1984

As Laurie Lawrence says "When Bristol put on a show, they do not do things by halves"! For 1984 Bristol received 39 entries, and managed to squeeze in 30 in total over the weekend, it was clearly a popular track and is definitely a personal favourite of mine.

Les Pritchard was back to try and defend his title won 12 months previous at Guildford, Les succeeded in style to become the 3rd back-to-back IMLEC champion. Laurie tells us more:

"A few years ago, I had a private track day at my home track, Bournemouth. My guests were Peter Dupen with his superb Midland 999 and Ken Edge with his L.M.S. Rebuilt Royal Scot. We played happily all day and I was impressed with the Scot. It wanted "holding back"; a teaspoonful of coal went a long way; it was surefooted and, although with only 2 or 3 people as load, gave promise of I think I used the word - prowess - at the time. One notch off middle and a crack of the regulator was enough to keep going up hill and down hill for ever it seemed. So, bearing in mind Les Pritchard's Rebuilt Royal Scot was last year's winner and that Bristol's track has less hindrances to running, this, said I to me, was going to be interesting.

Since the last Competition, Les has put new rings on the pistons, and that's all the maintenance needed. My notes on this winning run, the penultimate of the Competition, are brief. The start was impeccable; no slip, drains open, and clear but soft exhaust beats from the double chimney as the Scot took hold of its load of 18 adults, and one child who had squeezed in. Les kept the cylinder drains open for about 200 ft., then shut them; thereafter, hardly a wisp of steam escaped anywhere. The safety valves barely lifted on two occasions only; firing was at regular intervals and, looking at what little was on the shovel, Les was being real "mean". Not only mean, but placing each shovel (1/2) ful exactly where it was needed. As far as I could see, the regulator was well open, to full open, I think, and left alone; Les drove on the reversing lever, winding it back a notch or two when through the station and dropping a notch or two for the banks. We rarely see such a refined driving technique and, even before the result was put on the board, there was a general air of expectancy that here was the winner.

A large crowd began gathering by the scoreboard eagerly anticipating the appearance of the result. The minutes ticked by, but no figures. In the meantime, Jim Ewins had got on the track and was making a steady run with his Experimental 0-8-0T locomotive Jimmy's Riddle. This "diesel" outline locomotive has a totally enclosed two cylinder vertical engine in the smoke box and its exhaust sounded rather like a small Japanese motor cycle as it took its train of 9 adults along at around 9 m.p.h. A steward started to move the results on the scoreboard, starting at the bottom, to make room for the Royal Scot's figures. The crowd swelled and relatively few stayed by the lineside to watch Jim. However, with one eye on the steaming bays and on the Judge's caravan, I thought something untoward was happening, and I was even more intrigued when I learned the judges were re- checking Les Pritchard's figures. My own
estimate of the Scot's efficiency, based (Les had solely on observation returned a whole kilo of coal unused at the end of his run) - was that it was over 2½ percent possibly nearing 3 percent. More time went by; the scoreboard steward left his re-shuffle of the positions and went back to the judges. Very intriguing! The crowd speculated! The real reason for the long delay emerged when 3.662 percent was put up eventually; the judges simply had not believed the accuracy of their calculations, but checking and re- checking had confirmed it.

After the award of the prizes, the Scot was put in steam again and I persuaded the driver, one of Les's fellow club members to let me have a spell on the footplate, there were one or two things I wanted to find out to confirm my own views. The springing of the wheels is as near perfect as I have ever found on a locomotive, the regulator gives precise control; on starting there is no slip even with well open regulator and me holding the brakes on the train; the needle of the pressure gauge does not like the left hand quadrant and stays firmly where it ought to be, just under blowing off. As Mr. Churchward said, that locomotive is "nice"."