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John Lloyd Flann


nickwood
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I received an email from John's son, Nicholas to inform me of John's passing which I have copied below.

 

"It with sadness that I have to inform you that John died on Sunday. It was sudden, and I don't believe Dad suffered at all. He was on his way to Church with his jacket and badge on, locking the front door on his way to the garage when he must have collapsed. I was just with him the night before enjoying a beer and having our regular chat about our various projects. We had just come upstairs from discussing his new project Hintock St Loe. I attach a picture of the layout as he left it. Also, a photo of the plan that he had just completed to post no doubt on the railway forum.

(Photos attached at the foot of the post)

 

I cannot express the thanks I have for your companionship with Dad over the years. His railway and his friends and fans he had on the forum gave him so much vitality and enthusiasm for life. He often shared your stories with me and kept me up to date with how many likes he was getting on his posts.

 

On a more practical note, it is my responsibility to handle Dad's extensive model railway gear including all his stock, models, etc. I would appreciate any help you could provide as to how I should proceed. If possible, I'd like to see at least some of it go to people who could appreciate and utilize the product of so much of Dad's time and effort.

 

Thanks again, I'm sorry to be the bearer of such sad news.

Nicholas"

 

 

I first remember John's name from reading articles that he wrote on Owlcombe and Hintock in the modelling press back in the 1970's I think. He was an early member of YMR and it was here that he and I first struck up a rapport, commenting on each others layouts. He gave me much critical encouragement during the construction of Much Murkle, both on the forum and privately. I liked the fact that he never fought shy of saying if he didn't like something I had done, but he also gave encouragement and praise in equal measure. I found his work on Hintock inspirational, hopefully some of which rubbed off on me.

 

I was lucky enough to have a face to face discussion with John, and his son Nicholas when they visited the UK in 2016. We talked about lots of things and obviously modelling was one subject that got aired. John was adamant that my adopted approach was too much towards the finescale end of the spectrum for his taste. He was always quite prepared to completely omit details which couldn't be seen. I retorted that his approach was more akin to an artist and storyteller. John may not have been a finescale modeller in the true sense of the term, but he certainly made some of the finest models and settings I have had the pleasure to see develop and read about.

We exchanged many emails over the all too few years I had his acquaintance. It was clear to me that John was very much a family man first and modeller second. He cared for his wife Jeanne for some time before she eventually passed away and he always took great pride in relating to me how his sons and their families doing.

 

I am aware that my friendship with John was not unique as he took much time and trouble to correspond with the many people who took an interest in his work. John was still modelling and submitting articles of his work to Railway Modeller magazine to the very end and a couple of photos can be seen below of his last unfinished project Hintock St Loe. There will undoubtably be many modellers who will be sad not to hear from him in the future and to see the Hintock story come to an untimely end.

 

I will miss John and our periodic exchanges greatly. A true gentleman.

 

R.I.P.

 

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post-7649-0-80770400-1522251493_thumb.jpg

Edited by nickwood
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Thanks Nick,  John will be sadly missed, we had many an E- Mail each week and he put me strait on Pencarne when I kept adding to many Points and Sidings.

 

R.I.P John and once again condolences to his family.

Edited by Andrew P
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Thank you Nick for taking the trouble to make your post regarding John, it must have been difficult. Like many others I corresponded with John via pms, and always looked forward to his posts on RMweb. He will be very much missed. Condolences to his family Adrian.

R.I.P. John

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Hi All,

 

I am so sorry to hear about John - I have been an ardent follower of his threads here for a long time.

 

We have lost too many good people recently...

 

All the best,

 

Castle

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I would have loved to have met John in person if I ever had the chance. He was interested to hear that I was associated with the SVR, and complemented on its signalling even if he couldn't witness it live. A true gentleman and one I shall miss.

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Hi Nick

 

That was a very moving obituary. You described John's qualities and inimitable style so well. I read it with a lump in my throat, nodding my head in agreement with each sentence.

 

Thank you for writing so well about our mutual friend

 

Best wishes

 

John

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Thank you Nick for being the bearer of such sad tidings.

 

As with yourself I first "met" John through YMR and recall some of his comments on Much Murkle and my own, then new, project which became Penhayle Bay.  We never met although we corresponded occasionally and exchanged public posts more frequently.  We soon developed a very healthy respect for each other's work and I know John was struck by my fairly intimate knowledge of his themed area around the Dorset / Devon borders and the Bredy Valley in particular.  It was my comment that I had stopped the car on a lengthy drive one summer's day right on top of Whiteway Hill (which users of the A35 will know) purposely to admire "Hintock-shire".  I mentioned that I was able to turn my back on the road traffic, gaze from that lofty height over many miles of undulating green countryside far below and through the haze toward a distant sea.  And as I listened to the bird song and the chug of a tractor I thought I heard a steam whistle on the warm aromatic summer breeze; somewhere unseen in the distance the Hintock train was making its way through John's countryside.  He confided in me that he was very moved by that description and by the blending of reality with his modelled fiction.

 

The hobby has lost a master modeller, creator of scenes and storyteller, and we have lost a true friend.  Ever a calm and quiet gentleman he was when circumstances warranted quite forthright but never abrupt.  His RMW topics were for his work alone and he never allowed conversation to wander very far.  

