John Allen GD are there any original cars/engines still around

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D

dekker

Member
Just was wondering if there are any of his actual GD trains along with structures and so on still around?
 
Decker, every 5 years or so MR used to report on one of his engines turning up. I have never heard of one of his building surviving as I believe the fire got them all.

Matt
 
I thought there was only one locomotive that survived, an 0-8-0 switcher? It belongs to one of the staff at MR. I haven't heard of any others.

On a side note I have never seen any pics of the aftermatth of the fire. Has anyone seen any?
 


I believe that at this point two G&D locomotives survive. One is in the hands of Model Railroader and the other is privately owned, having surfaced only recently. There's some mention of the latter in MR sometime during the past couple of years, if I recall correctly.

I seem to remember that a few structures also survived the fire and were given to various members of John's operating group but I am unaware of any details being published anywhere that indicates just how many and what they were.

NYW&B
 
According to a website dedicated to the G & D a United Brass 2-8-4 and a kitbashed 4-10-0 plus a Varney tender are all that survived the fire. You can see pictures of the buned out basement here. There are quite a few pics so not sure what all is here.
http://www.redshift.com/~1king26/burned/
 
rlundy90 said:
According to a website dedicated to the G & D a United Brass 2-8-4 and a kitbashed 4-10-0 plus a Varney tender are all that survived the fire. You can see pictures of the buned out basement here. There are quite a few pics so not sure what all is here.
http://www.redshift.com/~1king26/burned/
Click to expand...

I was supposed to go visit John in the summer of my high school graduation, but had to put it off for some time. By the time I did get enough $$ together, he had passed.:( Even though the layout was destroyed, you can definitely tell what areas was what even though the fire got to them.

I had spent the original summer I was supposed to go, at the USCGA.
 
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Both Roundhouse and Athearn have put out G&D car kits in the past.
You may be able to find kits on the bay or at estate sales and local train shows.
I believe these kits were not actual John Allen models on the G&D.
Mikey
 


I picked up the G&D Eagle's Nest a few years ago and just replaced the plastic wheels with a nice set of Kadee 33" wheels. so its back in service.
Now need to find a figure that looks like John. This'll be my tribute to the master. :D


Eaglesnest.jpg
 
I knew the arson investigator for Monterey, who has since passed away. We talked several times about the fire. The official cause was malfunctioning gas furnace. The fire occured within one hour after an operating session by a bunch of his friends 10 days after John's death. It was always his opinion that the fire was actually arson and he had a suspect but could never get enough evidence to get an indictment. He believed that this suspect wanted the G&D gone so as not conflict with his own desire for model railroading fame. We'll never know the real story but it makes for some interesting speculation. He never would tell me the name of the suspect.
 
Such a sad ending to a great person & a great layout. Does anyone know what the final outcome was to the house after the fire? Was the house rebuilt or bulldozed? Also, if you look at the linked page that shows the different pictures, there are 2 different articles that say there was 2 fires, the 2nd one being possibly arson. Is this true? Thanks in advance for the info.

Regards,
 
Railroad Joe said:
Such a sad ending to a great person & a great layout. Does anyone know what the final outcome was to the house after the fire? Was the house rebuilt or bulldozed? Also, if you look at the linked page that shows the different pictures, there are 2 different articles that say there was 2 fires, the 2nd one being possibly arson. Is this true? Thanks in advance for the info.

Regards,
Click to expand...

Indeed, two distinctly seperate fires occurred in the house after John's passing, the second happening a year or so after the first, as I recall. The initial one was classified as accidental but arson was suspected in the second instance (the occurence of the 2nd fire was reported in RMC at the time).

The house itself was completely renovated, sold and continues to be occupied to this day, although there are no traces of the G&D therein.

NYW&B
 
Thought some of you might be interested. I was just looking at some of my friends auctions on ebay and noticed she has 2 G & D cars for sale. Check out auction # 180319004043 and #180319004027. Both are unstarted and look to be in mint condition with starting bids of $10.00. A real bargain for rare stuff like this. Ron
 
rlundy90 said:
Thought some of you might be interested. I was just looking at some of my friends auctions on ebay and noticed she has 2 G & D cars for sale. Check out auction # 180319004043 and #180319004027. Both are unstarted and look to be in mint condition with starting bids of $10.00. A real bargain for rare stuff like this. Ron
Click to expand...

Actually, these G&D cars aren't particularly rare. They were available from MDC for several years and were fairly popular sellers. In fact, it can be a bit unusual not to see at least one of the these cars up for sale on eBay any given week you look. The DG&H cars are probably the less common examples from the MDC/Roundhouse line.

NYW&B
 
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