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Very cool to see John's Layout. Thanks for sharing.

I just got the notification for this-I know it’s going to be exciting! Thank you for sharing these clinics!

Who’s been hiding this gem all these years?

Absolutely incredible ! never seen such a fine presentation on Johns railroad! I will share this with my friend Howard Zane who im sure will love to see this ! Johns work brought me to this great hobby and I can tell you all of the modeling greats I know like Howard Zane and George Sellios were also inspired by the G+D . I have never heard john's voice which was also moving to me. I only wish I met the man

There is something mystical about the GD Line. It has always fascinated me since I became interested in model railroading. John was ahead of his time in so many aspects of the hobby and it's impressive what he was able to accomplish in an era when so much of the hobby had to be scratch-built, hand-laid, and otherwise constructed from any sort of available material. To say John was a genius doesn't even come close to describing what he accomplished and what he means to the hobby. He left us too young and the loss of the layout shortly after his passing was beyond tragic. Thank you for posting this video. It was very enjoyable to watch and see photos of the layout not previously published.

Thanks John Allen! That was a lot of great advice. You appear to be very knowledgeable on the subject. I would love to see your layout in person one day. You are a master modeler!

Thank you for posting this tribute to John Allen. His work inspired so many of us.

I never thought I'd hear John's voice. Well, that there's a welcome dimension.

Still a stunning layout after all these years! Hard to comprehend how much he modeled in a given space. I have the book and still thumb through it on occasion. It never disappoints!

It was an awesome layout. Thanks for sharing. Love the explanations from someone who actually operated on the layout.

Thank you for sharing this. ❤

Thank you very much, John Allen's layout inspired many modelers over the years as it was the absolute state of the art and still is.

I visited John when I was in high school. He explained that he modeled using a camera view in that what was close to the visitor was highly detailed, but what was in the distance was just done enough to look acceptable to the lens. As you look at his layout understand that when we visited he was just about to complete the mainline and he discussed what was next. He was a good person and gracious in hosting a couple of high school kids who rode bikes from Salinas after getting off the Daylight to visit him. I can remember his sense of humor as I pushed the button adjacent the subway station and watched min enjoy his joke as no train even arrived.

WOW ! Ze Master of every modeller, even if you don't like this time period or places represented, even if you don't want all your cave full, it's stay a REFERENCE and always magical ! even after all these years... don't know if light pictures have been reworked but quality is nearly perfect ! for them who know John's layout, you can easily say for each pictures where was your place in the cave room ! ETERNAL John Allen....Thanks for sharing : )

Beautiful asalways John Allan Presenta !

One man's incredible work of a lifetime, all lost. 😢

Charlie said "Mopars been doing it long before the SRT boys."

IDIOT?

ありがとう・・・ japan

that man was call The Wizard of Montery, he will never forget

Tell me more about your railroad. I'm also modeling from Atlas Shrugged.

It's like a watercolor painting come to life!

Who is John Galt?

Whitney "Whit" Towers, a contemporary of John Allen's, had the well known Alturas & Lone Pine model railroad. In a promotional film for the National Model Railroad Association (circa 1962) titled "Wayfreight on the AL&P" a snippet involving a refrigerator car being spotted on a siding. Said car was lettered for the Marijuana Central and the car had the slogan "Route of the Reefers" as part of the livery. As to what happened to the car in the intervening 60+ years, I am clueless.

Mr. Allen was so far ahead of his time it was truly amazing!

Wow! Dude was a true artist. Would never have thought of atmospheric effects. Imagine if that railroad saw DCC and digital photography. Long live the Gorre & Daphetid!

This is perfection , everything else since only gets close . He did it when you had to make it all up from. scratch.

I too remember John's work in the modeler magazines. He set the standard for modeling for all time. Most of us only dabble. But to his credit, he was a professional photographer with an eye for best effect, and he could devote all his off-duty time to his passion, as he wasn't married and raising a family. Most of us have to wait until the kids are on their own and we are retired from our jobs to even consider a detailed layout, and still have to deal with the spouse's wants.

John Allen wasn't only a Master Builder and Modeler... he was a professional Photographer! Today, film is virtually gone. Kodachrome is gone and Ektachrome almost the same. The compensations need to be done in Photoshop or similar photo editing program.

WOW much of this I have never seen before !!! John's layout inspired so many of us babe boomers to push the limits on our modeling skills. The G & D will always be one of my Favorites !!!

The great late John Allen's Layout . Seeing it in Model Railroader Magazine when I was in Jr High school hooked me to the hobby. His floor to ceiling scenery was beyond belief. He also inspired Howard Zane and George Sellios as well as countless thousands of other modelers

If there ever was a model railroad hall of fame,imo John Allen and George sellios would be inductee 1 and 2...

Always great to hear Pierre Robert play this on 93.3 WMMR!

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Just fantastic to be able to see all the different views of the Gorre and Daphetid. And hearing John discuss his photography techniques is priceless.

It would be interesting if this film could be restored with color enhancement.

Beautifully done. A magnificent layout Thank you Brad

Nice find, and so good to see some things have been saved and are now preserved as a digital recordings and images. As the photographs tapes and film will eventually will all disappear from record. And to see these shared freely is just wonderful. 50 years since John Passed on... That's long enough for everyone who has recordings and photographs to keep cashing in on John Allen's life's work.

He mentions the "reciprocity factor" a couple of times and I've found not everybody knows what that means. (usually called "reciprocity failure.") It is where film emulsion in low light behaves differently and has lower and lower sensitivity with lower and lower light. The curve is non-linear. So back in the film days, you needed to learn this and not just use what your light meter said but add in more time for the time exposure to compensate for the "film reciprocity failures.". That's why so many time exposures made by people who didn't know this came out dark all the time. It is not applicable to digital cameras at all - yippee. They just have "digital noise" in low light - boohoo.

THANK-YOU! I never thought I would sit in on a John Allen NMRA Clinic in late 2022. I have often wondered what John would have thought of digital photography and editing software.

No works in the English language to describe this other than WOW! Such a trip back in time! Thank you!

This is a real jewel! To hear John Allen's voice describe lighting and photographic techniques while viewing the immortal Gorre and Daphetid RR is beyond words! Thank you so much for posing this!

Cool

Supervisor 👍 🤝

Supervisor 👍 🤝

I remember this layout from pictures of the past. Heartwarming

That is my dream model railroad I wish I had that talent

I love the G&D. I'm in the slow process of building a G&D themed layout. The G&D Sorethroat branch

It really is a shame we lost such an amazing masterpiece shortly after the death of its creator. Perhaps one day, some intrepid modelers, inspired by the surviving photographs and models, will band together and bring back what was lost in that terrible fire, perhaps with new techniques and technology to bring the Gorre & Daphetid Railroad back better than it ever was before. The whistle will blow once more