2011

For 2011 IMLEC was held at Bromsgrove for the first time, personally I have one memory of this IMLEC . . . rain . . . I barely remember it not raining! The track was in a lovely location within the grounds of the Avoncroft Museum. You could split the track into two very different sections, an unforgiving climb of around 1-100, followed by a "rollercoaster" of downhill at about 1-80. This, combined with the abysmal weather, contributed to not only the lowest winning efficiency in the competitions history, but the lowest ever efficiency recorded for a completed run (as of 2022).

The winning locomotive which managed to conquer both track and condition's was Rod Ainsworth Britannia "Sir Christopher Wren, driven by Ben Pavier. Diane Carney gives us more details of the winning run:

"The fourth engine on the track was the star of the show on this occasion. Built by Rod Ainsworth of Southport and the winner of the 'Polly Shield' at the Model Engineer Exhibition 2010 this kit built and beautifully detailed BR Class 7 'Britannia' Sir Christopher Wren was entered by Ben Pavier (photo 6). Ben's run started out in heavy drizzle but fortunately for him the rain stopped during his run and he finished the course in glorious sunshine. Ben elected to take two trucks and completed the run with six passengers on board. It was a spirited performance and this big engine showed little sign of losing its feet due in no small part to the skill of the driver. The coal burnt amounted to 1.74lbs and the 'work done' figure was calculated at 95,700 ft/lbs giving an efficiency of 0.52%. As any driving experience I have had in recent times has been on a Pacific locomotive of similar proportions, I was interested in learning from Ben what his driving technique had been regarding the setting of the reverser. He said he had set it to a fairly short cut-off at the start (the first 300 feet or so are on a falling gradient) and more or less left it there for the whole run. This was interesting as the profile of the track is far from consistent!"