John T. Kenney

Kenney's last illustrations in the Railway Series were for 1962's Gallant Old Engine. By that time his eyesight was failing and he was unable to handle the fine details required for the series' illustrations.

Before his retirement, Kenney also illustrated 31 children's books for the Leicester publisher Ladybird Books, including a series on important British historical figures, such as Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, and Queen Elizabeth I, as well as a 1956 book of motor vehicle characters that has an affinity with the Awdry books he was soon to work on. He also provided art for the Hunter Hawk, Skyway Detective series.

John Theodore Eardley Kenney (1911–1972) was an English illustrator who worked on a number of Reverend Wilbert Awdry's The Railway Series books from 1957 to 1962.

Kenney was born in 1911 and trained at the Leicester College of Art, the same school that produced Clarence Reginald Dalby, the first illustrator of the Railway Series. Upon graduation he was employed by J.E. Slater, a firm of commercial artists located in Leicester. Kenney served with the 44th Searchlight Regiment and the 121st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment during World War II. He landed in Normandy on D-Day, and although he was not officially a war artist he recorded the scenes he saw in a number of impromptu drawings. He continued to draw what he saw as his regiment swept across Europe with the rest of the Allied contingent. After the war, he returned to Leicester, resuming work at J.E. Slater. It was at that time that he met his future wife, Peggy. In 1957 Kenney quit his position, choosing to work as a full-time freelance artist.