Brief Overview
IMLEC 1979 went to Bristol for the second time, Percy Wood was back with his Maid of Kent, hoping to emulate Bill Perrett in defending his title and becoming a two time IMLEC champion. Jack Love travelled from South Africa, hoping for a better run than the previous year at Guildford. In the end, Percy was forced to retire and Jack Love's SAR 6C, in the hands of fellow South African Derek Heydenrych, won the best 3 1/2 in. gauge locomotive prize.
The overall winner was David Morriss with his GNR Stirling Single, D. E. Lawrence gives us the details:
"David Morriss's locomotive is a G.N.R. Stirling Single and this brings us to an interesting coincidence; a member of the Bristol S.M.E.E. is a great-grandson of the redoubtable Patrick Stirling and, or course, although he is not an engineer by profession, he is a model engineer and he explained that it is virtually obligatory for him to build one of his great-grandfather's engines and he has a 3½ in. gauge Stirling Single on the way. Well, back to David Morriss; his locomotive is a first attempt and a very nice job he has made of it. The Single is well finished, very carefully lined out and, as near as I can judge, in the correct G.N. livery. The footplate is a nice compromise between scale and functional and, of course, with the short cab, easy access to the controls. Load was driver, observer plus 6 passengers, a good load I thought and about as much as I had seen before behind a Single in similar circumstances. The start was careful but soon accompanied by some slipping. Having got the train on the move, David opened up a bit and the Single was soon striding round the track at a good speed. Early in the rụn, the station approach gradient was taken rather slowly, but after a couple of laps speed rose generally to around 11½ to 12 m.p.h. and stayed there for most of the run. Firing was even and at the same points on the track but I fancy David had not watched the water level too closely as, on a couple of occasions, the exhaust was very wet. This was a very good run and, like all winning runs, made consistently with very careful attention paid to firing and track conditions. The Single is fairly new and David Morriss deserved the applause at the end of the run."
Interesting Facts
There were 13 entries that were 3 1/2 in. gauge, a record which still stands as of 2022.
The coal donated by the NCB was not received well by the first four competitors, all running into problems. From run No.5 Penrycweiber coal was used and the first four competitors were offered re-runs.
Alan Hall (Harlington) entered both a 5 in. (B1) and a 3 1/2 in. (Mona) locomotive in the competition, the B1 coming in 2nd place, but Alan had less luck with "Mona". 43 years later Les Pritchard would drive "Mona" to the best 3 1/2 in. gauge locomotive in 2022 at Guildford.