1972

IMLEC 1972 was held at the Tyneside society. The winner was run No.10, Norman Spink with with LBSC "Pansy" GWR 57XX. D. E. Lawrence provides details of the run:

"Ken Cribb of Bristol was scheduled for this run, but a broken gauge glass caused a hitch, so whilst Ken was making repairs, Norman Spink got his Pansy ready. Norman is from Chesterfield and Pansy is LBSC's design for a G.W.R. 0-6-0PT 57XX class. I had previously made acquaintance with this loco when it won the LBSC Memorial Bowl at the M.E. Exhibition earlier this year; it had behaved very satisfactorily under my, and my fellow judge's critical examination. There is little departure from the original design and the loco was very clean and in good condition. The load for the run was fairly modest, being Driver, Observer and five passengers. The start was made with a little well controlled slip-the rails were just a trifle greasy at the starting point-and then the train quickly accelerated to about 8 m.p.h. During the first lap there was free escape from the safety valve but thereafter Norman was careful not to let it lift again. There was little variation for most of the run; laps were made at 50 to 53 secs, about 8 to 9 m.p.h. and Norman fed the fire very carefully; I never saw much coal on the shovel when he did fire, which was not very often. Indeed, towards the end of the run when the fire was being worked down, the train came to a stand. Norman said afterwards that he had let the fire down just a bit too low and a little too soon. However, the stop was of short duration and he recovered quickly to finish an uneventful run. Norman has evidently considered the conditions very closely and his extreme care paid off, as he beat the "Director" into first place by a
narrow margin."