1986

IMLEC returned to the south coast for 1986, the competition being held at the track of the Bournemouth society for the second time. Defending his title was Alan Crossfield with his Nigel Gresley, and defend it he did, pipping Kelvin Moonie's LSWR Jubilee - which would go on to win IMLEC the very next year!

Laurie Lawrence covers the key details of the winning run:

"Of course, the Bournemouth committee had not been able to resist the temptation of another cliffhanger situation as we have seen a few times in the past and the very last run was that of Alan Crossfield, last year's winner, defending his title! And his charming wife has that hunk of silver plate to polish again this year. I thought, with some amusement, that she could not have had all that confidence in her husband's chances of winning again, as she brought along, very thoughtfully, a pad of silver plate cleaner to hand over with the cup to the new winner! Alan's 5 in. gauge L.N.E.R. 2-8-0 Nigel Gresley has had no alterations to it from last year and he elected to take a little heavier load this time; he had driver, observer and twelve
passengers, three more than last year. Anybody interested could make comparisons with his 1985 figures and possibly arrive at the same conclusions as myself; that is, steel rail is better than alloy rail, for our purposes, anyway. (Urmston alloy rail; Bournemouth steel rail). The start was uncertain and Alan set back to take a run at the mark. Once away, after a good deal of slipping, he was soon going well and produced another of those good steady runs, no bother, no wastage of steam from the safety valve, no leaking drains, quiet control of everything and, with so little variation, it was hardly worth bothering to time the laps. Another impressive performance which made Alan a worthy winner. My sympathy goes out to Mrs. Crossfield, she had kept that pot spotless!"