Martin Evans (model engineer)

Martin Evans (1916–2003) was a major contributor to the English recreational magazine Model Engineer. He was promoted from Technical Editor to Editor of the magazine in January 1966. His editorship, along with a change in almost all other staff on the magazine, is credited as having saved it from decline. The next year, the prolific model locomotive designer 'Curly' Lawrence, aka LBSC, died. At this point, Martin Evans took over the serialisation of locomotive designs, apparently rivalling LBSC in his output. He inaugurated the International Model Locomotive Efficiency Competition (IMLEC) in 1969. Evans was an erudite editor, whose time in the job was distinguished by a stable of brilliant contributors who came into the magazine from lifetime careers at the very height of British toolroom engineering. At this time the magazine was of extraordinary quality, reflected even in the learned and passionate debates that raged in the letters columns and demanded the best of the reader's intellect. He retired from the editorship in June 1977, concentrating on locomotive designs. He died on 29 Dec 2003.

Many model locomotive designs in a range of gauges were serialised by Martin Evans in the pages of Model Engineer. The castings with which to machine and build these designs are in many cases still available from commercial suppliers such as Reeves 2000 (formerly A.J. Reeves) and Blackgates Engineering; as well as laser cut components by Model Engineers Laser. Some of these designs are very popular, as websites such as The Simplex Website and threads in many Model engineer's web forums demonstrate. They are frequently seen both on model railway society tracks and the second hand market, such as Station Road Steam. The designs included:

Martin Evans was author of a number of books, including:

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