Large Scale Central

John Allen

General Discussion
#1

I mention John Allen every so often. This guy was a master in HO back when I was a kid through the time I got married. Back in the mid fifties I had a Lionel 0-27 railroad set up on a bench in the house that covered two walls. Faithfully I worked on this railroad and I would faithfully buy the MR (HO) magazine monthly. John was featured many times and he had his entire basement as his train room. Being rich he devoted all his time to that railroad. It never dawned on me that he was right next to us in Monterey and that he did allow visitors. I used to drool over his stuff. When I went in the navy from high school I gave away all my Lionel stuff. Yeah, wish I had that stuff now. Came back to the area after the navy and still slobbered over his stuff but did not get into railroading again for a number of years. John died in 1972 the year after I got married and his house in Monterey burned down along with most of his famous railroad. I did not learn until somewhere in the 90’s that John had his railroad in Monterey and I still kick my self in the butt for that. I would have loved to just sit and watch his operation and to meet the master.

I think now a days “what if G Gauge was around back in John’s day and what if he would have done G instead of HO?” Man, that would have covered his whole hill side.

Probably some others here remember John Allen.

This link leads to some of his work or just do a search on John Allen. Really fascinating.

http://www.gdlines.com/index.html

#2

I think I was in Jr. High when I first read about John Allen and his famous layout, in one of the model magazines. He was definitely an inspiration to my own modeling, and for many others.

#3

I too was a huge John Allen fan, MR published a ton of stories about the G&D. I started in HO back in 1961 and the 1st MR I purchased was the Sept, 1961 issue which featured the story “The Start of Building a large Railroad Empire” by John Allen. I always looked forward to any issues containing anything about the G&D. One of my favorite books I own is MODEL RAILROADING WITH JOHN ALLEN put out by Kalmbach in 1981. I was lucky to start in on this hobby at a time when John Allen, Frank Ellison, Whit Towers and Cliff Robinson were “in their prime” The hobby was lucky enough that when these great pioneers started “to age” able replacements like Bruce Chubb, Allen McCleland, and Tony Koester came along.

#4

My first layout, in HO, was an adaptation of the original G&D. I’ve even considered doing that in Large Scale, but dismissed the idea in favor of my current project.

John Allen’s work was groundbreaking, but when I compare photos of the G&D with what is being produced with today’s materials, there is something lacking. I do wonder what Mr. Allen would do with those same modern materials.

#5

Most people when thinking of John Allen associate him with great scenery and such yet he was also very into “operation” as well
I agree though, it would have been nice to see how he would improved on his scenery using the material & products available to us today although it’s tough to imagine how he could have made the G&D any more realistic looking than it was.

#6

Yes, very into operation. My father found this out firsthand when he taught at the Navy PG school in Carmel, CA and called him up. The reply was good, come on over, we are short an operator.

John told my father one thing that dad still regularly mentions. Whatever you do, do not give your railroad a cutesy name. It is funny at the time, but you will hate it later like (John) did.

#7
Garrett said:
Yes, very into operation. My father found this out firsthand when he taught at the Navy PG school in Carmel, CA and called him up. The reply was good, come on over, we are short an operator.

John told my father one thing that dad still regularly mentions. Whatever you do, do not give your railroad a cutesy name. It is funny at the time, but you will hate it later like (John) did.


The Navy Post Graduate School–Monterey is one heck of a place. I worked there the last nine plus years as a contractor until my second retirement back in April. I worked for the Army and took an early retirement with a monthly retirement back in 1998 as a HVAV mechanic. I ran the NPS Supply warehouses until my second recent retirement. NPS can’t decide whether they want to be a Naval Base or a University. One day it’s run like the Navy and the next day it’s run like a college.

A few years ago my crew and I were building two portable railroads in the warehouses in dead space on our own time. We had planned to donate them to a handicapped childrens program as I did earlier way back when I got out of N Gauge and donated that stuff. People would come by the warehouses and tell us what a great job we were doing on the trains. That included the lady supply officer at the time who really smiled and joked with us about the railroads. Next thing we knew she had told our Project Manager “Get the trains the hell out of there.”

NPS is still a great place though and I can’t say it was all bad. Not much of an iterest there in Model Railroading though :slight_smile:

#8
Ray Dunakin said:
I think I was in Jr. High when I first read about John Allen and his famous layout, in one of the model magazines. He was definitely an inspiration to my own modeling, and for many others.
I was in JR high as well (but in the early 80's) still reading his stuff in "detention" (can you imagine an angel like me in detention)?? Huge inspiration for me and still is as I find myself still diggin' out old articles/ books by him. I contribute a lot of my hands on skills I have today to model railroading as it teaches quite a bit to one that is interested. Good thread ;)