 

We have lost a very good friend.  I hope that distant whistle echoes forever through the Bredy Valley in his memory.  It will always live on in mine. I sincerely hope that his work finds worthy homes.

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Once John realised I lived on Portland we began to correspond regularly and his memories of the line into Easton when he came for family holidays in the 1930s and through the war until he was signed up for National Service were a major inspiration behind the Heritage Lottery project I am now running on Portland railways. We corresponded regularly about Portland especially and lots of other things including family matters. I had corresponded with him over the weekend and was about to email him to say I had finished reading his Portland Railways article in Backtrack magazine and how much I enjoyed it when I picked up the news of his untimely death.

 

To me he really captured the feel of the part of Dorset where I have lived and worked for the past fourteen years, he just caught the atmosphere of a time gone by, the feel of the area and his idea of multiple layouts following a theme is something I am developing in my modelling directly as a result of John's inspiration. He wasn't a fine scale modeller but that is irrelevant, there was something special.

 

Like many on here I will really miss his emails and comments on my threads, he made many lucid comments about my East Anglian branch line. He had only recently submitted some photos and a fabulous drawing of Easton station for our Portland project.

 

R.I.P. John you will be missed.

 

Martyn

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I "knew" John mostly from here, & in the pages of Model Trains International & it's predecesor Model Trains. It was mostly for his US outline stuff that I followed his posts.

I will miss his posts on here.

Life's a fragile thing, isn't it? One minute you're here, the next you could be gone. :scratchhead: :dontknow:

 

RIP John.

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Like F-UnitMad, I "met" John thru Model Trains International and has many an e-mail to and from JF, both of us giving and receiving much varied modelling information and some personal details.

I can be blamed for introducing him to YMR when Robert Heath owned it  and as nickwood and Gwiwer have said, has been instrumental for many good ideas.

 

He will be missed in many places.

 

RIP John.

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I've been an avid follower of John's work. His articles in Railway Modeler, making one into the 2016 RM Annual, while other magazines have made it to the recycling, this one keeps coming back out. His work showed me that I could create a small layout with operational interest. His pictures and descriptions of mixed trains and his card system for goods working enthralled and delighted me. 

 

His threads were the first I clicked on when a post had been made. His insight, view, understanding and down to earth modeling will be sorely missed. 

Edited by sjrixon
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John was a great gentleman and a superb modeller. His layouts, nearly all based in Dorset, told a story and it was this storytelling that made them so believable.

I first heard of John through RMWeb and we started corresponding privately after he was having problems editing some of his photos for the website and his new camera. I also doctored some of his pictures in Photoshop, giving them a natural background or adding a bit of snow here and there. John was always appreciative of these efforts and said that they offered another dimension to his layout. 

​As Nick (nickwood) has said, John was an artist. He used his modelling skills and eye for detail to paint a picture. Each part of Hintock told a story about the Brede Valley, its inhabitants and visitors. 

​I will always remember to kindness and friendship he showed me and my family even though we never met. He will be sorely missed.

 

RIP John

post-8259-0-86993900-1522426152_thumb.jpg

 

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I remember the Poppy Hollow and Barley Dean layouts of "J L Flann" as they appeared in the Model Railway News a lifetime ago. Finding the Hintock thread here on RMweb was an exciting discovery for me and I've followed each episode keenly. A few years ago we stayed in Easton on Portland, which was, I'm sure many of you know, a major inspiration for the Hintock saga. We made sure we visited the site of the station there.

 

Thank you John, for letting us see into your wonderful world of the 1930s and also for sharing your  modelling techniques with us. RMweb won't be same now.

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I very much wish to echo fellow members' thoughts here about John being a skilled artist, a creator of scenes and a story teller.  Indeed he was and we logged onto John's pages each time to see more creative artistry at work, more delightful cameos to inspire and prepare ourselves to enjoy the next unfolding chapter of a story we all loved so much.   My deepest sympathy to John's family.      

Steve.

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Just found out about his passing, it is a real shame.

 

As an enthusiast of the railways surrounding Weymouth, including the Portland and Abbotsbury lines, I sometimes ran into John on threads about various discussions and I was always fond of including certain artifacts of the railways into his modelling, most notable his model of Easton Station.

 

I wont mourn over John's death as much as others as I really didn't know him personally, but I sure will miss his new projects and what might have come. I will treasure what he has made and the help he's given to threads.

 

R.I.P 

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A true gentleman and a fantastic modeller.

 

I loved seeing his application of the "less is more" philosophy in his modelling (even if I have never embraced that philosophy).

 

The colour and naturalness of Hintock is what most sticks in the mind.  The photo from Highlandman above really says it all.

 

RIP

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John's death is a sad moment. I love the Hintock saga and layouts which, to me, are in the same mould as Buckingham Great Central, Borchester, Craig & Mertfonford and the Aire Valley. It is one of the very few layouts that gives me pause to consider a 4mm scale diversion from my 0 gauge activities. 

 

My condolences to his family.

 

Reverse arms.

 

CK

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Somehow missed this at the time. So sorry to hear of John's death, my condolences to his family. I thoroughly enjoyed reading his Hintock thread, he will be sorely missed.

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