The inaugural LittleLEC competion was hosted at Stoke Park, Guildford, courtesy of the Guildford SME. There were twelve entries in total, honours going to Paul Tompkins driving Les Pritchard's 3 1/2 inch gauge "Juliet".

All pictures used by kind permission of Peter Langridge.

Peter on his second run	Roy showing a great benefit of small engines	Mike Richardson works some magic with Merlin
Jim Clarke on a very steady run with his Tich	Reg going well on Juliet	Junior member Scott with his Tich
Mike Foreman relaxing with Rob Roy	Roger with his Tich built for the event	Sue enjoying her first run with Juliet
Paul driving Les's Juliet on the winning run	Tony firing his rocket!	Charles on Mona, with Craig in control
The LittleLEC Trophy

LittleLEC 2008

A report by Jim Wilson 

It was in 2007 that Peter Langridge approached the Guildford Model Engineering Society (GMES) Council of management with an idea to hold an efficiency competition for ‘little locomotives’. The idea was that locomotives entered should be subject to a dry weight maximum of 50lb and rather than pull the heavy dynamometer car, Peter had worked out a formula. This was based on previous results from OMLEC/IMLEC events held at GMES and would give a fairly accurate efficiency result providing we weighed the passengers and driving trolleys, prior to the start. A running time of 20 minutes was considered best for these smaller models.

Of course Peter is no stranger to small locomotives having built a Rob Roy for himself and Two Tich’s, one for his son Roy and one for his grandson Scott.

A one-day trial was held in August 2007, this creating so much interest that it was decided to hold a two-day, open event this year. With some help with publicity from the Model Engineer and Engineering in Miniature we managed to attract 6 visiting loco’s and 6 GMES loco’s. Not as many as we would have liked but it did enable us to give each entrant two separate runs with the best one counting toward a final place, thus allowing some experimentation with the load carried.

It all took place over the bank holiday weekend of 24^th & 25^th May:

Saturday 24^th dawned as a beautiful sunny and dry day although we did have some reservations about the Sunday, having seen the weather forecast. A team of us arrived at what seemed to be the crack of dawn to set up the long planned event and after weighing in both passenger and trolley, Peter himself got us under way with Run 1, the first run of the weekend driving his Rob Roy.

Peter did not select to take a passenger on this run which meant that he was fairly light and although he completed 6 uneventful laps he only achieved an efficiency of 0.188%.

Next up; Run 2 GMES membership secretary Reg Loveday with his Juliet. Reg did 5 laps for an efficiency of 0.137%.

Run 3 Young Scott Gibbs, Peter Langridge’s grandson and a junior GMES member driving his large boilered Tich. Scott unfortunately lost steam on the first lap and had to retire. The cause was later found to be a large piece of clinker that had almost covered the Tich’s minute grate.

Run 4 Was the first of our visitors, Mike Foreman from the North London Society.

Mike elected to increase his load and took two additional passengers plus an extra driving trolley. This was to prove a good move as he completed 5 laps and leapt into an early lead with an efficiency of 0.339%.

Run 5 was Roger Curtis, the Chairman of GMES. Roger had been so impressed with last year’s trial that he has been making a Tich specifically for this event. Not quite complete and unpainted but never the less a superb runner the Tich has taken only 9 months from marking out the frames to this stage, a superb effort considering Rogers other duties as Chairman. Roger ran by himself on his own trolley and managed 4 laps with an efficiency of 0.187%.

Run 6, our only lady entrant, Sue Parham from the Maidstone Society running her Juliet “Jack”. Sue managed 8 frenetic laps but sadly used too much coal and only managed an efficiency of 0.148%.

Run 7, the final run of the morning was Les Pritchard of Harlington and GMES. A past winner of IMLEC, Les was driving his 1963 built Juliet and we expected a great run but he had a torrid time and only managed 4 laps for 0.157%%, a result that led him to offer his second run to Paul Tompkins of GMES and fellow IMLEC regular. A decision that he might come to regret!

After lunch we continued in the same order as the morning, starting with Peter Langridge on Run 8. This time Peter elected to increase his load and added Roger Curtis to his single driving trolley. With this extra load and with careful use of the coal Peter managed to get 0.409% out of his Rob Roy.

Run 9 saw Reg Loveday having to retire after suddenly losing all his fire.

Run 10 however saw Scott Gibbs have a much better run than previously, completing 5 faultless laps for an efficiency of 0.190%.

Mike foreman on Run 11, did the opposite of Peter Langridge and dropped two of his heavyweights and took one lighter passenger whilst retaining the two trolleys. His idea was to try and get more laps in than before. In the event he got an extra two in with 7 completed but his efficiency was not as good as his first run being 0.323% (Clearly the load’s the thing)

Run 12 was Roger Curtis with his new Tich managed 4 laps again but didn’t improve on his earlier efficiency, scoring 0.164%.

Run13 with Sue Parham saw a marked improvement due to the additional weight of her husband on the trolley, 7 laps and 0.320%.

On then to the final run of the day, Run 14 with Paul Tompkins driving Les Pritchard’s Juliet. As with any good IMLEC entrant, Paul had fretted about what load to take. In the event he squeezed himself and Les onto Roger Curtis’ driving trolley and set off.

Eight laps later they returned having only used just over ½lb of coal achieving an efficiency of 0.553. Could that be beaten?

We packed up for the day and waited expectantly to see what would happen on Sunday, particularly as rain and heavy winds were forecast.

