Terry Collins writes:
People who knew David Shotter, who was a member (No. 41) for many years, will I am sure be saddened to learn that he has passed away on Monday 4th May, after a long illness, at the age of eighty six years.
David was a good friend of mine for getting on for thirty years. He was also a great friend of Peter and Don Jones and of John Bonfield and Alan Craney. David was also active in the larger scales up to 2ft gauge, and a very active member of the Fareham & District Model Engineers Society including working on their 32 & 45mm line.
David made a big contribution to the hobby as a truly remarkable engineer, producing among many other things a correctly scaled Decauville locomotive which even had working brake blocks. But what he will best be known for were the huge number of people (myself included) who sent him locomotives for repair, and who received them back working in “as new” condition. He was very reluctant to charge anything for all his excellent work, and spent so much time repairing other people’s locomotives that he once told me that he never had the time to build a line for himself – although he always intended to.
He was always a real gentleman. Despite all his achievements, despite all of that knowledge and expertise and despite of all the help he had given, he remained a gentle and unassuming man, always polite, always ready to have a quiet chuckle with everyone he talked to. Everybody from the most experienced to the newcomer felt at ease with David and liked him from the first.
Terry’s full tribute to David Shotter will appear in the August 2015 “16mm Today”.