RMweb Premium Clive Mortimore Posted June 30, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 30, 2015 Very sad news. Thank you Mr Allan for a life times hobby which started when my mum brought me Abc Diesel Locomotives in 1966. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibber25 Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Another of our great enthusiasts has gone to the great roundhouse in the sky. What self- respecting schoolboy would have ever been without a "combine" or a loco shed book? Growing up in the 1970s we did not call them Abcs but combines. Many thanks to Chris Leigh for the great obituary above - and you learn something new every day (well I have), I never knew IA started Railway Modeller. RIP. Neil Yes, interesting that he launched RM but then disposed of it very quickly. There were other model mags at the time, of course - the venerable Model Railway News (later to become part of Argus, several name changes, and edited by my colleague Dave Lowery) and Model Railway Constructor which IA bought in 1960 as part of Railway World publishing in Cricklewood. PECO attended the Toy Fair every year when I was editor of MRC and Sidney would tell me the same story each year, as to how he borrowed £100 off his Mum in order to buy RM. He would then remind me that the circulation was twice that of MRC (at its height I believe the circulation of RM nudged close to 100,000 a month). IA would pass his copy of RM round the building, often with the comment "Why can't we have all this advertising?" CHRIS LEIGH Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold JohnR Posted June 30, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 30, 2015 Why did he dispose of RM so soon after launching it? Was it just a sudden need for funds? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Why did he dispose of RM so soon after launching it? Was it just a sudden need for funds? Very sad news I've no idea why Ian Allan sold RM, perhaps he wanted to focus on railways rather than model railways. He started Raiway Modeller with G.H.Lake as editor as a bi-monthly towards the end of 1949 and ran it for two years. Cyril Freezer became its editor for no 6 in August-September 1950 and Peco took it over in about October 1951 and moved it to Seaton immediately turning it into a monthly. In the first RM after the move Freezer did talk about the extra resources he had available from being within a model railway company. When Ian Allan bought the Railway World company nine years later, MRC was one of their titles. Not being a number collector I never bought the ABC books (I preferred the Observer's book with a page on each class) though all of my mates had them but I've just being going through some wartime and post war MRCs and after a bit of a post war doldrum there's no doubt that it improved enormously once Ian Allan took it over in 1960. I've still got my 1960 Ian Allan book of Model Railways by Mike Bryant. The forward says it's aimed at boys between 9 and 16 but in general principles it's still a good introduction to the hobby. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenB Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Wasn't he involved with the abortive attempt to re-open the Westerham branch - I believe that he was interested in developing some of the 'spare' land that would have gone with the purchase. Stephen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Kirkham Posted June 30, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 30, 2015 What self- respecting schoolboy would have ever been without a "combine" or a loco shed book? Growing up in the 1970s we did not call them Abcs but combines. I never bought a combine - usually just the diesel loco volume - since I lived far from any electrified railway and wouldn't have demeaned myself by spotting multiple units. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfsboy Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 God, his books were a large part of my early life ,spotting etc ,buses and trains,and all that .RIP and thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 His little locospotter books were invaluable to railway modellers, as where else could be obtain running numbers of each and every class of steam loco in GB. I have some early 1950's ones that also said where each loco was shedded. Looking at them now makes me feel so lucky to have been around to enjoy the terrific steam-age. Even a well-paid feller would have been stretched to see everything and every loco that existed in those 1950s spotters books. Without the books we would have been unaware. The Ian Allan photo albums produced around 1946 with photos by Canon Eric Treacy, Maurice Earley, O.J.Morris and C.B.Herbert must have been inspirational bibles to many a photographer for many years afterwards. Even now I know an IA railway colour album will be a good 'un (another arrived in the post yesterday!) R.I.P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartingram Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Gerald Tweedy from Cambridge (hope I got his name spelt right) was famed for being the 1st person to spot all the steam locos on BR, sometime around 1964/5 i believe. Stewart Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Who amongst us can forgot Ian Allan's 'Trains Illustrated' and those ominous "Class extinct" photos in each months 'Motive Power Miscellany'... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Market65 Posted June 30, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 30, 2015 I thank Ian Allan for giving me my railway education - the ABC's and magazines as well as many excellent books. Ian Allan will be much missed. R.I.P. Market65. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Still got my first "Combine". Took me a long time to realise that ex-GWR locos weren't painted grey..... All the fun we had underlining the numbers in different coloured biro. Wonder what problem I had with D53? Ian Allan, RIP. Thanks for starting me off down that slippery slope. