John Allen's Locomotives Found

I've always been a huge fan of John Allen, a famous model railroader who really popularized model railroad as art - weathered and worn rolling stock, painting and coloring techniques to add the look of distance to scenery, and a sense of whimsy and story-telling in his scenes. Photos of his Gorre and Daphetid model railroad, showing small trains climbing up impossible mountains, was a mainstay of the model railroad magazines in the 1950's and 1960's. Sadly, the Gorre and Daphetid was destroyed by fire a few days after his death in 1973. A few artifacts had been saved from the fire - a locomotive, and the timesaver switching puzzle he popularized.

Check out these photos as well as all the others at the G&D Lines memorial website to check out what made John famous, if you're not already familiar with him. Don't worry, we'll wait til you come back.

During a bit of Internet wandering yesterday, I visited the G&D site, and found out that some of John's other locomotives got saved after the fire, and were rediscovered a couple years ago. All were severely damaged, but it's still great to be able to see a few more of John's creations, and think about how he managed to make some common 1950's kit locomotives become magical in his photos.

Check out the locomotive photos, as well as the story of their rediscovery.