HE MANAGED THE TRANSITION FROM THE TRANSITION ERA TO THE DIESEL ERA.

Kalmbach Publishing report the death of onetime Trains editor J. David Ingles.

After college and a stint as a newspaper reporter in Springfield, Ill., he joined the Trains staff in 1971 as associate editor. In 1987, upon the retirement of David P. Morgan, Ingles was named editor of Trains, a post he held until 1992, when he became the magazine’s senior editor. He retired from Trains as senior editor in 2005, but continued in that role for Classic Trains until 2018, when he transitioned to contributing editor, the position he held at the time of his death. At 47 years, his tenure is thought to be the longest of any Kalmbach Media employee.

Succeeding David P. Morgan as editor of Trains is the same sort of professional challenge as succeeding Vince Lombardi as coach of the Green Bay Packers. You might have noticed the Morgan references in Cold Spring Shops, and I've probably stolen a lot of features from Trains of that era in the layout and sometimes the phrasing I use.

Mr Ingles was up to the task.

Dave’s particular interests were diesel locomotives (early on, he acquired the moniker “Diesel Dave”) and the geography of railroading. Along with a handful of others who eschewed the prevailing early-1960s view that railroading’s appeal had vanished with the end of steam, he saw that diesels could be as fascinating to observers as they were important to the industry. Two of his early major features — “Christine and the Mongeese,” about the Rock Island’s eclectic diesel fleet (December 1965 Trains and “Salute to a Different Diesel,” on Alco’s PA (November 1966) — stand as landmarks.

On the Rock Island, for some reason, their small fleet of BL2s were a pack of mongeese. That's a slightly nicer term than they used on Missouri Pacific.

Classic Trains editor Rob McGonigal concludes, "The staffers — and readers — of Trains, Classic Trains, and the other Kalmbach rail titles, will benefit from his influence for years to come."

Indeed. RIP.