I think this is probably the first time that a photograph of the great man has ever been published, and is itself a photograph of a photograph………..

I am indebted to Mr Gerald Russell for sending it to me. I have included below a copy of a short biography written two years ago for a magazine.


Copyright CV Russell and E Fells.  Reproduced with their kind permissions.

 

 

John H. Ahern 

 

John Henry Ahern, known as ‘Jack’, was a London insurance broker who in early 1939 began a regular series of articles published in the Model Railway News centred broadly around the construction of two successive small 4mm layouts each called the ‘Madder Valley Railway’ and the means of scratch-building small light railway locomotive models.

 

With the advent of the Second World War in September of that year, severe restrictions on the manufacture of ‘toys’ meant that virtually everything had to be home-built from household or hoarded material.  Contemporary modelling trends were to model mainline locomotives on large double-tracked layouts. These layouts were largely the preserve of the wealthy, the emphasis being firmly on the locomotives and rolling stock, with scenic modelling playing second fiddle.

 

The Madder Valley railways were unusual for that period in that they were from the start ‘scenic’ railways, running through whimsical landscapes containing cardboard and wooden buildings built to a most exacting standard. Quite simply, no one had taken so much care or paid so much attention to structure modelling. His methods and drawings, brought together in ‘Miniature Building Construction: an Architectural Guide for Modellers’ ISBN-13: 978-0852421925 enabled many to follow his lead and encouraged what we think of today as ‘Railway Modelling’.

 

Taking early retirement in 1944, he moved with his wife Gladys to a house in St John’s Wood situated behind Lord’s Cricket Ground and there set to work building the final Madder Valley Railway. 

An intellectual, a member of the Fabian Society and friend of H.G Wells he would probably be amused to think that his most lasting memorial is a 1930s themed model railway, now preserved at Pendon Museum.

Doug

He's not a bit as I imagined Doug.  A very dapper looking gentleman.

A very skilled chap indeed.:thumbs

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

He's not a bit as I imagined Doug……………

Nor me Peter!   What an inspiring man he was and his books are still my alltime favourites.

Ken

Thanks for posting that, Doug.
I must have walked past his house many times in my childhood.

Doug, isn't this the photo published with the article in Model Railway Journal some years ago?

 Terry

[user=711]col.stephens[/user] wrote:

Doug, isn't this the photo published with the article in Model Railway Journal some years ago?

Terry

Terry, I'm afraid I can't answer that, never having taken the magazine, it is certainly new to me.

I am still persuing MyHobbyStore's title to the copyright of the assorted drawings as there would appear to be some conflict over where the rights reside over the drawings, as opposed to the rights over the illustrations of the drawing title sketches.

Best wishes,

 

Doug

Thanks for posting Doug (we need an "I like" button!)

Cyril Freezer once informed me that John Ahearn was also a photographer and knew just how to bring the best out of his work as I struggled back in the 70's to even come close to reproducing his miniature master pieces.
His book, Miniature Building Construction, was also my bible and is what set me off into the world of railway modelling and I'm still struggling today to match his realism and atmosphere despite all the modern materials and adhesives that we have available and one can't even start to imagine what the master would have achieved had he the same materials to work with.

A true modelmaking legend if ever there was.