Say what you will about the man and how he didn't do it as well as [fill in the blank], he has probably had more influence on me than any other modeler. Okay, I guess you figured I got my MR today.
I came across Wescott's book about a month after I got interested in modeling. What he taught me was to think big. I don't mean the size of the layout, but rather how you present what you have. Allen constantly thought about making a large impression. And dare I say it....It was art. No not Art's layout although Art does a good job of it.
And he taught me to control the way the layout is viewed. You can add a lot of "size" and the feeling of distance by controlling what people can see. If you can isolate a town, a person can work the town without feeling like the caboose is in the next scene--even if it is.
So say you bah humbugs if you will, I say God bless Mr. Allen. God bless us every one.
(play nice)
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
John Allen Rules liked his layout also.
Russell
I just picked up a bunch of old NMRA bulletins, some with pictures by John Allen, and an article or two.
I also have the January 1973 copy with his last article, the next month has a large obituary for him, and the following month has the news of the fire that destroyed most of the layout.
He did some amazing things in his time. Just looking at the front cover you knew what you were looking at. The spectacular scenery just scream "John Allen".
The Book is an excellent introduction to his work. But his layout was not that big. He did a lot in a small space.
Agreed, John Allen likely had more influence over a mass reading audience than any other model railroader to date, its too easy in hindsight to belly-ache about whether or not the lines name was kitchy or poo pooing his whimsical side like engine #13, a stegosaurus with #13 painted on her side. the simple fact is that his series of articles and terrific photos he himself took most of, connected with readers and had a tremendous effect opening the eyes of neophite and experienced modelers that there layouts didnt need to be static sterile environments and that they too could enliven them with imaginative & creative life-like scenes, being based on reality or fantasy being left to the modelers whim.
So hats off to Mr Allen and his imagination and energy, he paved the way for a whole group of modelers I admire like Malcomn Furlow, George Selios and alot of others.
Have fun with your trains
8500HPGASTURBINE I think there is way to many other modlers who model as good as him. Now I do admit that he paved the way to great MRR building. Can you imagine what he could have done if he was around NOW. With the advancement in painting, modeling, building, and 1000's of tools and misc stuff that were either not around in his time or was crude by todays standards. Mike
I think there is way to many other modlers who model as good as him. Now I do admit that he paved the way to great MRR building. Can you imagine what he could have done if he was around NOW. With the advancement in painting, modeling, building, and 1000's of tools and misc stuff that were either not around in his time or was crude by todays standards.
Mike
It's hard to judge him compared to today, since so much has changed. He did (contrary to popular belief) use some plastic kits for cars and buildings but the majority of everything on his layout (including the people) he made by hand. It's like comparing Walt Disney's crew's hand-drawn and colored cartoons to today's computer animation...or speculating how many homeruns Babe Ruth could have hit if he could have taken steroids.
In some ways John Allen was a 'perfect storm' of things coming together...a guy who was comfortable with his own company, a craftsman with artistic talent (having studied art in college) and the ability to relate what he did to others via printed word, lectures, and of course photos (as a professional photographer) who from a fairly early age had sufficient money in the bank to spend as much time as he cared to on modelling.
Should we all be so lucky to have something we do today be debated in 30-40-50 years.
Wow, Chip, you were trying to pick this exact same fight two or three years ago. Slow day in PA?
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
cuyama Wow, Chip, you were trying to pick this exact same fight two or three years ago. Slow day in PA?
Well said SM, you will get no fight from me.
Maybe Kalmbach will re-issue the book? I find the photos a bit dark and it is probaly due for a freashining, maybe even include a DVD with it......hint.....hint......
betamax But his layout was not that big.
But his layout was not that big.
Seems to me that it was about 30 ft square. That sounds pretty big to me.
8500HPGASTURBINEI think there is way to many other modlers who model as good as him.
But are these modelers Pre-Allen or Post-Allen? Kinda like saying there are alot of painters who paint as good as Van Gogh, but no-one painted like Van Gogh before Van Gogh, only after. Allen is this way, before Allen I dont think anyone went floor to ceiling, or had huge bridges spanning many feet, or had scenery large enough that you walked into and thru it. He marked a definite shift in what a model RR could be and we havent been the same since.
