John Whitby Allen

John Whitby Allen (July 2, 1913 – January 6, 1973) was an American model railroader who created the HO scale Gorre & Daphetid model railroad in Monterey, California, and wrote numerous magazine articles on model railroading starting in the 1940s.

Allen was renowned for his skill at scratch building and creating scenery.

He also pioneered the technique of weathering his models for a more realistic appearance.

In addition to his superdetailing of locomotives, rolling stock, structures, and scenery, Allen was known for populating his model world with scale figures in humorous scenes.

Other techniques Allen promoted were realistic train operation and the use of forced perspective to create the illusion of a model railroad layout larger than it really was.

Born in Joplin, Missouri, Allen lost his father to typhoid fever when he was three; his mother died during the flu epidemic about nine years later.

Allen lived with relatives in Missouri until attending school in Minnesota.

While there, he developed rheumatic fever, and on the advice of a doctor, moved to California to live with an aunt and uncle.

His health improved, but the rheumatic fever weakened his heart.

After completing high school, Allen attended UCLA, and joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC).

He became comfortable around military people, and later recruited servicemen to help run the Gorre & Daphetid.

In 1934, Allen and his brother went to the World's Fair in Chicago, and saw scale model trains in operation, and he was impressed.

He was attending UCLA studying economics, but switched to art school, which he attended for three years, specializing in photography.

There he acquired the skills that set his layout and model photography apart.

In 1935, John's paternal grandparents died, leaving him about $1,900 ($0 today), then the equivalent of a year's salary for a middle-class man.

John invested the money with the help of his brother, and in about 11 years, the value was such that he did not have to work.

His investments, combined with a frugal lifestyle, resulted in a sum of over $500,000 at the time of his death.

After completing school, John and another student opened a photography business in the Westlake Park area of Los Angeles.

Before World War II, Allen and his brother Andrew visited an uncle living near Oakland who had a model railroad.

He became interested in working on it.

When the U.S. entered the war, Andrew joined the military and John offered his services as a photo analyst.

Allen came to Monterey, California, to visit his brother, and decided to stay.

He opened a new photography shop on the main street with partner Weston Booth, and did a brisk business photographing servicemen.

In 1946, John sold his business, invested the money and retired.

He said that he got into model railroading just before the end of the war.

Due to a limited supply of hobby materials, he began building things from scratch.

He spent a lot of time studying and observing railroads in operation, and how prototype equipment was built.

Allen built models, then meticulously arranged and photographed them.

In July 1946, he published the first of many photographs to appear in Model Railroader magazine.

He moved into a house in 1946 and began construction of the first version of the Gorre & Daphetid (G&D) model railroad in HO scale.

(The name is a play on words; pronounced "Gory and Defeated.") In 1953 he needed more space, and decided to move.

He offered a railroad for sale, with free house.

When no one was interested in buying the house with the railroad, he dismantled it.

The original 3.5 ft by 6.5 ft G&D was saved and incorporated into the final version, while other parts were given to friends.

John Allen moved to his final house, chosen for its unfinished basement.

He excavated the basement, poured a concrete floor and prepared it for construction of the final layout.

He allocated about half the 1200 sqft to the layout, with the remainder used as workshop and storage.

Allen built a scale model of the house to aid in planning, in addition to models of the layout he planned to build.

His planning was very thorough.

Early plans included the use of real water in scale rivers and lakes.