not actually the people who run the courses. Apologies for misleading information.

Looking forward to the next episode.

Richard

[Maz066]

So the general feeling is not worth buying a VPN to watch the show in Aus on a rerun?

[Pedros]

It's watchable and I probably will watch the series but you don't need to see it to make your life complete. Don't know what a VPN is, but I wouldn't spend too much pocket money.

[IanS]

Having watched the 2nd episode the best team won again. I liked the fact it all worked and didn't have the derailments suffered by the other two teams.

It was a bit of fun and they were creative. They made best use of the copper pipe from the challenge and I thought the use of the rawl plugs was great.