Last year I started part 1 in this topic by asking if anyone had anything on their layout that in some way paid tribute to John Allen. I have an old-time drover's caboose that I say represents the G & D Ranch owned by Al Gorre and Ben Dephitid. The post resulted in a realists vs fantastists debate that went over 700 posts.
Well, today I went to an NMRA meet and the organizers had drummed up a 20-25 year-old slide presentation on the G & D complete with narration as it was presented at the national NMRA meet.
Right on the heels of that slide show was another presentation based upon photos found in John Allen's house by the guy who bought and restored it after the fire. A lot of these photos showed how he did some of the things as they were not photos meant for publication.
I don't care who you, or what your taste in layouts, that man had skills. For instance, he controlled the lighting on the layout with a light meter. When a bridge cast a shadow on the wall to spoil the illusion of depth he wanted, he turned on the light and painted the shadow a lighter color so that it matched the non-shadow area and you couldn't see the shadow from any angle.
All I can say is DANG!!!
He also had a fake snake that he kept on the layout that you could only see if you peeked around the layout where you weren't supposed to go, and then it was right in your face.
He also had a way of controlling the time clock that none of the operators could figure out. When they were getting jammed up, the clock seemed to slow down and allow them to catch up. When they were going smoothly, the clock sped up to make things interesting.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
He was quite an influence on the hobby. And while he passed on less than a year after I started, I read many of his articles in back issues of MR. I think what I liked most about him was that he had a sense of humor in the hobby. He had a dinosaur and a special car to light up if you coupled too hard. We're more serious now, but we have lost some of the fun of model railroading.
Enjoy
Paul
SpaceMouse,
I, too, was at the 2008 Jamboree and viewed Bill DeFoe's talk on John Allen's work. I found it very enlightening and one of the better presentations of the day. I don't have anything on my layout that would even come close to paying homage to him. WHAT A MODELLER!!! By the way, have you had a chance to look at the webiste listed in the handout?
- Luke
Modeling the Southern Pacific in the 1960's-1980's
New Haven I-5 wrote: Doesn't Andy Sperando (spelling) have the last surviving G&D loco? A rare 4-10-0.
Yes, kitbashed beyond all recognition.
bscroggi wrote: SpaceMouse,I, too, was at the 2008 Jamboree and viewed Bill DeFoe's talk on John Allen's work. I found it very enlightening and one of the better presentations of the day. I don't have anything on my layout that would even come close to paying homage to him. WHAT A MODELLER!!! By the way, have you had a chance to look at the webiste listed in the handout?
Nope, not yet. I had a spectacular time today. Everything was top notch!
SpaceMouse wrote: Oh yeah, tomorrow I'm going model a bridge that crosses Lake Havasu.
Oh yeah, tomorrow I'm going model a bridge that crosses Lake Havasu.
So it's you that the city is consulting with for the second bridge to the island, huh Chip??
Bob Berger, C.O.O. N-ovation & Northwestern R.R. My patio layout....SEE IT HERE
There's no place like ~/ ;)
jecorbett wrote:Obviously there have been great advances in model railroading in the last several decades but that in no way diminishes what modelers of previous generations accomplished. If anything, it should make us realize just how remarkable those pioneers of the hobby were. They accomplished so much with so little to work with. John Allen's work was inspirational and his influence reached several generations of modelers. The fact that many still revere his work almost 4 decades later says it all. Model railroading should be better and easier today than it was in John Allen's day simply because of the improvement in products as well as the accumulated body of knowledge now available. Each generation makes its contributions to that body of knowledge. Pelle Soeberg is doing outstanding work today but he has a long way to go to reach the influence that John Allen had and still has in this hobby.
