1010

[andrechapelon]

Does anybody make the old 1010?

The one that used to pull Death Valley Scotty private business car via the Santa Fe.

Not that particular model, but the ATSF 1050 class has been done in brass and these are virtually identical to the 1000 class to which 1010 belongs.

There are 2 Key 1050 class Prairies up for bid on eBay. The one listed longest is up to $445. Here's a link to the other: http://tinyurl.com/2kkydf


Andre

[SteamGene]

I don't think so...  There is a guy belonging to the NMRA who didn't know what the Gorre and Daphetid was.
Gene

[japasha]

Gene,

I visited the G&D as a kid thanks to a hobby shop owner I knew.  John Allen used all sorts of things to make his locomotives. The amazing part was that details that looked physical weren't. John had a way of painting details on. He knew how to trick the eye.

Andre, The Key models look good but don't  run all that well, at least the one I had didn't Poor weight distribution.

[TonyD]

goggle  'Gorre and Dephetid' or spelled something like that, the guru of model railroading from the 40's till he died in the late 70's, I think he 'invented' scenery, before him, people were happy with raw plywood and the kid's toys stuck on there....and he wasn't a perfectionist like many nowadays, he had fun- and was proud of it! he also like to lay track ..........the allen wrench was invented by a Canadian hardware store owner with bad eyesight and the shakes...

[Jim2903]

John Allen didn't "invent" scenery, but he took it to a new level.

He died in 1973, and his layout was destroyed in a fire shortly after.

[SteamGene]

According to Wikipedia the first patent for an Allen wrench was issued to a guy in Conneticutt in 1943.
Gene

[TonyD]

Ya no somethin'? That must be right, now that I think of it, the phillips screwdriver is what was on my brain...I would have thought one of our friends in the cracked windshield club would have corrected me. I now also remember the G&D burning up, what a shame that was, too much trackwork in my book, but so impressive to once young guys like me.... I think there was a series of pictorial paperbacks dealing just with that layout...

[TonyD]

Whoa! Japasha! you saw the G&D in person??? Wow. Tell us, tell us all the tale of 'thee' model railroad....gosh I hope you had a camera with you, but as kids, we seldom had one handy huh? How did he reach all those high deep places??? I need to know it all.... was it the just the scenery or the rolling stock too that had these 'tricks to the eye' ... where was this? north of LA? I forgot all the details... it has been too long..... you are/ were, one lucky kid......

[SteamGene]

Monteray, north of LA, but better, a bit south of San Francisco. 
Gene

[japasha]

Tony D,

First, I was a pretty lucky kid in that I saw Cab-Forwards and most of the big SP steam still in action. The San Francisco East Bay had the Mosel Engineers in Emeryville and my uncle was trainmaster on many nights and made me sit in a chair and not touch anything while he ran a Lobaugh two-rail Oscale engine he had. Nice. But in 1963, Joe Alexander asked me if I wanted to go with him to see John Allen's layout. I had seen pictures in Varney ads and MR. First, John was a good host when most young people were by. As I was college age, he just went through the rules and then showed us downstairs. In person the layout was fantastic!

The Model Engineers had some scenery but nothing like the G&D. John let the usual operators run trains and took me on a trip around the layout. It was no where near completed at that time. I had brought my HOn3 PFM C&S #22 to run on his layout. It wasn't painted yet but he went ahaed and ran it. .
A bnit later on that visit, Cliff Grandt and his sons appeard so the operating session got underway.

John did his own track and switches. His locomotives may have been sold as something once but on the G&D they were heavily modified.

Later in the 60s I had to do college and military but kept in contact with John. I went to Europe on an MR-sponsored trip in 1971-2 or so. John and I got to all of the narrow gauge railroads . In person, he was generous and  friendly but you never should get involved in his switching game.  I learned more about setting out cars from John and Whit Towers that I ever learned watching a real railroad.
IMHO, John was someone who created. I wish I had the dedication but I still play.

[TonyD]

Of 'Alexander Scale models'? And 'Grandt LIne models'? You were on the mount Olympus of model railroading..we should all grovel at your feet!!!.....feel free to tell us more, any time the mood hits you....so it was a home layout that needed several operators huh? I believe it. I have one steam and a couple diesels from the 'Pacific Southern' with Mr. Latham's tag on the bottom. Atleast there was an estate sale..even if I ended up with the scrappings, I treasure them as another pioneer modeler and layout long gone.... I hope some of the G&D stock survived...

[japasha]

Tony D,

Well, They were people who just had one passion: Model Railroading. The yall did it from their own perspective, which is what they taught me. That's what I encourage others to do. It's like old 1010.  It sits at the California Railroad Museum in fair condition. It needs to be really redone, but it was operating when the museum got it..

Joe Alexander was Ed's cousin. I have a few of the 0ld kits I got in the early 60's built. Crude but still good places to learn.  I have an old o scale B&O 4-6-0 by Varney that's as old as I am but it runs very werll and pulls a large group of cars..

John Allen's layout was really for operation but he loved to do scenery, the more outlandish the better. The best hisotry on the layut and some of the best pictures are in Linn Wescott's book on the G&D from Kalmbach. It is still available nd I highly reccommend it.

I think what John Allen was doing  is similar to what the special effects groups do in movies. He made you look at something the way he wanted, you actually saw more than was there. He would delight in pointing to a new area to see if you could pick out the new detail. . Andy Sperandeo of MR stopped by a few times in the 60s. He has strated that John influanced him greatly. He's just one of us.

The Grandts built the best detail parts for buildings and their narrow gauge cars always turn out fantasticc. Thank son Dave for that. In HO, the Grandt line has some very good prototype buildings. Very good, even for a beginner.

I have been a manufacturer as well, offering 1:20.3 gallows turntables  for about 12 years, stopping when everyone else thought they wanted to do it. I build cusoms for people that know me and want things.

Anyway, I like to hear what everyone is doing. It's your railroad. I really envy guys like Gene and Sheldon with their focus on a single things. I still work a number of scales  to build what I want. This spring is 1:20.3. H have a K-36 that needs exercising.

[RAM]

I Think there was only one G&D locomtive that survived... Everything that was in the house went up in smoke.

[SteamGene]

I know a 2-10-0 survived.  Maybe something else did as well.
Gene