First you have to know that the Great Model Railway Challenge is a British TV series this year. Kathy Millatt was one of the judges. It is a reality TV show where groups compete to build a model railroad in 3 day based on a theme: TV shows, movies, travel, fire and ice. There is supposed to be animation, and they throw in a curve ball of giving the contestants odd ball things like plungers, sponges and lipstick to freelance with.
Some of the competitors are model railroad clubs, some only know each other from online, some are special effects people but not necessarily model railroaders.
It follows a forumla liked Chopped, a cooking contest, where the judges ask the contestants what they are doing as they work. Then the judges kibitz among themselves about the success of failings of what they are seeing.
Some of what they create is very clever and some is just shoddy workmanship. If you search youtube for Great Model Railway Challenge you should find a link to the videos.
The Proposition in the title of this thread is not mine, but Ken Patterson’s comments when he interviewed Kathy. If such a show was on US TV, I am sure it would be good for the hobby. I don’t think it would last more than a couple of shows. Some of the contestants are a little bit weird and not in the usual MR sense.
Take a look at the videos and tell us what you think.
Railway modelling (the British term for model railroading) is regarded as an odd and quirky hobby in Great Britain, just as it is in the US or Germany. But unlike in the US or Germany, people in Great Britain love the odd and quirky and don´t look down on us “grown men playing with toy trains”.
I doubt that a TV show like this one would generate sufficient interest with possible sponsors outside of the industry.
In Germany, a regional TV station (broadcasted nationwide) ran a series of shows called “On Little Tracks”, in which a host preesented exceptional layouts and news of the trade. While quite popular among former East German people, interest declined steadily after the re-unification in 1990 and the program will be killed in 2019.
Thanks for the detailed report about this British reality show. Having it replicate in the US won’t go far. It seems that many Europeans enjoy model trains because the real thing is often an integral part of their transportation system. Anyone who has visited most large European citiies can attest.
Popular reality TV shows (e.g., The Voice, Survivor, America’s Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars, etc.) generates more American interest because of star value. What A-list celeb would even host a train show? Are they willing to put their name and reputation behind such an endeavor?
In the US we have “Public TV” located in all states, I think, funded by the government and donations. Without going into the justification for that, they have produced some train shows:
Tracks Ahead (about model railroads)
Bill Connolly Tracks Across America
Best of Trains around North America
Great Scenic Railway Journeys
The Wild Wild West and Petticoat Junction also featured trains. Who cannot like a town called Hooterville?
AFAIK Oh Dr. Beeching never made it over to this side of the Atlantic.
Nobody has ever “looked down” on me for being a model railroader.
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This is something I have not ever experienced. Everybody has a pasttime interest, and I have never been socially shunned for mine.
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My other pasttimes are Wargaming and Cosplay, and again, no wierd social looking down on me.
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If the model railroad challenge was produced properly, it could be a hit for a season or two. HGTV seems like the likely home, but Discovery makes sense also.
Well Kevin - lucky you! But if you go back in this forum there are quite a few threads dealing with the subject of people outside of our hobby belittling the hobbyists. Folks may do not do it right into your face, but you never know what they do behind your back. In countries, where trains are much more a pat of the every day life, the situation looks different.
If Discovery does it they could get either of the old Mythbusters hosts.
I haven’t been judged outright for being a model railroader, I will admit theres a certain “nerd” factor that saying “I play with trains” has, I definitely would not say it in front of a group of people I’m trying to impress. So I guess a series like this “could” do ok then again maybe not.
I did watch one episode on youtube about four weeks ago and elected to forego watching any others. This hobby is fun for me, just as gardening is. I use them for relaxation, even if I do get frustrated and disappointed at times, usually in the outcomes compared to my planning and visualizations…my expectations. Watching others compete frenetically, making and taking shortcuts, falling short simply because of a time constraint…that doesn’t sound fun or interesting to me. I left the video most of the way through and haven’t looked back.
There also was a public television show called Trackside which featured both model railroads and real ones. It was a good show but had limited interest.
The game show sounds interesting but there wouldn’t be enough interest in it to get it on the air. A more interesting idea that people might watch is a show about model train wrecks.
P.S. Only people between the ages of 16 and 30 are considered nerdy for playing with trains, mostly by themselves, not by others. Most people don’t care about your hobby unless they also have the same hobby then, they like it. Nobody ever made me feel bad about it other than myself.
I have watched - or should I say endured through 4 episodes - and my verdict stands at “This has nothing to do with model railroading”. It´s a rather cheaply made show with the quality of workmanship displayed miles below what you see at train shows in Great Britain.
Well, I watched the whole series. I have not been to a British train show, but I’m sure there is better stuff there, there is better stuff here in the weekend picture threads and the show me something threads.
However, they did not have sufficient time. 3 day isn’t much time even if you have 5 or 6 people to help. If it was 5 days, the drama of not enough time would still be there, but we would have seen more complete models.
The extras to “freelance” was nonsense. Supposedly it added drama but who’s going to scratch build with a plunger?
Some of the animation was garbage, like a cell phone standing in for a giant video screen or a truck pulling a plexiglas sheet of joggers. edit Garbage may be too strong a word, but it was like that fire department Christmas garden rather than quality model railroading.
There was some really good animation with moving vehicles and working signals. As a model railroader, I would like to know how they did that.
I would have chosen better quality and more time, rather than cute gimmicks.
I still think this show has the wrong message for the audience. It´s not a hobby for the “fast & furious”, bodging together a “complete layout” in only 3 days, but a hobby for the “patient & persistent”, who develops an understanding for how railroads operate, develops a myriad of different skills and is not hunting for cheap thrills.
That was a worthwhile show. I think the guy with the mutton chops was on both shows. They built a OO live steam railway 70 miles long in 2 weeks. At one point they tried switching to a battery powered loco, but it was not as fast as steam and was uninspiring to the “navies” pronounced, navees, not navys, as the men who built the canals, then built the railways.
He got 56 volunteers to live in tents and work 2 weeks, sometimes at night to lay these huge pieces of sectional track (8 ’ ?) and build bridges, viaducts, an inclined railway, and truss bridges and a helix to solve the elevation problem or cross water.
A totally impractical premise, but worth watching.