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In the late Linn Wescott's wonderful book on the G & D he made mention on page 142 of salvaging some items from John Allen's house a year after the fire. Linn said in his book that they "tried to save the famous French Gulch section, but after two hours of sawing and sweating it collapsed as (they) moved it away from the wall". He also said that the fire had completely demolished many areas of the railroad, and a few scenes were recognizable but badly charred. Linn located John's negatives in the darkroom, "and upstairs were his correspondence files, drawings, and planning notebooks, including the manuscripts of published and future articles." Linn further added that "John's color slides (which had been rescued earlier and were the property of Andrew Allen)" made it possible to produce his book about the G & D. (note-Andrew Allen was John's brother) Almost the entire book was illustrated with John Allen's photos and drawings. So it is entirely possible that an engine, especially of metal construction, could have survived a fire. John could have had train stuff scattered all over his house. What if that engine had been upstairs, and not under his benchwork? (Don't know about the rest of you, but I typically have modelng stuff in just about every room. . .) Perhaps some member of his large operating group may be a link to the origin of your engine. Not sure how many may still be with us since the fire occured 31 years ago: if you need a list of those individuals, post your request here and I'll reference G & D book for their names. And another thought -- John did the photography for the Varney ads that were on the back cover of MR from 1952-1959. There is a picture of a Varney's Aerotrain and 0-4-0T Dockside taken on the G & D and reproduced on page 68 of the G & D book. Varney sold thousands of these during the fifties and later. Couldn't John have had more than one in his stash? Varney could have produced copies of it to tie into their ad campaign, promoting their association w/ John Allen, who was credited w/ the photo and modeling in every Varney ad ? FYI - The G & D had larger engines than the 4-10-0 ( kitbashed from a Varney Reading 2-8-0 boiler, Mantua 50" drivers, Varney Casey Jones cylinders, and a scratchbuilt tender). The G & D rostered an 0-6-6-0, four 2-6-6-2 and a 2-10-2 . Hopefully you have acquired a piece of model railroading history. John Allen was perhaps the most influential icon in our hobby. If you learn anything else that substantiates that this engine is, in fact, one of John Allen's, please inform us on this topic string. and there's more FYI --- about 15 or so years ago, MDC Roundhouse offered quite a few pieces of HO rolling stock and one or two steam engines lettered for the G & D, as well as John's narrow gauge branch, The Devil's Gulch & Helengon, although MDC's models of it were in standard gauge, and not narrow gauge. BILL
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