Brief Overview
IMLEC returned to Nottingham for the second time in 2015, although this time we had a defending champion in the field! In 2012 Nottingham had set the precedent for a 3 day competition and this remained for 2015 with an impressive 33 entries including six 3 1/2 in. gauge locomotives.
It turned out that the winning run was the last run and that of the defending champion John Cottam. I've had the pleasure of driving John's wonderful LNER P2 on a couple of occasions and can attest that it is a Rolls Royce of a locomotive. John has made multiple extensions to control the injector steam valves, the blower and the three hydrostatic lubricators. This makes driving a much more comfortable experience than leaning all the way over a rather long 8 wheel tender. John also made the firehole larger than drawn for ease of firing on the move.
I had the privilege of riding on this run, and although it was a thrilling, edge of your seat, IMLEC winning run - my god it was scary! John got away without issue with a load of 24 passengers and was soon cracking along at a rather high speed. On the second lap, disaster struck as a passenger truck derailed on the first left hand curve. It was quickly re-railed and John started the heavy train on the gradient with consummate ease. I thought after the derailment John would take things a bit more steady from now on . . . this was not to be! Every lap as we entered the first corner, the loco would lean into the bend, hitting it at about 9mph I would guess, and the left hand front pony truck wheel would lift off the rail a good inch. As this was happening I would pick a nice comfortable looking piece of grass to land on in the event of what I saw as an impending disaster every lap.
In the end we made it back in one piece, and John had done more than enough to secure top spot on the leaderboard - I must admit I was a bit disappointed as he pushed me down from 2nd to 3rd place! John's win meant he had defended the title he had won at Bournemouth and so could no longer enter the loco in the following years competition.
Interesting Facts
John Cottam became the 7th back-to-back IMLEC champion after Bill Perrett, Percy Wood, Les Pritchard, Alan Crossfield, Lionel Flippance and John Heslop.
George Winsall's 3rd place was the first time since 1984 that a 3 1/2in. gauge locomotive had finished in the top 3. In that year Dennis Bannister drove his "Maisie" to 3rd place. Coincidently, George's "Russell" was also entered in the 1984 IMLEC by Fred Winsall.