Passing of John Armstrong

[Dr. John]

I just learned that John Armstrong, a well known O scaler and author of numerous books and articles passed away. His Canadaigua Southern was his long-time work in progress; an outside third rail O scale layout of a fictional northeastern railroad with a strong emphasis on operation. Like the late John Allen, he enjoyed some whimsey on his scale line with odd names for towns (one is a Welsh word entirely of consonants) and other little details such as a group of painted nails he called "Manana trees" because he always promised to fini***hem tomorrow (manana). He was one of the great innovators of the hobby like Allen, Westcott, and Ellison. He will be missed!

[3railguy]

That is sad to hear. He was a great layout designer.

[Anonymous]

I've got one of his books, "Track Planning for Realistic Operation."

Tony

[FJ and G]

I'll miss him. I was going over one of his nice articles in MR magazine just a few months ago dealing with a track plan for an entire steam-era California shortline. Not that much compression. Good stuff. He was still in rare form late in life.

[cnw1995]

I will miss him. Do you remember the article in MR about his reproducing the scene from the Hopper painting 'Nighthawks' - must be among my favorite all-time articles. I was also intrigues by how his layout ran with a sort of side-rail pickup. I guess that was one branch of O gauge back in the day.

[cnw1995]

Does anyone know of an online resource - beyond the articles index - that showed his home layout track plan or anything esle about it?

[Dr. John]

Doug,
Yeah, I remember the "Nighthawks" diner scene he created - he captured the mood of the original painting and blended into his layout in a very subtle way. Just shows he was as gifted a modeler as he was a designer.

I am not aware of any specific on-line resources. He had numerous articles in Model Railroader over the years. His trackplan was first published in MR back in the early 60's. I have those issues somewhere. It seems the plan was also done again by MR in recent years. You might try a Google search and come up with something.

[cnw1995]

Thanks, Dr. John. I'll report on what I uncover.

[FJ and G]

SOme of his work (mt building) in Sept MR, put out before he died.

[4kitties]

Dang, another legend is gone. I was so inspired by his work. [:(]

[Anonymous]

Very sad. I was on a Rail Travel Center group tour of Switzerland with him back in 1998. He was wonderful to talk to and loved talking trains be they the models or the real ones.
One humerous thing was that he rated the showers in every hotel roon he stayed in and showed us his rating system of about 40 things he checked in each place. He had compiled his results for a couple hundred places and said he was thinking of publishing it some day.
Jim

[cherokee woman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 4kitties

Dang, another legend is gone. I was so inspired by his work. [:(]

Legend is not the word,and I don't exactually know what would
be proper.We have lost one of the greatest icons around for years.
My condolances to family and friends.

And yeah, my husband has several of his works.

[Dr. John]

Maybe legend is overused for hobbyists. At any rate, he was certainly a pioneer and innovator. In my book, he deserves all of the recognition and respect due to anyone who brings such a wealth of information and inspiration to several generations of model railroaders of many scales.

[Anonymous]

Fyi, the "side rail pickup" mentioned by Doug Murphy is called outside third rail. Before the widespread availability & use of insulated wheels (required for 2-rail operation), modelers in O SCALE used outside 3rd rail. Frank Ellison's Delta Lines used this system, as did many well-known O scale clubs of the era (1930s to mid '40s), such as the New York Society of Model Engineers. Likewise the B&O's traveling O Scale pike. This model RR was donated to the Cincinatti Gas & Electric Company & was subsequently rebuilt as 2-rail, but is on public display every holiday season in the untility's office building.

While I regard Frank Ellison as the dean of model RR writers, John Armstrong was unquestionably the dean of layout designers. I was fortunate enough to visit his layout in 1991 and when he visited the Seattle area a few years later I was able to repay his courtesy by driving him around to visit some of our local O Scale pikes, one of which was based on John's article published in the January 1959 MR. John had a great sense of humor & whimsy, as well as a certain level of introspection. The "Nighthawks" scene was beautifully created in a small cafe as part of a rather small bit of scenery simulating the edge of a city next to a street overpass of the RR track--a very fine piece of modeling combing selective compression and forced perspective. John was a fine gentleman as well as an exceedingly well-talented individual. He'll be missed by all who were fortunate enough to have met him as well as those who admire his writings.

[Anonymous]

This is a huge loss for Model Railroading. I regard John as a giant of the hobby. Much has been said about his track planning but John was also one hell of a modeler and innovator. His vertical turnout is just fantastic. He was also a very talented writer. I still rank his three part series in the July, August and September 1996 Model Railroader is the best writing I have ever read in the magazine. John's great secret? Unlike many in the hobby he did not take himself too seriously. John Harding