John Whitby Allen
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John Whitby Allen (July 2, 1913 – January 6, 1973) was an American model railroader who created the famous HO scale Gorre & Daphetid model railroad in Monterey, California and authored numerous magazine articles on the subject starting in the 1940s. Allen was renowned for his skill at scratchbuilding and creating scenery, and he pioneered the technique of weathering his models to make them look old and more realistic. Besides his superdetailing of rolling stock, structures, and scenery, Allen also filled his model world with scale people who provided humorous vignettes on life. Other techniques Allen promoted were train operation and forced perspective--the use of smaller-than-scale items to make them look distant, and create the illusion of a larger layout.
Born in Joplin, Missouri and a photographer by trade, Allen inherited a fairly large sum of money at a young age, and by keeping his living expenses to a minimum, was able to work on his model railroad nearly full time. Allen initially became interested in model railroading because he wanted to photograph miniatures. His small initial layout was later incorporated into two much larger layouts.
Ten days after Allen died unexpectedly of a heart attack, some of Allen's friends gathered for a long train running session and to discuss the preservation of the railroad, in accordance with Allen's wishes. When they left, someone set a radiator in the train room to 65 degrees. Allen never used that radiator and had covered it with tarpaper. This caused a fire, which was quickly reported and extinguished quickly enough to save the house but it destroyed the final, still-unfinished incarnation of Allen's railroad. The damage was mostly contained to the room containing the railroad and the house was rehabilitated and sold. A few model railroad items attributed to Allen survive and have been authenticated.
Allen's death was covered in the April 1973 issue of Model Railroader magazine. It contained an obituary and Allen was featured on the front cover. There was also a retrospective on John Allen in the January 2003 issue of Model Railroader.
Former Model Railroader editor Linn Westcott's final book, entitled Model Railroading with John Allen, was published posthumously in 1981. Westcott died in 1980 while writing the book. It contained various quotes and photographs from Allen demonstrating his techniques.
There is a video on John Allen's railroad by Sunday River Productions called The Gorre & Daphetid with footage shot by Richard Reynolds who committed to the famous Gorre & Daphetid and also a small intro by Glenn Beier who also operated on the G&D. [1]. And Glenn Beier says it's the only Motion Picture ever made of the world's most famous Model Railroad.
John Allen is also famous for devising the Timesaver model railway shunting puzzle.
