Professor Yaffle Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 1 hour ago, MarkSG said: It's amusing that we've had two different layouts with a War of the Worlds theme in this series. We were somewhat surprised when we discovered the Rail Riders layout in the store as ours went in there too. A stunning layout. Chris MGNR 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noiseboy72 Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 If you enjoyed our layout, please check out our website - www.mgnr.uk We've put plenty of pictures and some behind the scenes gossip on there along with some information on the team members etc. We're open to exhibition invitations and have a couple in the diary already. You can also see the layouts at Rocket Railways in Grantham. This is a new railway shop opening on 26 October with a small exhibition and some of the team will be there, operating the layouts and chatting to visitors. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chuffinghell Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 6, 2019 Best episode of this series so far in my opinion 2 10 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNER4479 Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 Crikey - she doesn't hang around, does she? https://www.kathymillatt.co.uk/blog/2019/10/05/great-model-railway-challenge-2019-heat-5/ 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
D1037 Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 8 hours ago, MarkSG said: Quite apart from the fact that it all ran flawlessly, I was impressed that the Alpine layout included actual shunting and meaningful train movements rather than just running things round in a circle. What you didn't see in the demonstration for New London, after the passenger train arrived it uncoupled and ran round it's train, all without the aid of the hand from the sky. I'll admit we did chicken out trying to shunt the freight in the goods yard (Ran out of time to fit and set up the uncoupling ramps!), but it does work as small shunting layout. Albeit one on a different planet! Jonny, team M&GN 7 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 6, 2019 6 hours ago, LNER4479 said: Crikey - she doesn't hang around, does she? https://www.kathymillatt.co.uk/blog/2019/10/05/great-model-railway-challenge-2019-heat-5/ And she even included Harvey as part of the team! Baz 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 2mmMark Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 6, 2019 I wonder if we'll see Stern Steve taking over editorship of Model Boats magazine. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penlan Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 12 hours ago, BlackRat said: Who'd have thought it......... a model train show........Saturday night........prime time t.v. That HAS to be a good thing. Not sure about that, in our house the viewers dropped from 4 people to 1 (just me in the kitchen). In my mind I thought the show was aimed at the wider public, to create more interest in the hobby, but I feel with this time slot (8pm Saturday) it's those who are already in the hobby who will watch. Just a point of view. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Popular Post AY Mod Posted October 6, 2019 Author Administrators Popular Post Share Posted October 6, 2019 A pressie for @Phil Parker - a dancing Flinty gif. 3 1 15 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Jonboy Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 6, 2019 Must admit the schedule change relegated it to catch-up tv in our household. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post LNER4479 Posted October 6, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted October 6, 2019 (edited) 13 hours ago, Pacific231G said: This fifth heat was clearly also the last to be recorded else they wouldn't have been able award the wild card on camera during the end of the heat. I wonder if that was pure chance or if the producers had a sense of the relative strengths of all fifteen teams when they were scheduling the heats. 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... Edited October 6, 2019 by LNER4479 11 1 7 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iankirby Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Jonboy said: Must admit the schedule change relegated it to catch-up tv in our household. Same here - recorded to watch at my leisure. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium MJI Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 6, 2019 Prefer it on Friday, so watched this morning. Was worried about disk space as well. Recorded on +1 as SD and with 3% of HDD on Strictly need to be careful. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Penlan said: Not sure about that, in our house the viewers dropped from 4 people to 1 (just me in the kitchen). In my mind I thought the show was aimed at the wider public, to create more interest in the hobby, but I feel with this time slot (8pm Saturday) it's those who are already in the hobby who will watch. Just a point of view. And they put it up against Strictly come Dancing! Mind you on Fridays it was up against The Great British Bake-off which topped the viewing charts for Friday and it acquited itself well. This coming Friday it would also have clashed with the UEFA 2020 qualifying match, the Czech Republic v. England, that also may have prompted the decision to change the day. