John Allen's articles in M.R.


Gentlemen, gentlemen ... now, now. I absolutely love this discussion - from both of you. NP2626 .. you have a bushel of stuff compared to say - my SLSF. Up until about 1970, and the PFM 2-10-0, there just was nothing available except maybe a few freight cars. Here lately there have been quite a few diesels showing up (the steam brass market now has some beautiful locomotives, but only for the rich folks) The KCS has not even faired as well and it is a First Class carrier. My take: Be thankful for what you have! You have done a great job assembling your motive power.

BUT, let me add ... Keep it up, you two! A great discussion!
 
It's my opinion Iron horseman is certainly entitled to his opinion and I didn't think the discussion between us was argumentative!

The fact that there hasn't been copious quantities available for the Northern Pacific modeler, is well understood by myself. This fact has made me learn how to do a good job painting, detailing and applying decals, for which I am thankful for those skills! Once you get to the point where your skills allow you to have any locomotive freight/passenger car; or, caboose you need for your chosen line, it opens up great freedom and you start looking at equipment for other lines as starting points for your needs. I'm also thankful that manufacturers have, on occasions, produced Northern Pacific products and for the most part, I have bought them when they were available.
 
Sirfoldalot said:
you have a bushel of stuff compared to say - my SLSF. Up until about 1970, and the PFM 2-10-0, there just was nothing available except maybe a few freight cars.
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That is for sure. I met a fellow in 1982 who decided to model the Frisco. It was a major chore helping him hunt up stuff for it and at the time we lived in home country for the road - St. Louis!
 
Yes, you can choose to model a railroad with far less manufacturer painted equipment, than the Northern Pacific! That is a choice we all end up making. Obviously, if you choose the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Pennsylvania, New York Central etc., etc... you will have a far easier time building a roster. Considering the fact that I wanted to model one of my local railroads, my choices where C&NW, Rock Island, Soo Line, Great Northern, CMSt.P & P, Northern Pacific, DMIR and others I won't mention (simply because there were many). I decided on the N.P., as I think I have stated earlier, I saw the N.P. working along the highway I traveled to go to my parents lake place when I was a kid. I liked the black F freight units and the green Loewy paint scheme. I also liked N.P.'s Monad, the ying-yang symbol. My choice was a natural selection from what I knew!
 
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So, the reason for this thread is: by doing a survey of Model Railroader from January of 1934 to the present day, I found 253 articles that I will go over as time goes by. I expect it will take me a year or more to read them over. The truth is I will open up a particular issue and page through the entire magazine and find more than just the tagged article that will capture my attention! Although some of what I will find interesting will be about old technology, I have no qualms about making use of it, if it fits a particular need.
 
NP2626 said:
Although some of what I will find interesting will be about old technology, I have no qualms about making use of it, if it fits a particular need.
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This is very true, and the reason that I still wear the covers off my stash of old MR. Most of the time - the older stuff is of more interest than the latest. Structures, rolling stock, and locomotives were not "off the shelf" and much had to be made from whatever was available.

P.S. I am still waiting for you to publish that list of Allen articles?
 
I don't recall your asking for a list; however, here it is:

July 46 (How to make realistic model photos), Jan. 48 (Photo report on the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] G&D line), May 48 (Original Gorre & Daphetid), Dec. 48 (How about a lake?), Sept. 49 (Making miniature figures), Dec. 49 (Mt. Alexander), Mar 51 (Return trip to the G&D, 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] layout), Dec. 55 (Aging and weathering freight cars), Jan 56 (Aging and weathering Cars and Locomotives), June 57 (Latest photos of the G&D), Feb. 59 (Bridges on the G&D), Mar. 63 (Concept and planning of the G&D), Jan 69 (Local Passenger train over the G&D), Jan. 70 (ferry on the G&D at Port), Nov. 72 (The Timesaver, Apr. 73 (John’s Obituary), Nov. 73 (John Allen Memorial Bridge), Feb. 75 (Tab system that John Allen used), Dec. 81 (John Allen;s G&D(, Apr. 88 (John Allen’s track cleaning cars), Aug 96 (John Allewn’s 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Model Railroad), Mar 99 (John Allen’s engine house), Jan 09 (John Allen’s fabulous G&D) Up dated and expanded list inserted 10/24/2016.

The articles after his obituary in the April 1973 issue are of course written by others about him.
 
