Martin Evans 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 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 December 2003.
Locomotive designs
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 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:
Model locomotive valve gears. London: Percival Marshall, 1962. 2nd ed: Hemel Hempstead: Model & Allied Publications, 1967.
Inverness to Crewe: The British 4-6-0 locomotive. Model Aeronautical Press, 1966.
Outdoor Model Railways. Hemel Hempstead: Model and Allied Publications, 1970.
Rob Roy: how to build a simple 3 1/2 in. gauge 0-6-0 tank locomotive based on the dockyard engines of the old Caledonian Railway. Hemel Hempstead: Model and Allied Publications, 1972. Rev ed: 1979.
Model locomotive construction. Hemel Hempstead: Model & Allied Publications, 1974. 2nd ed.: Watford: Model and Allied Publications, 1978.
Model locomotive boilers: their design and construction. Rev ed: Watford, Hertfordshire: Model & Allied Publications, 1976,.
Caribou 0-8-0 Canadian switcher for 3 1/2in. gauge: . Watford, UK: Model & Allied Publications, Argus Books, 1977..
Simplex 0-6-0 freelance tank locomotive for 5in. gauge. Watford, UK: Model & Allied Publications, Argus Books, 1977..
Introducing model steam locomotive construction. London: K. Dickson, 1981.
The model steam locomotive: a complete treatise on design and construction. Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: Argus Books, 1983.
Rob Roy and William: two 3 1/2in. gauge locomotives. London: Argus Books, c.1987.
Model locomotive and marine boilers. Hemel Hempstead, UK: Argus Books, 1988.
