Robin Winter

[bécasse]

Sadly Robin Winter, Isle of Man enthusiast and modeller par excellence, died last Saturday after at least a couple of decades of chronic illness.

 

I first met Robin, ably assisted by his wife, Susan, and children Tim and Annie, when he exhibited his exquisite IoM-based OOn12 layout Port Foxdale at the Brighton Model Railway Club's small exhibition at Dorothy Springer school, only a short stroll from my then home. Chatte ing with them, I came to realise that they, like me, could be classified as "sole" modellers so I passed on my contact details with an offer of assistance should they ever need it.

 

Even so, I was surprised some months later to receive a phone call from Susan (Robin himself was already finding phone calls difficult) to say that they were having real problems getting their model of the IoM's ex-CDR back-to-back railcar to work. The model was made up, beautifully as it transpired, from a pair of Anbrico white-metal kits with a powered van marshalled between them. A formation that was fine in theory, and had prototypical provenance, but which was overwhelmed by the shear weight of the two Anbrico bodies. After giving some thought to the matter, I concluded that the only solution was to fully replicate the prototype with powered bogies under each driving cab and the "bus" bodies articulated on to the rear of each bogie so that traction would be more than adequate. Both the bogies would have to be constructed from scratch and, although Robin had made a superb job of building several Beyer-Peacock IoM 2-4-0Ts from kits, he felt that this would have stretched his expertise a little too far, so I ended up building the two powered bogies for him to fit into the Anbrico cabs, after which the railcar twin became a regular performer on Port Foxdale at the many shows it attended all over the country.

 

By this time, Robin had become a regular contributor to Railway Modeller and we had intended a joint write-up on the construction of the power bogies. However, the only potential source of driving wheels was Sharman Wheels and, with the effective disappearance of that range from the market we decided that an article would have little point.

 

Robin had also joined the Greenwich and District Narrow Gauge Railway Society and, post Port Foxdale, produced several micro layouts which appeared at EXPONG.

 

In addition to his articles in RM, Robin also produced a couple of Railway Modeller Special books, one on modelling the Isle of Man Railway and the other a compilation of the photographs that the late David Odabashian had taken during the Isle of Man Railway's 1950s heyday.

 

My condolences to Susan, Tim and Annie.

[St Enodoc]

I knew Robin slightly in the 1980s - he was the landlord of one of my rugby team mates. At that time he had a very nice 00 model of either Wallingford or Watlington - can't remember which after all these years - in his spare room, which was of course my mate's bedroom. I did try to get Robin to join the Brighton MRC but as you say he preferred to be a lone wolf as far as his modelling was concerned.

 

I lost touch with him, other than through his writings, after I left Sussex so haven't seen him for well over 30 years.

 

RIP.

[adrianmc]

 

Robin and family with Port Foxdale at the 2001 Uckfield Model Railway Exhibition.

 

My and the Uckfield Club's condolences to Susan, Tim and Annie.