Brief Overview
3 years after it first hosted the competition, IMLEC was back at Northampton for the 1999 edition. The field look quite open, only Les Pritchard was a previous winner, and that was with his Rebuilt Royal Scot, not the L&Y Class A he had chose to enter this year. After all the runs had finished, Jim Elliott of Staines was at the top of the leaderbaord with his Speedy "Aileen". Ted Joliffe explains how he did it:
"Currently building Martin Evans' Princess of Wales and representing Staines SME, Jim Elliott took advantage of the recent rule change to enter Aileen, his 5in. gauge 0-6-0 to LBSC's Speedy design. Finished in maroon livery as used by Coventry Colliery which purchased the locomotive from GW service, Aileen took 3 years to build and was finished in 1986. Fitted with Don Young's valve gear it has a displacement lubricator and a vacuum brake ejector. A new boiler was made and fitted two years ago; pressed to 100psi, it features radiant superheaters and operates with redesigned front end draughting and a brick arch. The valve bobbins were recently replaced, the lead reduced from 0.050 to 0.025in. and full gear cut off reduced to 65%. Jim set off with a load of 6 on a track with just the first 20ft sanded which was sufficient to get the load under way for a trouble free, well managed, full duration run."
Interesting Facts
Bob Bransom came 5th with his B1, the same loco would return to IMLEC 20 years later with Roger Hopkins at the regulator to take, you guessed it, 5th place.
Les Pritchard's 5 in. gauge L&Y Class A is numbered "127" because 5 in. = 127mm.