2013

IMLEC returned to Leyland for the first time since 2000 for the 2013 competition, and there was some innovations on show that drew the crowds in. This was the first use of a digital dynamometer car (DDI), alongside this a tent had been set up containing 2 TV monitors, one showed the running order, the other a "live" feed from the dynamometer car showing drawbar pull on a moving graph, speed, distance etc.
I shall return to this live monitor in my small discussion of the result at the end.

Taking the Martin Evans Challenge Trophy home this year was Steve Eaton with his Black Five. Diane Carney tells us more:

"The 3 o'clock slot was given to Steve Eaton from Chesterfield & District MES and his recently completed Don Young Black Five which he acquired as a part-built engine. Steve described this a 'just an ordinary Black Five' but he must have built in a touch of magic somewhere because he managed to really make this locomotive sing. Steve has entered - and won - IMLEC several times and there are few drivers who have honed their technique to the level Steve has. As you might have guessed from the cover of this magazine, Steve took the title again this year with a magnificent performance. He took 16 passengers and kept a steady drawbar pull throughout the run. The graph on the display was a perfectly straight line, which is what is required for a good result. This track has little in the way of gradient so it lends itself to steady passenger hauling and Steve has got it down to a tee! The locomotive must be in tip-top condition though as the 1.69 lbs of coal made the optimum amount of steam and very little water was taken on board during the half hour run. At the end, though, there was absolutely no fire left and the trucks had to be 'walked' back to the steaming bays. That's the way to win an IMLEC!"

I said I would return to the live monitor, so here we are! My musings here are probably a bit pointless, as I don't think the overall result would have been effected at all. But anyway, I noticed on the live monitor during Steve's run, that at no point did the drawbar pull fall below 20Ibs, it was as if it was flatlining at 20Ibs. I believe the dynamometer car wasn't "zeroed" correctly at the beginning of the run, so that when Steve was pulling 30Ibs on the drawbar, it was recording 50Ibs . . . I am only assuming, but with some calculations a much more "reasonable" efficiency figure is achieved when recalculating the result, taking into account this "zero error". The result would have still beaten Stephen Botterill's 2nd place Black Five, but not by much.