Come Sunday it was just as forecast with heavy rain and high winds overnight although there was a hint that it would improve later. In the event, by the time that the first run of the day got under way the rain had stopped although the track was wet. Unfortunate for Tony Rest of GMES therefore who had entered his OS Rocket. A nice and somewhat rare engine but 0-2-2 locomotives don’t have much traction on wet tracks.

Tony however got under way with Run 15 only to retire on the first lap when he lost the nozzle of his engine's flexible by-pass pipe. An extensive search around the track revealed the lost item, sitting on one of the sleepers.

Run 16 saw another GMES member Roy Langridge on the track with his Tich, the second of the design that his father Peter had made. Again with a wet track Roy had great difficulty as the tiny wheels were spinning wildly. He did however manage to complete two laps in the allotted time to give an efficiency of 0.188%.

Run 17 was Charles Weatherley and his grandson Craig from the Worthing Society. Charles had brought his Mona to the LBSC design. Weighing in at exactly 50lb it managed to pass the requirements of the rules and was the heaviest loco in the competition. With Charles driving and his grandson as passenger they started off but were very soon in trouble. After stopping several times he eventually dropped Craig off but even then only managed 3 laps to achieve an efficiency 0.154%. A subsequent inspection revealed that the snifting valve on the locomotive had become detached and a quick visit to the GMES locomotive works was required before the second attempt in the afternoon.

Run18 was Mike Richardson, a member of both Bristol and the West Huntspill societies. He had brought his ‘Scamp’ design 0-4-0 locomotive named Merlin.

This is another sturdy design, weighing in at 48lbs and with the track now almost dry and some blue sky appearing, Mike with one extra passenger managed an easy 7 laps to score an efficiency of 0.372%.

Run 19, was the last of the morning with Jim Clarke from the Maidstone Society and his nicely finished Tich. Jim managed a faultless 6 laps in the time allotted but he is a very slim fellow and could have done with a little more load, only managing to achieve an efficiency of 0.200%.

Run 20 started the second heats, first up being Tony Rest with the Rocket, having repaired the damage from the morning. Tony started off alright but halfway around his second lap he lost steam and had to prematurely end his attempt. A later inspection revealed that his smoke-box door had not been latched securely and had partially opened. With only one lap Tony still managed an efficiency of 0.079%, something to be said for handing back a large amount of coal.

Run 21 If Roy Langridge had hoped for better on his second run with his Tich he was to be disappointed as he lost the fire early into his run and retired.

Run 22 was Charles Weatherley with Mona, now with the snifting valve suitably sealed in place. This time the roles were reversed and grandson Craig drove with Charles as the passenger. Craig had a sparkling run of 8 laps for an efficiency of 0.354%, which was to eventually to put him in fifth place but the rules were to favour him as he was eventually to be promoted to fourth overall. I feel there might be another member of the Worthing Society who could be an IMLEC contender in the future.

Mike Richardson duplicated his morning load with Run 23 and again managed 7 laps in the allotted time. This time however he was more frugal with the coal and improved his efficiency to 0.416%, elevating him to second place thus dislodging Peter Langridge from the position he had held from Run 8 on the first day.

Run 24 was the last of the competition with Jim Clarke again having a faultless run with his Tich and almost duplicating his result from the morning but the use of fractionally more coal meant an efficiency of 0.196%.

So that was it. The decks were cleared and the GMES chairman Roger Curtis, highly ‘chuffed’ with his own performance was pleased to present the prizes.

In actual fourth was Mike Richardson from Run 18 but as only his best run counted toward a place, Charles Weatherley from Run 22 with his grandson Craig driving was promoted into fourth place.

In third place was the LittleLEC conceiver and GMES member Peter Langridge for an efficiency of 0.409% with his Rob Roy on Run 8.

A worthy second place and a prize of £20.00 of Warco vouchers went to Mike Richardson again with his chunky Scamp loco ‘Merlin’. This had an efficiency of 0.416%, achieved on Run 23.

The overall winner however by a fair margin was the Juliet of Les Pritchard, driven so stunningly by Paul Tompkins on Run 14, the last of the first day which gave an efficiency of 0.553%. The Prize was twofold, the new Small Locomotive Challenge Trophy presented by Mike Palmer of Station Road Steam, and a twelve months subscription to ‘The Model Engineer’, presented by David Carpenter, editor of that journal. The judges, in their wisdom, decided that the owner, Les Pritchard should receive the trophy and the driver, Paul Tompkins should receive the Model Engineers for his outstanding performance with the shovel.

Paul accepted the awards on behalf of both parties.

I should mention, particularly to those who were with us on the Sunday that the efficiency figures published here vary from those published on the day. This is due to an unfortunate error in the formula used. This has now been corrected and all runners informed. Our sincere apologies for this error.

So where from here? Well I am sure that there will be another LittleLEC next year but not at Guildford. It was never the intention to make this solely a GMES event as we were of the opinion that it should go round to various societies in a similar manner to

IMLEC or the Sweet Pea Rally.

We have therefore actively sought an independent body, either from the organisers of our hobby or the associated trade, who could allocate the event year on year to suitable societies.

We are pleased then that Mike Palmer of Station Road Steam has agreed to take on this task and we wish him well. If the response from the representatives of the societies who attended this years event is anything to go by he certainly has a venue already lined up for 2009. I know that the Sweet Pea Rallies are booked up until 2016 and I hope that Mike soon has a similar order book.

If your society would like to have a go why don’t you give Mike a ring. Remember it’s a great fun event and you don’t need a dynamometer car.