1989

IMLEC was back at Leyland for 1989. There was some fantastic memorabilia on offer this year, including a medal for each competitor, a comprehensive programme and each passenger received a commemorative ticket (view these in the souvenir programme and memorabilia sections of the IMLEC archive).

Lionel Flippance returned to try and defend his title, he was the last run on and had to try and better David Sutcliffe's impressive 3.091% set with his beautiful GWR "Star". Lionel rose to the challenge and came home with an efficiency of 3.317%. Laurie Lawrence tells us more:

"Now we come to the cliffhanger. Lionel Flippance, last year's winner, was scheduled for the final run. The sun even managed to poke its nose through the clouds at times for him, which may or may not have augured well - we had to wait and see. This big brute (there's no other description which fits) of a locomotive is based on an outline of a tentative proposed heavy freight engine for B.R., the 2-10-0 C1.9 was preferred instead. The full-size, if built would have had 5 ft. 2 in. drivers, but Lionel has mixed traffic 6 ft. wheels instead; he said he did not fancy pattern making for the correct(?) size, and that meant a longer wheelbase and he has had to extend the Britannia boiler to suit. The two cylinders he tells me are 2 in. bore by - well now, somehow that escapes his memory. Since last year he has made no changes to the locomotive and based his estimated load on that performance; in the event, he took driver, observer and 22 passengers. I watched the start as he backed cautiously away from the start line and he had slipping well under control.

During the run attempts to open the regulator wider only produced slipping of the drivers and he had to be content with, I think, a regulator opening of about half. Unusually for Lionel, the safety valve lifted several times during the run, but this did not seem to have any significant effect on his efficiency figure; he was announced as being in first place by a small margin.

I made a comparison of his result with his last year's figure and concluded my estimate of the Bristol car's temporary hiccough of over-recording by about 25% was about right. The car ran very well this year with consistent results. I met Lionel at Guildford at the huge rally there a weekend after and he told me that lengthening the boiler also meant some adjustments to the Britannia firebox and there was about, he thinks, another 3 sq. in. I privately wondered how he would have got on in a competition like IMLEC with 3 or 4 sq. in. less."