Ian Morton – Layout Wiring

ian_mortonIan spent much of his working life in the computer industry beginning as a field service engineer when microcomputers (as they were then) were just starting to be taken into business use, then moving on to training, support and programming. Redundancy saw him move to Midland Counties, the Ian Allan mail-order booksellers producing catalogues and advertisements. Employed to describe the books for the catalogue meant that he could often be found drinking a cup of tea with his feet up whilst reading a book, possibly the perfect job! The closure of Midland Counties led to another career change and he became a professional layout builder, a business that has somehow morphed into a small model shop.

He has been a railway modeller since he was knee high to a grasshopper when he received a Märklin train set. The integrated signals, point control and automation gave him an early grounding in model railway electrics. Over the years, he has modelled in N, OO, OO9 and O gauge but the first layout that he actually completed was one serialised in Hornby Magazine. He wrote many articles on electrics and DCC for the magazine in its early years along with several books for Ian Allan Publishing including: Aspects of Modelling: Railway Electrics, Aspects of Modelling: Digital Command Control and Digital Command Control: The Definitive Guide.

Ian presented two Right Track videos: ‘Starting on the Right Track‘ and ‘No.12 Wiring Your Layout‘, the content of the later is available in our Virtual Autumn 2020 weekend.