2004

For 2004, IMLEC returned to Kinver, the track on first glance looks rather flat, but there are a few gradients to catch out any unwary drivers. 27 competitors were vying for the Martin Evans Challenge Trophy, and it was Glyn Winsall, a veteran of IMLEC, on his 15th attempt, 29 years after his debut, who took the title home with his LNER Thompson O1 2-8-0. Simon Rolfe gives us the details:

"Spread over 2 days the weather threatened dreadful things with dark skies on Sunday but thankfully never delivered more than a drop or two of rain. On day one it was no surprise that Lionel Flippance topped the results with his ballasted 2-8-2 with an efficiency figure of 2.749% and he was to be the eventual winner of the previous winners category. The nearest on day one was Alan Crossfield, another previous winner with a Nigel Gresley, at 2.29%. The highest non-previous winner was Dave Roberts with
a Black Five at 1.89%.

On day two Lionel's figure looked unbeatable, the nearest being Brian Remnant (Romney Marsh) with a very heavy Sweet Pea which put in a fine run to record the top score up until then of 2.687%, but still not beating past winner Lionel Flippance's figure.

Next to run was Glyn, under threatening skies. The sighting run allowed Glyn to adjust the load to an eventual 16 with your editor riding right at the rear. This position afforded a fine view of proceedings on the twisty Kinver track. The run was very steady, only slipping a little on the first lap up the bank into the station, the loco blowing off only once briefly during the entire run. Half an hour is a long time to sit on a 5" gauge passenger car but everyone was captivated, the rain thankfully holding off. It was clearly a fine run by a driver completely mastering the job in hand but would it be good enough to win? Would it beat Lionel
Flippance's figure? Frankly no one imagined that. We all waited impatiently for the calculations to be completed, a crowd gathering around the score board as the final couple of runs were completed.

With a final efficiency figure of an amazing 3.246% Glyn had not only won IMLEC after more than a few years of trying, he had comfortably eclipsed past winner Lionel Flippance's results too, which caused much nodding of heads and discussion amongst those that know about these things. Glyn was clearly thrilled to win; 30 years ago IMLEC was won by non other than Father Fred Winsall. Such are the vagaries of steam traction that it's hard to draw conclusions but perhaps I might suggest that ballasting locomotives is no substitute for a skilled driver, isn't that something the instigator of IMLEC the late Martin Evans wrote about in Model Engineer?"