top of page
This site was designed with the
.com
website builder. Create your website today.Start Now

January 6, 1973

Remembering One of the Hobby’s Pioneers, John Allen

Late on the Evening of January 6th, 1973, Jim Findley and his wife had arrived at the home of the late John Allen in Monterey, California. Jim Findley at this time was still in the US Army, but his length of service allowed him time away to spend with John Allen. They were close friends. John complained about a pain, and then fell. Help arrived quickly, but John Allen died in the Ambulance on the way to the Hospital from a massive coronary. He was 59.

Thus, we lost one of the most influential pioneers of Model Railroading. Not one week later, John’s infamous “Gorre & Daphetid” HO Scale layout was destroyed by a fire in John’s home. Eerie in its own way.

Allen’s contributions to this hobby included:

  1. The extensive use of figures and their placement;

  2. Weathering;

  3. Prototypical operation;

  4. Use of Mirrors;

  5. Model Photography;

  6. Scenery;

  7. Layout building;

  8. The use of Lighting;

  9. Scale Speeds.

 

Most of these topics have been studied off the edge of practical limits. John Allen inspired them; others took the ball and literally beat the subjects to death in the 40 years since John Allen passed away. I, like how many hundreds of modelers from the era when John Allen was alive, was greatly influenced by John Allen’s model work. John Allen inspired well-known present-day modelers like Malcom Furlow, John Olson, David Barrow, Allen McClelland, Tony Koester, and a host of others too numerous to list in this short article. His influence was wide; I’m not sure John Allen would ever appreciate just what an influence he was, and continues to be.

Perhaps it was the overall beauty of his last rendition of the Gorre & Daphetid, a masterful scope of model work that was never completed, that was the biggest influence on anyone over the age of 40. Started in 1953, the final bridge over the last gulch was never installed by John. Oh, it was completed, but never put in place on the layout until after John had died. The fire that consumed the G&D after John’s death concluded the driving of the Golden Spike, finishing the Main Line. There’s an irony to that, too.

One thing John’s final layout convinced me of: Big is nice, but why build something so big that it becomes impossible to build, operate and maintain yourself? As John aged and his health slowly deteriorated, John found out that trying to keep the G&D had become a full time job he was physically incapable of doing himself. See, John Allen had a bout of Scarlet Fever when he was about 10 years old; it weakened his heart enough that John could never do strenuous activities other people could. Then, in his middle years, John struggled with his weight, occasionally getting so big that he had no visible chin. A mild heart attack in the late 1960’s opened John’s eyes to watching his weight closely, which is probably what helped keep him alive in his last 5 years. Near the end, John could not walk very fast for fear of over-doing it, although he did take a tour of Europe with the late Lynn Wescott of Model Railroader magazine and took part in all activities. At the end, John looked very healthy; he had his weight under control and did mild exercising. It was a shock to all of his friends and admirers when he passed away.

John Allen’s forte` was that he was a professional photographer. He was well schooled in the art of photography and many facets connected to it, including lighting, set-up, and had taken art classes in the human figure. Had John chose to do so, he could have been a lighting expert with a major movie studio. But John, because of his health, chose to stick with the much less strenuous occupation of professional photographer, which he made a nice living on, in addition to the money he inherited when he parents passed away. It allowed John to “retire” by the time he was 40-ish. His model railroad, the Gorre & Daphetid, became a full time occupation for John, and spawned many side interests that actually overshadowed the layout itself.

John’s occupation of Photographer is what made John into the modeler he was. In all actuality, John Allen was not a modeler with super-detailing tastes; rather, John sought a balance between all things, giving his model work a “right” feeling and look to it in his many photographs. His photography work for Gordon Varney ads in the 1950’s probably helped lure many people into the hobby.

There were many facets of the last version of the Gorre & Daphetid that many modelers today pick apart---admittedly, I am one of them----such as the use of tall buildings to hide floor support posts---but my criticisms have focused on the layout underneath the spectacular scenery, and I’ve been much disappointed that the last G&D Layout had such scanty Benchwork. It was a pale horse in that regard; I can only image how long the last G&D Layout could have operated as it was built. This was already affecting the last layout before John passed away.

In that regard, John Allen never claimed to be “perfect”. Others have for him, but John Allen himself never did. He never claimed his way was better, and was so well read that he could point you to another source that might be “better.” Many of the accolades John received from other modelers were actually quite embarrassing for John. He didn’t feel as though he had done anything to deserve to be put on a pedestal; John was somewhat “insular” from the world, and many things he had done had been discussed within a circle of friends. John actually believed most modelers already knew about many of the techniques he employed in building his layouts.

Keep in mind that what John Allen did was chiefly aimed towards how it would look when photographed, which is why his model work took on the personality it did. Oh, there were some things John built that I have found fault with based on real railroad practices, such as his model of a stock car so unbelievably sway-backed that there is no earthly way it would have been allowed to run under real life regulations. This is where you realize the disconnect between model and real life; John Allen had a sense of humor, and all three layouts that John Allen built were sprinkled with subtle---and some not-so-subtle---humor. The spectacular scenery basically hid the humor readily apparent in the layout---but you had to look at everything. John didn’t hide his attempts at humor; rather, it was there to be found by someone observant enough to see it. It was all part of the vast expanse. Many people who were frequent visitors to John’s Layout were constantly finding little things that had been there for months, sometimes years---and John was always adding more.

Keep in mind that when John Allen began modeling, many of the things he did were unheard of or ignored by the large majority of members of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA). Weathering was mostly unheard of; “Realistic Operations” were basically unknown, and, to some extent, uncared about. “Super Detailing” wasn’t done very often. Ballasting between the rails was often avoided. Painting the track and ties simply wasn’t done back then (And I don’t think John Allen ever went that far on any of the layouts he built; he did stain the ties he used on his hand-laid track), and there weren’t the wide range of figures available like there is today. “Switching” wasn’t done to actually make up trains, or to service line side industry. Most modelers built layouts to see their trains run in a circle; the basic, “Playing with Electric Trains” credo. No one had really bothered to look at Real Life and how it applied to modeling. John Allen did, and in so doing, inspired many to see things as they really are. Take it from me, modeling “Real Life” is not easy, and it requires one to be able to “see” things as they really are. One thing John Allen only mentioned mostly in passing in some of his modeling articles was that, in order to model the “everyday”, you have to be able to see it. The human eye misses much, and you literally have to “force” yourself to see something. The mind will take details for granted and ignore them; unless you sit down and carefully study things up close you will miss it.

This is probably why John’s modeling looked so “familiar”; much of what he modeled may have had a different prototype, but you could see examples in your own home town.

John Allen has been missed by those of us who have been in this hobby for more than 40 years. He made an indelible mark on it without really attempting to do so. He has been an inspiration to thousands right up to this day, including myself; although, we draw inspiration from many others besides John Allen. I can not say that John Allen has been my sole inspiration for my own modeling, he has a big influence. That doesn’t mean everyone draws inspiration from him, but in some way, John Allen has somehow tickled our imaginations and helped introduce us to this hobby and, possibly, kept us in it because we liked what we saw.

“73”

Keith

 

bottom of page