2022

IMLEC returned to Guildford for 2022, having previously visited the society in 1978, 1983 and 1990. There was also OMLEC, which was held in 2001 after the Foot & Mouth epidemic forced IMLEC 2001 to be cancelled.

The weekend offered excellent weather and an intriguing competition. The society had done there very best to keep the track as clean as possible, on my own run I had no issues with grip or slipping, and I put this down to two things: 1. A nice rusty 3 1/2" rail. 2. My choice of the smaller passenger trucks. I may well be wrong here, and I am only surmising, but I believe the brakes on the larger passengers trucks were on to some extent during some, if not all, of the runs. To see locomotives that I knew were capable of pulling decent loads not be able to pull the thin end off a turd was . . . confusing to say the least.

On to the winner, Billy Stock returned with his 5" gauge Britannia to defend his title from Maidstone, he opted for the traditional slot of the last run to see if he could knock Steve Eaton off the top of the leaderboard. I was lucky enough to ride on Billy's run, and it was the run of a champion. Some slight slipping at the start, particularly over the "bendy-bridge" section, but Billy soon had the train under control and accelerating to attack the gradients. From here on out it was a clockwork run, laps were taken at a consistent speed, each the same as the last. From my view at the back of the train Billy was in complete control and was also mean with the shovel, but would it be mean enough.

A large crowd gathered in anticipation as many of the IMLEC stalwarts tried to crunch numbers in their head to work out if Billy had pipped Steve to the title. The result was quickly calculated and Billy came out on top with a figure of 1.804% to become a back-to-back IMLEC champion.