Ten-year McKinley veteran Alan Fall can’t stop fiddling with things. Especially if he thinks he can make them work better. His workbench, the neatness of which is always the true sign of a tidy mind, is strewn with tools, parts, wires and assorted bric-a-brac of every description. If your favourite coffee mug goes missing this is where you should look for it.

Alan joined the McKinley team in 2007 following an introduction from long-time crew member Bernie Wood. Much of the McKinley locomotive roster was failing to run as well as the owner had envisaged, and a higher power was needed. Cue Alan; after 10 years with Graham Farish when it was based at Holton Heath in Poole surely this was the man who could fix the fleet.

Alan’s main roles include servicing of locomotives to significantly improve reliability; a key factor on any self-respecting computer-controlled model railway. Many locos also needed to be converted from analogue to DCC operation, for which Alan maintains a very strict and thorough set of standards which he’ll be happy to tell you about, especially if you haven’t asked him to do so.
But it doesn’t end there; older rogue pointwork will soon feel the business end of his 18" 2nd cut file until proper railhead alignment is achieved.

This is man who likes to get it right, however long it takes.