John Whitby Allen (July 2, 1913 – January 6, 1973) was an American model railroader who created the famous HO scale Gorre & Daphetid model railroad in Monterey, California and authored numerous magazine articles on model railroading starting in the 1940s. Allen was renowned for his skill at scratch building and creating scenery and he pioneered the technique of weathering his models to improve realiism. In addition to his superdetailing of locomotives, rolling stock, structures, and scenery, Allen was known for populating his model world with scale figures of various kinds which helped him present humorous scenes to visitors to his layout and viewers of his photographs. 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.
Read more about John Whitby Allen: Early Life, World War II, Gorre & Daphetid Early Version, Gorre & Daphetid Final Version, Death and Aftermath, Retrospective
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