JOHN ALLAN SOMMERFIELD
                                                                     A PERSONAL TRIBUTE BY THE SOCIETY's PRESIDENT
                                                                                                             NICK PIG0TT

     It is no exaggeration to say that if it had not been for Allan Sommerfield, the Engine Shed Society might not exist today.
    Allan came to the rescue at a precarious time in the society's life. I'd had to step down from the editorship of 'Link' as a result of my appointment as editor of 'Steam Railway' and my successor, Paul Smith, had to stand down shortly afterwards due to his wife Shirley's serious illness ... and we'd still only reached Issue No.8.
    The journal badly needed some stability if the society was to survive. Allan, who had joined in 1987 as Member No. 120, had an advantage over us 'youngsters' insofar as he was a good decade older and thus remembered steam sheds of the 1940s and '50s. He was also something of an expert in the railways of his beloved North-West and listed as his specialist subject the depots of the L&Y and the LNWR, adding with a twinkle in his eye . . . "the more obscure the better".
     A retired schoolmaster, he took charge of 'Link' in the Spring of 1989 and brought a sense of gravitas to the society, seeking out well-researched studies of long-lost railway installations while keeping his finger on the pulse of current affairs during the rapid onset of rail privatisation in the 1990s.
     He loved the role of Editor and took his position very seriously, rarely failing to attend committee meetings and annual general meetings despite long journeys and failing health, and I will never forget the way he would gently admonish us all for failing to supply him with enough material for the journal during the course of the year.
     In fact, it became something of a mutual joke for us all (including Allan!) that his long and intricate reports came to be viewed as chronicles of doom that would regularly prophesy the death of 'Link' and with it the demise of the society. But, chastised as we were, we always knew deep down that Allan would find some little nugget in his famed 'bottom drawer' with which to fill that last blank page and save the day . . . and of course, he always did.
     Jesting aside though, Allan wasn't merely the Editor of Link, he was also its distributor and, from Issue 14 onwards, its publisher and in those roles he incurred dreadful problems the membership as a whole has never really been fully aware of. These included a computer hard-disc crash that wiped out an entire edition and necessitated it having to be completely re-set, numerous short-notice changes of personnel at the printers, often just as he'd established a good working relationship with them - and waking up one morning to find that the printer had gone bankrupt with all the text and photos for the next issue trapped inside the building!
     Allan regaled us with many hair-curling tales of how he coped with those stressful problems and we habitually commended him for his efforts while silently praying that he would not carry out his semi-serious regular threats to pack the job in!
     In the end, he admitted to wanting to complete 20 years (80 issues) at the regulator and that's exactly what he did. It's sad that he never had the opportunity to enjoy his newly-appointed position as the society's Deputy Chairman, but, to quote a railwaymen's phrase; he is in that "great engine shed in the sky", a description that seems especially appropriate in the circumstances.
     Allan Sommerfield was a kind, gentle, softly-spoken and extremely knowledgeable man who was the absolute cornerstone of our society and we owe it to his memory to keep it thriving.
                                                                                            We will all miss him enormously!