Iain Rice

Iain Alexander Rice (11 October 1947 – 8 October 2022) was a British model railway enthusiast, writer and illustrator who authored more than 20 books and 400 articles on model railways over five decades. Railway Modeller described Rice as one of the hobby's "most influential and prominent enthusiasts of the last fifty years".

Biography
Iain Alexander Rice was born 11 October 1947 in Crouch End, North London, and grew up in Chingford in East London. He constructed his first model railway when he was eight. Rice was educated at Parmiter's School in Bethnal Green followed by Chingford County High School, then Reigate College of Art in Surrey. In 1971 Rice began working as a firefighter in the Northamptonshire Fire Brigade, before moving to Devon in 1977 and subsequently serving 26 years as a retained firefighter with the Devon Fire Brigade.

Rice began contributing to the model railway press in the 1970s, with his first books published in the 1980s for Wild Swan Publications. His writings were often accompanied by his own artwork. In the 1990s Rice helped launch and edit Modelling Railways Illustrated followed by the short-lived periodical Rail Model Digest. In the 2000s he also wrote a series of books on model railroads for the American publisher Kalmbach Books.