Description

North London

Ernest Leopold Ahrons (1866 – 1926),  was educated at the Bradford Grammar School and Yorkshire College, Leeds. As a student at the latter he obtained one out of three advanced scholarships in mathematics and physics, and was awarded first prize in engineering construction and mechanism and machinery. Leaving college in 1885, Ahrons went as a pupil under Mr. W. Dean to Swindon Locomotive Works, Great Western Railway, until 1888, and for two years after was employed in the Drawing Office and as an inspector of materials. In 1890 he became Chief Draughtsman to Messrs. Fleming, Macfarlane & Co., of Middleton, and soon afterwards obtained a position on the drawing office staff of Messrs. Beyer, Peacock & Co. Ltd. He was appointed in 1892 to the position of Engineer and Manager of the Government Workshops attached to the Ecole Khédivial d’Arts et Métiers, at Boulac, Cairo. Owing to ill health, he resigned this appointment in 1898, and returned to England. In the same year he became engineer-in-charge of the general department of Messrs. Henry Simon Ltd., of Manchester. Between the years 1902 and 1917 he held various positions in engineering industry, and during the Great War acted as a Trade Officer at the Department of Overseas Trade (Development and Intelligence). He resigned from the Government service in 1919, and until his death devoted himself entirely to literary work.

 LOCOMOTIVE & TRAIN WORKING… is by far the best body of published work describing what rail travel was like in the second half of Victoria´s Reign. Ahrons did time trains as a passenger, but unlike C.J. Allen, O.S. Nock and later, P.W.B. Semmens,did not pad out his work with practically signal box by signal box passing times, confining himself basically to departure and arrival times, commenting  “late”, “on time” or “early”. The type of detailed log described is virtually meaningless without details of weather throughout the journey, was the train half full, full “full and standing?”; what recovery time was privately allowed in the Working Timetable?; what did the guard´s journal for the run have to report over delays caused by large numbers of passengers leaving or joining, GPO loading or unloading mail, or the railway’s own parcel and luggage traffic?

 Also unlike the “professional” train timers, Ahrons did not feel the need to avoid criticism of the railway, for fear of not being granted footplate trips and free passes. He was a keen observer, not just of locomotives but also of passenger carriages and of stations. His style, although not quite as entertaining as Hamilton Ellis, nonetheless is readable, and betrays a dry sense of humour. Never a fan of Francis W. Webb he has considerable fun at the expense of his compounds , with contra rotating driving wheels, but concedes that one class, the “TEUTONICS” did some very good work. This is what he has to say about  the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway which he knew as a youth.

…Lancashire & Yorkshire trains of about 1877 to 1883, with some exceptions, might from the traveler´s point of view, have been classified into three categories (1)trains which arrived but did not start, (2) trains which started but did not arrive, and (3) trains which neither started nor arrived.

The remaining volumes in this series will be offered in due course