De treinspotter die ook veel voor de luchtvaart deed. RIP...

[Stratofreighter]

Ian Allan, who has died the day before his 93rd birthday, triggered the post-war explosion of trainspotting as a British pastime by publishing the first booklet of engine numbers in 1942 and starting a club which had 230,000 members by the time steam gave way to diesel.

He diversified the business to embrace magazines, bookshops, a travel agency, a Masonic publisher, a printing business, organic garden supplies, commercial property and car dealerships.

In 1946 he had founded Trains Illustrated (today the industry “bible” Modern Railways). He became a large-scale publisher of railway books and launched numerous other magazines,
among them Buses Illustrated, Tramways and Urban Transit, Model Railway Constructor, Aircraft Illustrated, Combat Aircraft and Hornby Magazine.

He went on to acquire the Oxford Publishing Company (1998), Midland Publishing and Midland Counties Publications (1999), and, in 2002, Classic Publications. The rail magazine business was sold in 2012.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... tuary.html is aardig wat tekst.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Allan_Publishing

[Alpha Kilo One]

Another well-known name passed away....

[Rene Klok]

I don't think that there are many spotters (certainly the pre-internet generation) that do not have an Ian Allan published book or magazine in their collection. He has left his footprint indeed. R.I.P.