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators AY Mod Posted October 6, 2019 Author Administrators Share Posted October 6, 2019 39 minutes ago, LNER4479 said: our 'Skytrain' livery I did spot that Freddie Laker had reined his ambitions in a bit. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium New Haven Neil Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 6, 2019 15 hours ago, Andymsa said: It was announced at the end after the program Missed it as I went put the kettle on/open a beer. Watched on catch-up, best episode yet and the best layout won, ad it was nice to see the wildcard too as all three really were the best we had seen yet. Well done guys n gals. Loved the radio telescope. Donk approved. 11 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 (edited) 12 hours ago, LNER4479 said: Crikey - she doesn't hang around, does she? https://www.kathymillatt.co.uk/blog/2019/10/05/great-model-railway-challenge-2019-heat-5/ She's surely had months to put the blogs together. Once it's all over I'd be interested to read some of Kathy and Steve Flint's own thoughts about the competition. 2 hours ago, LNER4479 said: 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. That's very interesting and thanks for that insight. Pure luck then that your runners up were the highest scoring (or perhaps evidence that the fates smile on producers who put railway modelling on TV without sneering) Clearly the criteria for selecting teams wasn't just modelling ability or you'd surely have been in the first cut. I await your next revelation with interest Edited October 6, 2019 by Pacific231G 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium TheQ Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 6, 2019 I turned on the watch a TV programme.. And found.... Railway modelling.... Wow.... 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold D9020 Nimbus Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 6, 2019 3 hours ago, Iankirby said: Same here - recorded to watch at my leisure. Just a heads-up — the announcement after the end of the programme stated the first semi-final next week is on Saturday again, but at 7.45pm. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chuffinghell Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 6, 2019 Having been put through the torture and agony of watching Britains Got Talent with Sarah before GMRC the deal was that she watched episode five with me afterwards....assuming I hadn’t put my head in the oven during BGT Towards the end of the episode Sarah said and I quote “if Team Grantham don’t win I won’t be watching it again” So well done team Grantham, not only for a superb layout....with shutting!...but for giving me a bit of company for the next episode 8 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 4 minutes ago, D9020 Nimbus said: Just a heads-up — the announcement after the end of the programme stated the first semi-final next week is on Saturday again, but at 7.45pm. Now that we know from LNER4479 that the slot occupied by heat 5 was originally going to be the first quarter final, the change to Saturday makes more sense. The idea presumably was that the greater drama of the quarter final -final rounds warranted a more prime time slot. I'm not sure how true that is for this competition as, unlike Bake-Off, viewers haven't got to know the team members well enough to be really rooting for them. I don't think there's much they could do about that in a team based art/craft/skills competition like this where the cakes probably are more important for viewers than the bakers. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 6, 2019 Hogg. I've just realised what's going on here. So episode 5 was on last night, not next Saturday? Garn. Will now have to find it on ketchup. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
whart57 Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 I'm pleased the Muddle and Go Nowhere team got the wild card slot, I liked their approach, made a change to see a red layout, and I think they might have won any other heat, even allowing for the fact Steve and Kathy seemed to have found points unused from previous heats to spend. But guys, you were a bit blatant about using Channel 5's money to buy stock for your own layouts ......... Team Grantham deserved to win on the grounds of that radio telescope and the fact they actually did some shunting. Good quality build, reliable running but I'm afraid a bit bland for me. And you didn't need the rocket - was that Pat Doyle's insistence? One gripe for all teams - and I suspect I know the reasons - and that is all that British stock. Flying Scotsman in Switzerland? Pre-Group locos shunting on Mars (where the thin atmosphere would make interesting physics for steam engines)? A 1930s express in Space City? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 The move to Saturday was obviously beneficial to C5 as the commercial breaks were noticeably longer than on Fridays programme where only the last one needed four pushes of the minute advance button on the PVRs remote to skip them, 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chuffinghell Posted October 6, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 6, 2019 22 minutes ago, whart57 said: I'm pleased the Muddle and Go Nowhere team got the wild card slot Agreed 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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