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I have even seen people complaining about Malcom Furlow in other forums about his so dominating the modeling press. Complaints about Mr. Furlow are very similar to the complaints people made about John Allen. However, Malcom Furlow only appeared in Model Railroader between the years 1980 and 1989. During that time he wrote two build series; The Narrow Gauge San Juan Central and the Standard Gauge Carbondale Central. Like John Allen, Mr. Furlows first article in MR was about Model Railroad Photography. Of the thirty; or, so articles I found written by Mr. Furlow almost half (fourteen) were his visiting and describing other people's; or, club's layouts. The rest where about building some specific vignette for his Denver, Rio Chama, & Western; or, for some one else's model railroad. An interesting fact is that although referenced quite often, we never did get to see his Denver, Rio Chama & Western layout. I know that he became a commercial builder of model railroads, as he was commissioned to build a large scale model railroad for the San Diego Model Railroad Museum.

Other than Mr. Furlow's active model railroading period from 1980 to 1989, I don't know what happened to him; or, if he is still involved in the hobby. Does anyone else have any knowledge? The guy certainly had talent for this hobby!
 
It's called the Tall Poppy Syndrome, there's always some jealous/spiteful person wanting to chop the heads off. The one I'm most envious of is Pelle Soeborg, not just his layouts, but because he models the present day i.e. whatever today's date is, that's the day it is on his layout, If the real UP retires or mothballs locos etc, the ones on his layout come off as well. He could send me his retiree's, I'll find a patched RR'd name to run them on.
 
I agree Pelle Soeborg is probably the new John Allen, Frank Ellison, John Olson; or, Malcom Furlow! I read and enjoy everything he writes and shows; however, I have no interest in modern day railroading. If the train ain't pulling a caboose... this doesn't mean that what Mr. Soeburg has to say; or, show can't be usable on my layout.! The man has very real talent and I have no problem seeing this and appreciating what he has to say! I'm sure he has some naysayers also.
 
Malcolm Furlow (yes Malcolm) was first and foremost an artist, he used model railroading as a medium for his art, for a period. He still thrives in an artist colony near Taos NM, and gets large sums for his work. The main knock on him was that he held prototype modelers in contempt and advocated his own whimsical style to be the only way. He said some ugly things about Tony Koester, but admired John Allen. I did enjoy looking and reading about his stuff, but in the end he decided to continue being an artist. Modeling was just a passing fancy.

Willie
 
Yes, I have googled Malcom Furlow and have seen some of his paintings. It stands to reason that artists try different mediums on occasions. While I always read Tony Koester's "Trains of Thought" column and have enjoyed what he has to say, I feel he holds people who don't go after the hobby as hard core operators and prototype modelers with a certain amount of contempt, also. Sort of "Tit for Tat"!
 
Here is a link to Malcom Furlows art work at the Michael McCormick Gallery: http://mccormickgallery.com/artists/malcolm-furlow

The following is a list of articles published by Mr. Furlow in Model Railroader Magazine and the basic topic discussed:

Jan 80 (Model Photography is fun), Aug 80 (Modeling water falls), Mar 81 (Furlow’s Slough), July 81 (Sheridan Colo), Dec. 82 (Z scale layout reviewed by Furlow), July 83 (Fred Gills N.G. reviewed by Furlow), Aug. 83 (Using forced perspective), Nov. 83 (Part 1 San Juan Central) ,Dec. 83 (P 2 SJC), Feb. 84 (P 3 SJC), Mar. 84 (P 4 SJC), Apr. 84 (P 5 SJC), May. 84 (P 6 SJC), June 84 (P 7 SJC), July 84 (P 8 SJC & Paskenta Railway review) Aug. 84 (P 9 SJC), Sept. 84 (Northern Sierra review & more railroad photography) Dec 84 (Vic Butterworth’s RR review), Jan. 85 (San Jose Club, Furlow), Aug. 85 (Peninsula Club), Dec. 85 (Indian Creek Valley), Jan. 86 (Silverton & Telluride) Oct. 86 (Adventures in G), Nov. 86 (White metal castings), Dec 86 (Lionel layout of the 80s), Jan. 88 (Part 1 Carbondale Central), Feb. 88 (P 2 Carb. Cent.), Mar. 88 (P 3 CC), Sept. 89, (Great Northland Railway, Furlow & Scoles) Dec. 89 (Tomahawk & Lobo Creek, Furlow & Scoles,
 
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"Tall Poppy Syndrome", good title, and maybe an explanation for what seems to happen on occasions. I would say that it explains what happened to John Allen and Malcom Furlow and might be happening to Pelle Soeborg. While I might find "Awe" in the works performed by talented people, I realize that there are many really talented people on this planet. I might have real appreciation for the works of some of those people who exhibit "Tall Poppy Syndrome", towards the works of other very talented people. However, I loose that appreciation for their work when they complain about others! There will always be people who excel at various things. We need to learn to appreciate what they do!
 
It is unfortunate that there are many excellent modelers that don't wish to display their layouts in MRR or any other publication. I have had opportunities to see some of them on layout tours during the local train shows. There are many more now on YouTube as well.
I agree with your thought on TK.

Willie
 
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