That's about the way I look at it. It's a little known fact that the Beatles were the first to use the manipulation stereo sound in their music. Nowadays, you can do dobler effect on a DCC chip. Doesn't diminish what the Beatles did, nor does it mean I won't pull them out once a year just to remind myself.
on30francisco wrote:John Allen, his modeling and his attitude toward modeling, has had a very positive influence on me. Not only was he a great modeler but had a good attitude toward the hobby. To me his G&D was top shelf. I admire him, Linn Westcott, and yes, Malcolm Furlow as they were and still are very influential to me.
I think the thing that had the most impact on me was his benchwork. Very minimalist but very targeted. I gives me pause.
Chip--
In my opinion (and I began model railroading when he was the End-All and Be-All of what it was all about) the guy was and is STILL some kind of Weird, Wonderful Genius. Okay, his couplers looked like something adapted from 1930's era Standard Gauge American Flyer, and he had at least two Stegosarui for yard switchers, and he tended to lynch HO-scale Mexican bandits from trestles, and there were certainly a LOT of HO pigeons on his HO rooftops, but, anyone who can take a 4x8 starter with some Varney ore cars and a Varney "Little Joe" and turn it into an absoloutely FANTASMAGORICAL empire using scratch-building techniques that today we take for granted, is just TOPS in my book.
Loved him, loved his G&D. Would have loved to have met him, because he simply personified not only the ultimate modeler of his time, but also seemed to personify the quirky, charming and talented type of individual that used to haunt his hometown of Monterey, CA. For me, he was the Ultimate John Steinbeck character, kind of like Doc in "Cannery Row." Only instead of a Marine Biologist, he did magic in miniature. The man wasn't afraid to experiment with modeling techniques in an age that CALLED for experimentation.
IMO, we're all still learning from him whether we think so or not.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
I have the John Allen Memorial trestle on my layout, but the whole layout shows his influence. I urge folks who are not familiar with his work or with the kind of person he was to read Linn Westcott's book "Model Railroading with John Allen." Westcott offers an insightful perspective in that he knew John Allen as both friend and as the editor of one of the magazines that published Allen's writing.
I'd like to share a few passages from Westcott's book:
"Many people have asked me why John Allen became so well known and respected - almost to the point of awe - as a model railroader. I think there were three reasons. First was his personality. While John could irritate people at times, his purpose was always to help them toward the twin goals of better modeling and better operation. To my knowledge, while he disliked sloppy performance, he did not dislike any of his fellow model railroaders."
"Second, while others were as accomplished in model railroading as John, he had the ability and desire to show his work to others with beautifully composed and lit photographs. Even model railroaders who disliked John's ideas or techniques could not help but appreciate the ability so clearly shown by his pictures."
"Finally, John adopted a middle-of-the-road concept for his railroad. He strove for - and achieved - good overall effect rather than devoting his time to superdetailing on the one hand, or estreme caricature on the other. He was willing to use illusion to achieve effects that meticulous inch for inch modeling could not, and was willing to concoct a yarn to explain away an incongruity."
My own feeling is that John Allen was more devoted to the hobby than he was even to his own layout. That is what leaves so many of us with such high regard for him, now. Here's my John Allen Memorial Trestle:
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
I built My Timesaver layout on one of his track designs...He was the #1 Greatest Modeler of his time. And We all can learn from his work.
shayfan84325 wrote: I'd like to share a few passages from Westcott's book:"Second, while others were as accomplished in model railroading as John, he had the ability and desire to show his work to others with beautifully composed and lit photographs. Even model railroaders who disliked John's ideas or techniques could not help but appreciate the ability so clearly shown by his pictures."
And therein lay the greatest reason for John's fame. At a time when model railroad photography was generally of poor quality, John brought his talents as a professional photographer, as well as his being a good modeler, to bear and with the magazines of the day hungry for high quality illustrations, plus a little self-promotion and writing ability, John parlayed it into a legendary status.
