Member postings for David Clark 1

Edited By David Clark 1 on 10/06/2009 15:46:33

Edited By David Clark 1 on 10/06/2009 15:52:19

Do You Have a Small loco? Why not enter LittleLEC? 

Do you have a small loco that may have been the one you 'cut your teeth on', and have not driven for a long time. Maybe you have to restrict yourself to building small locos for any number of reasons – space, room, portability, cost, etc. Whatever the reason, why not try LittleLEC?

LittleLEC is for a fun competition for locomotives up to 50 pounds dry weight. It is run along the lines of the long-established IMLEC, in which drivers and their locomotives compete against one another to achieve the best possible thermal efficiency. The efficiency figure is arrived at by calculation, so no dynamometer is involved with its attendant restrictions. eg. the hand pump can be used.

The competition was first run at Guildford Model Engineering Society's track in 2008, and proved to be enjoyable and exciting. It is amazing what can be achieved with a Tich weighing 21 pounds. Four of them ran among the total of 14 entries, and each could run for 20 minutes, without stopping, pulling their driver up gradients of up to 1 in 100. A Rob Roy was successful pulling a load of three adults!

This year the competition is being staged by Worthing & District Model Engineering Society on their track at Field Place, Worthing. Their track is similar in length to Guildford's, and has similar gradients, so will probably produce similar results, though there will be some different models running.

There are still a few spaces in the running schedule on 20th and 21st June, so why not get on to www.wdsme.org.uk and download an entry form? There is still time!