Jenkinson was born in Leeds and educated at Prince Henry's Grammar School, Otley, which in 1951 took him to a field trip to the Settle-Carlisle Railway line (S&C), which would start a lengthy relationship with that line. He went to London University where he met his future wife Sheila, with whom he had four children (Christopher, Hilary, Timothy and Nicola).
After graduating Jenkinson joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1956, from which he retired in 1972 having achieved the rank of Squadron Leader.[1] During this time he built his 4 mm scaleEM gauge models Marthwaite[2] and Garsdale Road[3] (see Garsdale) representing a station on the S&C set during the 1930s period when it was run by the LMS.
In 1963, with Bob Essery and others he founded the LMS Society.[4] Alone and with Essery he authored many books, the most important was their book on LMS Coaches, which was groundbreaking in its treatment of a non-locomotive subject.
Soon after the Science Museum was asked to take on the historic railway collections, David, having retired from the RAF, applied for and was appointed as an education officer with the Science Museum at South Kensington, where he worked with John Van Riemsdijk on the layout of the new building in York.[1] He subsequently became Head of Education and Research at the resulting National Railway Museum (NRM), where he was responsible for refurbishment to running condition of major locomotives and vehicles, so that national tours would promote the museum. He left the NRM in 1988,[5] after management changes.
He put some of the time thus freed into his writing career and was editor of BackTrack from 1989 to 1994, in succession to the magazine's founder, Nigel Trevena, of Atlantic Transport Publishers. Jenkinson set up Pendragon Publishing in 1991 as a separate entity within Atlantic and retained it when he split with them in 1995. In partnership with Michael Blakemore, Pendragon bought BackTrack from Atlantic in 2003.[6]
In the year he left the RAF he started his layout Little Long Drag, which incorporated Garsdale Road and a lengthy run in a custom-built shed.[7] Later he switched to 7 mm scale modelling, building Kendal, Kendal II and Kendal Branch the latter based on an imaginary ex-Midland Railway line in the early Grouping era (c.1928-30).
Much of his railway modelling stock was sold at auction by Christie's in 2005.[8]
^Blakemore, Michael, '"Silently closing the bedroom door, Leaving the note that he hoped would say more…"' (editorial): BackTrack, vol. 17, no. 12, December 2003, page 663
^Jenkinson, David, "Little Long Drag 1 - Planning for Permanence" Railway Modeller, May 1973