Nah, not even... if he want to throw a fist in a crowded bar watch the ensueing fight, he would have made the subject Malcomn Furlow.
I showed up to late in this world (far to late) to experience any of the G&D, but in my favorite book, Playing With Trains: A Passion Beyond Scale by Sam Posey, Sam talks about the G&D all during the construction of his layout, and I also have poked around on the website for his layout, and I have to say, the man was insanely good. I wish I had been around back when MR was running stories about him and the G&D.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
What John Allen did for me was to open my eyes to the difference between modeling some improbable ideal (the pristine Ideal sawtooth-roof factory, plopped down on a perfectly flat surface with not a weed or fragment of trash in sight) and modeling somewhat-exaggerated reality (the wood building with flaking paint, flapping shingles and bird droppings.) Only after I had seen photos of the G&D did I start noticing clutter, trash cans and structural problems in buildings - things that had been there all along, of which I had been blissfully unaware.
I don't know if John was the first to model the grubby side of things (for which, IIRC, he was chastized in the MR letters column by contemporary perfectionists.) I'm pretty sure he was the first such modeler to receive wide recognition.
Now, many others do (and overdo) the same things he pioneered. That does not diminish his importance to the hobby.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
betamaxBut his layout was not that big. He did a lot in a small space.
Midnight Railroader betamaxBut his layout was not that big. He did a lot in a small space. It filled a basement--what do you mean by "big," if not that?
It filled a basement--what do you mean by "big," if not that?
I'd say it was just the right size to keep one man (and a few friends) - working on it 8+ hours a day, 7 days a week - busy for more than 20 years.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
cuyamaWow, Chip, you were trying to pick this exact same fight two or three years ago. Slow day in PA?
Geezers are entertaining . He must be off his meds.
I recently finished a model which has John Allen's influence.I am looking for more to be released.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Midnight RailroaderbetamaxBut his layout was not that big. He did a lot in a small space.It filled a basement--what do you mean by "big," if not that?
It only filled about half the basement.
PathfinderMaybe Kalmbach will re-issue the book?
Don't stop there... how about the book PLUS a compilation of articles by and / or about John & the G&D? This has been a traditional Kalmbach practice; reprinting similar articles in book form. I'd be in line to get a set...
dlm
He was THE influence in my life. He inspired the funny name of my railroads. It took more than 50 years and 5 attempts to finally take a shot at his ideas. It has been an old man's dream to work on what I only dreamed of as a kid and a young man.
I also recognize some of the other greats, most of which are mentioned above, but he was the "perfect storm" (thanks stix) that kept me going.
I think that John Allen's legacy is that he was a great inspiration for so many, including myself. It's a richer hobby because of him.
Enjoy
Paul
Saying John Allen was a great model railroader is like saying that Sophia Loren was/is a beautiful woman -- not a statement calculated to pick many fights, frankly. And yet the man did have his detractors back when he was alive and in his prime and more than able to defend his views.
By the way if you have old issues or see them at swap meets, try to track down the March 1963 issue of MR with John Allen's 10 page article (with foldout) "Concept and planning of the Gorre & Daphetid." He says dozens and dozens of wise things in that article. Let me give an example: "I like massive modern steam power, yet I restrained myself to conform to the railroad concept and I built a railroad on which massive steam power can't be used. To assure myself that I wouldn't renege later, I built the turntable too short and the embankments and tunnel portals too close on curves to handle massive power. This wasn't done lightly."
Back when Linn Westcott was editor of MR, which many now see as a golden age for the magazine, the letters section of the mag fumed with angry and vituperative letters, some of them nearly incoherent. From the December 1963 issue, a letter from M. La Sagessa of Montgomery Alabama: "I save all my issues of Model Railroader and on cold days I spread them throughout the house. The hot air emanating from the columns written by your staff substantially reduces my fuel bill. Drop dead." The heading they gave his letter? "From a warm friend."