Now I'm not saying that John wasn't a modeler of the first order but exposure(and/or good PR) is what counts most in gaining any degree of fame. There undoubtedly were others at the time who were essentially just as good modelers but, lacking the exposure in magazines through high quality photographs, went largely, or even totally, unnoticed. Many of the so-called luminaries in our hobby today would never have gained fame simply on the merits of their modeling efforts if they hadn't been very good self-promoters as well, or had a hook like photographic ability.
With all due respect for Linn Westcott's (one of my heroes) opinion - John a middle-of-the-roader? I can not think of a published hobbyist of his the day whose images conveyed more of a caricaturish style than John's did. His outlandishly swaybacked cars, rotund and crooked little people (mexicans and otherwise) and the hokey scenes depicted in many of the Varney ads, in my book branded him as one of the premier caricature modelers of all time.
I would quickly add, however, that I've always suspected that the modeling style John presented in the magazines was largely to garner attention of his work and that his true modeling style was much more serious. This can be seen in some of his urban images and in his illustrating articles on modeling methodology. Therein, caricature modeling does not appear in any fashion.
CNJ831
John at best was a "free wheeler" ahead of his time and I think his fantasy(whimsical perhaps?) layout would have not been so popular hadn't been for Linn and his push of the G&D layout in several MR which lead to manufacturers ads...Also John's real claim to fame was his scenery that extended to the floor which was unheard of in John's day.Oddly even back then there was those that didn't care that much for the G&D.
Yet there are others that was to a degree far better then John but,didn't share the lime lights as much as they should have and are mere specks in the annuals of history even tho' some of their modeling styles was well advanced for that era.
There was another photographer that was as good as John and many of his photos was seen in MR and in catalogs.As best as I can remember his first name was Paul and his photos feature SP steam.He was quite the modeler in that era.
A question I have often wondered about would the G&D be as popular today seeing many boo the more modern fantasy (whimsical perhaps?) layouts as a waste of magazine space?
Living in that era I always thought the G&D was overrated but,John was a master scenery builder.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
BRAKIE wrote: John at best was a "free wheeler" ahead of his time and I think his fantasy(whimsical perhaps?) layout would have not been so popular hadn't been for Linn and his push of the G&D layout in several MR which lead to manufacturers ads...Also John's real claim to fame was his scenery that extended to the floor which was unheard of in John's day.Oddly even back then there was those that didn't care that much for the G&D.Yet there are others that was to a degree far better then John but,didn't share the lime lights as much as they should have and are mere specks in the annuals of history even tho' some of their modeling styles was well advanced for that era.There was another photographer that was as good as John and many of his photos was seen in MR and in catalogs.As best as I can remember his first name was Paul and his photos feature SP steam.He was quite the modeler in that era.A question I have often wondered about would the G&D be as popular today seeing many boo the more modern fantasy (whimsical perhaps?) layouts as a waste of magazine space? Living in that era I always thought the G&D was overrated but,John was a master scenery builder.
I've wondered if he would have been so highly revered today as he was 40 years ago. I suspect that he would not have been, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I lived in that era, too, and most of what we saw of other modelers' work was what appeared in print - meaning that it was largely dependent on the quality of photographs that a modeler could provide. John Allen's skills as a photographer and writer had a lot to do with his fame. He also participated in the establishment of standards and he made every effort to popularize the hobby.
I feel that his work is representative of the transition of our hobby from toy trains to a serious adult pursuit. Note that I said "representative;" John Allen is not solely responsible for the transition, but he was a visible player in the process and the G&D RR represented what was possible.
BTW, John Allen also created his own version of model railroading forums: he or one of his friends would start a topic and then mail it to the next person in the group. That person would add his comments and mail it to the next person. These letters would get bigger and bigger and some would make numerous trips around the circuit.
From all I know of him, John Allen was the whole package: excellent modeler, excellent photographer (and painter), gifted writer, and he was a great ambassador of the hobby.
I remember purchasing one of my first Model Railroader Mags, still in the archives, from March 1963: "This Could Be Your Pike."
Indeed!
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956