Club Competitions

Two of the highlights of the Society's social Calendar are the Shunting and Efficiency Competitions. These competitions are opportunities to have some fun as well as to test the abilities of both driver and locomotive. Anybody when shown can drive a model steam locomotive, but these competitions really test the driver's ability on how well you can control one under the extreme conditions. For your trial to be a success a driver needs to have a bit of luck, a good understanding of their locomotive, how it responds and how far you can push it. It soon lets you know if you get it wrong!

Both events are held in the summer months and last all day. For those unfamiliar to the competitions, details of each are as follows;

Shunting Competition

The driver of the locomotive has to take an increasing load out of the station and up the steepest bank on the track circuit, a total distance of about 200 feet. There are several loaded wagons placed intermittently on the slope which the driver has to skilfully pick up and take past the finishing point at the top of the bank. The winning driver and locomotive are the ones who complete the climb in the longest amount of time. However, for every time the driver stalls they are awarded a 5 second time penalty which is deducted from the overall time.

Details of the 2007 competition and results can be found in the Society's newsletter, the Expansion Link - Issue 4 (75.0KB).

Efficiency Competition

This is the opposite of the shunting competition as it is loosely based on the national IMLEC competition, where the driver has to take their chosen loaded train as far as they can in 20 minutes using as little coal as possible. Each entrant's trial score is calculated and the winner is the driver with the highest efficiency score.

The Results - 2008 in PDF (12KB)

Competitors in the 2007 Efficiency competition (R-L) Bob Lovett, Stephen Newell, Terry Hobbs, Ian Roberts, Andrew Hobbs winner Darren Davis, Neil Davis, Malcolm Duckett, Mike Lowe, John Hutson, Tom Burgess and James Taviner. In the foreground is his winning locomotive, GWR Manor class 'Anthony Manor.'