You wanna pick a fight? Try saying something along these lines: "the only true MODEL railroaders are those who have the ready built Plasticville structures on their layout. All others are effette dilettantes."
Heh heh.
Dave Nelson
I don't mind admitting that John Allen has had quite an influence on my approach to model railroading, as I was a fledgling scale modeler when his Varney photos began appearing in MR, way back in the 'fifties. At that time his realism was pretty astounding to a 16 year old kid, and his subtle sense of humor ("Emma" the Stegosaurus yard switcher for one) let me know that the hobby could also be a lot of fun. Which is why I chose the hobby in the first place--I wanted to enjoy myself and still do the best I could with whatever talents I posessed. Allen's photographs kept me going--and wishing.
Frankly, and you might not understand this musical analogy, for John Allen to appear during the time when HO wasn't supposed to stay on the tracks (and a lot of it didn't), is pretty much akin to what might have happened to music if Beethoven had arrived on the scene right after Medieval Gregorian Chant and not 200 years later. For me, Allen not only expanded, but literally exploded the concepts of what the hobby was capable.
I remember when I started slapping down my Sierra Nevada's on my current Yuba River Sub. Every now and then I'd stand back and think to myself, "Well, they're not the Akinback's, but I'm not John Allen, either. So they'll do."
Do I admire other 'contemporary' modelers? You bet I do! I've seen photos by current modelers that make me drool. But sometimes I wonder if possibly THEY haven't tapped into Allen's ideas in some subtle way and made it uniquely their own. If he'd been less of what he was, I don't think we'd be discussing him as if he were still building that railroad of his in his Monterey basement.
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!
No doubt Allen was a top notch modeler, but he had no influence on me and no inspiration whatsoever. The Gorre and Daphetid was strictly a steam railroad, and I'm not into steam.
aloco - I'm sorry you're not into steam, but surely you can find inspiration from John Allen's modelling in terms of planning and building a prototypically operating railroad (don't worry about the name - some of us are stuck with our early choice!) with humour and modesty.
Look at the articles and photographs that John Allen contributed to a number of model magazines, and think about the lucid explanations, artistic perspective, lighting balance and technical skill to produce as you search for inspiration.
John Allen was ahead of his time.
danmerkel PathfinderMaybe Kalmbach will re-issue the book? Don't stop there... how about the book PLUS a compilation of articles by and / or about John & the G&D? This has been a traditional Kalmbach practice; reprinting similar articles in book form. I'd be in line to get a set... dlm
So would I and I'd bet that there would be enough others to buy most of the print run. If they aren't sure they could just ask and take pre-orders.
Irv
I still interchange with the G&D
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
joe-daddy betamax But his layout was not that big. Seems to me that it was about 30 ft square. That sounds pretty big to me.
John's first G&D was about 30 sq. ft., slightly smaller than a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood (which is 32 sq.ft.). According to the trackplans he drew (I believe for the 1963 article on the layout) the layout room's dimensions at it's largest points was 23' x 32', which would be 736 sq ft. The room had a 'jog' to it so the actual area of the room wasn't a rectangle. Probably the available space was more like 5-600 sq. ft.
BTW someone mentioned keeping John 'and friends' busy working on the layout...my understanding is that although the layout's operating sessions were done with several people, it was relatively rare that any work on the layout - benchwork, wiring, scenery, structures, cars, etc. - was done by anyone but John himself. I know he built some cars for other people's layouts, so it could be had a few cars or buildings given to him by friends in return that he used, but apparently 99.9% of the layout was John alone.
danmerkelPathfinderMaybe Kalmbach will re-issue the book? Don't stop there... how about the book PLUS a compilation of articles by and / or about John & the G&D? This has been a traditional Kalmbach practice; reprinting similar articles in book form. I'd be in line to get a set... dlm
oh yeah ! my credit card is ready to go anytime MR publishes a book with all of JA's articles , and all those written about him as you suggest . i already have the Westcott book and re-read it every couple of years . which reminds me , i should put it in my 'to be read' pile
ernie