The Biggest Little Railway in the World...
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I recorded the first two episodes of this and watched them last night, it's a bit like Railroad Alaska but in miniature and equally as painful to watch...
The plan is to build a model railway line from Fort William to Inverness following the route of the Caledonian Canal, some 70 odd miles...
The project is led by Dick Strawbridge who I recognise as a judge on Scrapheap Challenge, he has half a dozen or so teams made up of model railway enthusiasts who are going to build the track, bridges etc to complete the task...
The teams each have a quad bike and trailer to get there equipment, track etc up and down the canal tow path,,, that was one of the first cock ups, cameraman is filming one of the teams laying a bit of track, next thing he's filming grass, sky, grass, sky, etc plus the sound recording tells you something is going tits up,,, next clip is of a quad upside down in the canal, just four half's of the tyres showing above the water... Turns out guy driving the quad had put in reverse not forward and disappeared down the canal banking, unfortunately the idiot driving fell off before it entered the water,,, darn........
Then next thing they decide that the steepness of the canal tow path at one of the locks is to steep for the little train so they decide the train will be loaded on to a model boat and be raised up the slope via the canal lock, it goes tits up, radio control to boat packs in so boat is left bobbing up and down in lock taking on water, it starts to list then turns on its side and is just about to sink before its rescued but the train got well soaked...
So the train has to get stripped and dried out, the train itself is a little tank engine about the size of a shoebox, it's steam driven, steam being provided by a compressed gas fired boiler, it's all radio controlled so there are electrical components on it to do this and they are all soaked so progress for the day comes to a stop.
Next morning they are ready to set off again, presenter is bumming up the engineer on how well he's done getting the train fixed out after its little swim, trains put on the track, they make to light the boiler, it won't light, presenter says to engineer you have tested it after yesterday's drowning,,, engineer says No... The look on the presenters face said it all, "Wanker"...
After a bit work the get it going, now this train don't seem to like corners or uneven track, keeps chucking itself off the track when it encounters them,,, presenter says we've got some good stretches of long straight level track today we need to make up time for yesterday's loss so we'll be running at full speed for the first time today, comes to first bit of good track, opens engine up to full speed, couple of yards engines on its side again,,, it don't like going fast...
There's a few more episodes to go, gonna have to watch them just for the cockups...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
I recorded the first two episodes of this and watched them last night, it's a bit like Railroad Alaska but in miniature and equally as painful to watch...
The plan is to build a model railway line from Fort William to Inverness following the route of the Caledonian Canal, some 70 odd miles...
The project is led by Dick Strawbridge who I recognise as a judge on Scrapheap Challenge, he has half a dozen or so teams made up of model railway enthusiasts who are going to build the track, bridges etc to complete the task...
The teams each have a quad bike and trailer to get there equipment, track etc up and down the canal tow path,,, that was one of the first cock ups, cameraman is filming one of the teams laying a bit of track, next thing he's filming grass, sky, grass, sky, etc plus the sound recording tells you something is going tits up,,, next clip is of a quad upside down in the canal, just four half's of the tyres showing above the water... Turns out guy driving the quad had put in reverse not forward and disappeared down the canal banking, unfortunately the idiot driving fell off before it entered the water,,, darn........
Then next thing they decide that the steepness of the canal tow path at one of the locks is to steep for the little train so they decide the train will be loaded on to a model boat and be raised up the slope via the canal lock, it goes tits up, radio control to boat packs in so boat is left bobbing up and down in lock taking on water, it starts to list then turns on its side and is just about to sink before its rescued but the train got well soaked...
So the train has to get stripped and dried out, the train itself is a little tank engine about the size of a shoebox, it's steam driven, steam being provided by a compressed gas fired boiler, it's all radio controlled so there are electrical components on it to do this and they are all soaked so progress for the day comes to a stop.
Next morning they are ready to set off again, presenter is bumming up the engineer on how well he's done getting the train fixed out after its little swim, trains put on the track, they make to light the boiler, it won't light, presenter says to engineer you have tested it after yesterday's drowning,,, engineer says No... The look on the presenters face said it all, "Wanker"...
After a bit work the get it going, now this train don't seem to like corners or uneven track, keeps chucking itself off the track when it encounters them,,, presenter says we've got some good stretches of long straight level track today we need to make up time for yesterday's loss so we'll be running at full speed for the first time today, comes to first bit of good track, opens engine up to full speed, couple of yards engines on its side again,,, it don't like going fast...
There's a few more episodes to go, gonna have to watch them just for the cockups...