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dava Posted July 1, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 1, 2015 Good to read Chris Leigh's recollections. I wondered at the time why IA closed Model Railway Constructor then Railway World, both quality titles in their fields, though RW lost its way towards the end with too many columnists apart from the great man's own column. I guess they just lost sales. Apart from the books & mags, the bookshops in Cardiff, Brum and Manchester were welcome calling points on visits to those cities. Adieu. Dava Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PhilH Posted July 1, 2015 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted July 1, 2015 Still got my first "Combine". Took me a long time to realise that ex-GWR locos weren't painted grey.....File2054.jpgAll the fun we had underlining the numbers in different coloured biro. Wonder what problem I had with D53?File2055.jpgIan Allan, RIP.Thanks for starting me off down that slippery slope. It was an alternative year thing for me, red for cops blue for scrapped one year, then vice versa for the next year and so on. About the only thing I've ever been meticulous about in my whole life...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold melmoth Posted July 1, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 1, 2015 Obituary from the Daily Telegraph website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11708536/Ian-Allan-trainspotter-obituary.html#disqus_thread Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicor Models Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Obituary from the Daily Telegraph website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11708536/Ian-Allan-trainspotter-obituary.html#disqus_thread I was just going to say the same, lovely obit for a lovely man. He was definitely my inspiration when I was young to go out trainspotting and bus spotting thanks to his publications, a hobby that I still enjoy today albeit a camera rather than notebook and pencil. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 The oldest possession I still have, from new, is my 'Loco-spotters Club' badge from 1961. Wish I could have kept my original ABC's - but they fell apart with constant use by the mid 60's. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 When I got this (I forget if it was an uncle that bought it me) in 1950, I have to be honest I saw it merely as a picture book! It was correct up to September 9th 1950, and Chief Mechanical Engineer for BR(LMR) was H. G. Ivatt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edward66 Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 I got my first abc [London Midland Region] in 1952 at the age of 9 or 10 having been an avid railway enthusiast as long as I remembered, when I was a toddler I perched on Grandma's bedroom windowsill for hours to watch Jinties shunting Lancaster's Ladies walk and New Zealand sidings. In 1953 [i think] I was escorted on an Ian Allan locospotters trip to Gorton Works where the great man signed my 1952 abc during a group photo on and around 69999, the ex-LNER Garrett. I wish I had a copy of that! I continued to buy ABCs [sorry, I think capitals look best] for many years until my interest in railways declined for a while which coincided with the diesel takeover, I still haven't mustered much enthusiasm for them even now. It was several years before I could justify the expense of the combined volume, I just got the LMR and ER ones, I rarely saw GW locos and never the SR ones. I am sorry to read of IA's passing, I am sure nobody with any interest in railways wouldn't know of him, a giant in the railway enthusiasts' world. In recent times I often wondered what had happened to him and if indeed he was still alive as I figured he must be quite an age as his early publications went back such a long way, I never forgot that address, 282 Vauxhall Bridge Road. RIP Ian Allan OBE Edward Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Kirkham Posted July 2, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 2, 2015 He appeared on television not all that long ago in an excellent two-part series about the early days of preservation (can't remember the title). I remember thinking he looked distinctly frail, and surmised that he probably wouldn't be around for much longer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 He appeared on television not all that long ago in an excellent two-part series about the early days of preservation (can't remember the title). I remember thinking he looked distinctly frail, and surmised that he probably wouldn't be around for much longer. I think that would be the two programme BBC4 mini-series The Golden Age of Steam Railways. It was produced and directed by David Parker in 2012 and narrated by Jenny Agutter. The first programme looked at early NG preservation and the second SG. The two one hour programmes are available together as a BBC DVD and well worth watching. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamiel Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Goodbye Ian Allen, you made so many young boys life much richer, if a little less cool, and also a lot of old men too.Girls on the whole had more sense, but I don't care, many happy hours spent by railways thanks to you.Nice to read the Telegraph's obituary linked above. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcordingley Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 RIP Ian Allan - my personal tribute, a selection of my earliest ABCs from the 1960s. Saving up the necessary pocket money (10/6) for my first Combined Volume (Summer 1960 edition, centre left) seemed to take forever - and prices went up to a shocking 11/6 a couple of years later! Not sure quite where the Southern Region 2/6 edition came from - growing up in Lancaster any loco with a number beginning with "3" might as well have been on Mars. The occasional B1s on Summer Saturday excursions from Leeds and Bradford were the the height of exotica! Happy days.... David C. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
108 Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 My first pocket book was the 1978 edition of Civil Aircraft Markings. Swiftly followed by various train versions. The start of a lifetimes interest in aircraft and trains. Live long and prosper. PJ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 I always underlined with a red Bic...... Nice post Chris L. Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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