BigMal Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Passed away last Friday. My condolences to his family and many long time friends. Derek was a regular visitor and contributor to many exhibitions, most notably Narrow Gauge North and York amongst others. A true gentleman who was one of the older scratchbulding generation. It was always worth stopping for a chat with him as he had a wealth of knowledge all the way back to his well known Aire Valley articles in the RM from the 1960s. RIP Derek Mal Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted January 9, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 9, 2017 Derek was a gentleman, always wiling to help. His modelling was of the highest order. Starting with the Aire Valley Railway he visited our show in Leeds on a number of occasions. He moved into model ship building but then, after a far too lengthy absence returned with two new narrow gauge layouts. He was a pleasure to talk to and a leader in narrow gauge modelling in his time. RIP Derek. Baz and the Leeds MRS Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted January 9, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2017 The Freelance Era. Now a very rare beast, it seems, compared to then. I think Derek was an occasional visitor to RMweb in recent years, but certainly his entertaining and delightful modelsin the Modeller inspired this teenager. Another sad loss to our hobby's heritage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Not Jeremy Posted January 12, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 12, 2017 Sad news, I very much enjoyed his Aire Valley Adventures in my youth and it was very nice to see him pitch up on here more recently, as Olddudders notes above. RIP Derek and thank you for your models and articles. Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
60021 Pen-y-Ghent Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Not long back from saying farewell and RIP to Derek. Entry to the ceremony was to "Chattanooga choo-choo" and exit to "The Runaway Train". Some style! I first got to know Derek from a non-railway angle via mutual friends. My abiding memory of him will be him phoning out of the blue to check my son was safe in Japan. He was there not many miles from the epicentre of one of the recent big earthquakes. A true gentleman and I shall miss him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted February 3, 2017 Share Posted February 3, 2017 RIP Derek. His Aire Valley Adventure series in Railway Modeller was inspirational. I am glad I made contact in the last few years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Popplewell Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 So sad to see that Derek has passed on. I was quite shocked to see his obituary in this months RM. I can still recall the thrill as a teenager in the seventies of reading another instalment of The Airevalley Adventure. Derek was my modelling inspiration and got me into 009 for several years before girls and booze brought modelling to an end. Many years later it was coming across one of his articles in a second hand 1975 RM that got me into buying up all the RM's featuring his Airevalley Adventure, just for sentimental reasons. It was only then that I realised that he'd modelled with twelve mm. track and I finally got to see the track plan of The Airevalley. I'd missed the first episode all those years ago. It's strange how my life has been almost linked to Derek's for I now live in Saltaire and indeed I live within a few hundred yards of where his windowless loft harboured his layout. I was lucky enough to meet the man himself a couple of years ago at the Shipley MRS. Exhibition where he was exhibiting his model boat harbour.( with working tides) I plucked up courage to speak to the man and told him how he'd been a hero to me for all those years and he expressed surprise, admitting modestly that his Airevalley did seem to have attracted a loyal following. I told him that my modelling today being freelance was almost certainly due to his influence and he seemed quite touched at my compliment. Derek seemed like a really nice guy and I'm so glad that I finally met him and so sad that he's now gone.It's like I've lost an old friend as indeed in some ways I have. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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