Atock was born in June 1834 in Preston, Lancashire to George and Hephzibah Attock. His baptism took place in the parish church of St. John the Evangelist± on 26 June 1834 where the Reverend Roger Carus Wilson recorded his name as Martin Atock using the common spelling of the surname for the locality rather than that of his father. He moved to Stratford, London when his father George Attock became Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the Eastern Counties Railway, a predecessor of the Great Eastern Railway. He followed father into railway engineering becoming a draftsman. At a meeting of the ECR on 8 July 1857 he was appointed chief draughsman at wages of £2 10s per week, and was noted as having resigned from the ECR as outdoor foreman of the locomotive department on 6 November 1861. He married in 1859. In 1861 he relocated to Limerick, Ireland in 1861 to take up an appointment as Locomotive Superintendent to the Waterford and Limerick Railway. Whilst there he organised a reading room for the locomotive men at Limerick; incorporated a new wage structure, and persuaded the directors to reduce the weekly working hours down from 58 to the recommended 54 hours per week. His final post was of Locomotive Superintendent of the Midland Great Western Railway at Broadstone works from 1872. Following his retirement in 1900 he died in November 1901 following a short trip to London.
The fly-away cab was the most distinctive attribute of a Martin Atock locomotive. They were problematic running in reverse and new locomotives and rebuilds after his departure quickly changed to a conventional square cab design. Atock is credited with bringing a degree of standardisation to the MGWR. He implemented a policy of renewing or rebuilding rolling stock every 20 years or so. He was aided by the expansion of Broadstone works in 1878 making it more suitable for the construction of locomotives. It can be said Atock never designed as bad locomotive at the MGWR. He moved away from the 4-2-0 preference of his predecessor, favoured 0-6-0 for freight and 2-4-0 for passenger/mixed passenger during his tenure. He produced a useful 0-6-0T for branch and shunting. He seemed to avoid 4-4-0 and all bogie designs until the final design of his era, there are various speculations whether this was due to the influence of his successor Cusack or the success of the 4-4-0 elsewhere. On his retirement all MGWR locomotives were of his design apart from MGWR Class H that he had recommended be purchased for a bargain price.
