Saw this from SER President Robert Beaty on SER groups on Yahoo this morning;
From Mike Brestel, NMRA VP:
"To all list members. I was informed today that John Armstrong passed
away sometime Wednesday July 28th. Funeral arrangements are now being
made and that information will be posted later.
All of us tha knew John,or benifited from his advise, clincs and
articles will miss his contributions to our hobby."
Gonna miss him, the hobby has lost one of it’s greatest innovators, and pioneers. My deepest sympathies ands prayers go to his family and friends during this time.
Model Railroad Planning 1995 had an interview with “The Dean of layout designers” John Armstrong. It would be an article well worth retelling as it is full of wisdom of the craft, which all too often forget.
He will be missed greatly. Any article by him was worth reading and re-reading. He was one of the true innovators of the hobby. His articles and particularly “Track Planning for Realistic Operation” are full of useful ideas, good solid recommendations, and a lot of wit and humor.
John will be missed in this hobby. I have read just about every book or mag artical he ever wrote. He was always on the cutting edge of layout design, some of his ideas are incorperated in my layout. The hobby has lost a giant.
I will always remember John Armstrong as a man who could combine prototypical realism with a touch of whimsy. Ya just gotta love a man who would come up with a town name like Llawn Mawr, or a power company called Conemaul, or a freight yard called Des Maigne Yard.
How uncanny! I was just reading an article in an old MR planning book about John Armstrong’s track plans and studying one of his designs. I will miss him. (sniff, sniff) Somebody hand me a tissue. []
I have several of his books in my personal library, and at least one of them is dogeared & almost worn out from constant use. If ever someone deserved to get a PhD in trackplanning, it was John Armstrong. His knowledge and gentle humor will be missed.
If you find it at a swap meet, get Armstrong’s Kalmbach pamphlet on prototype signals. It was a reprint from some Trains magazine articles of around 1960. It is well worth reading and remains a prime source of good information on signal practice.
Dave Nelson
I acquired a new copy of his text “The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does” about three months ago. Not cheap for a paperback at $35, but worth the money. I feel fortunate to have a hobby shared by such generous, intelligent men.
I have been enriched by his knowledge and I am saddened by his passing. Godspeed, Mr. Armstrong.
I corresponded with John, and later spoke with him in person about the genesis of the mushroom configuration for my mushroom article in the Jan/Feb 1997 MR.
I wanted to get straight who really invented the mushroom. I began drawing mushroom designs on my own in the early 1980s, and then John published a mushroom design in the October 1987 Model Railroader. I didn’t call it the mushroom when I was drawing it, I just called it “opposing deck”, since that’s essentially what it is. It was John who gave it the name “mushroom”.
The conversation with John was most enlightening, since he was quick to give Richard Benjamin the credit for inventing the concept. Richard not only designed mushrooms in the 1970s, but he built one! That makes him the first.
John could have taken the credit and I don’t think anyone would have ever questioned it. Yet, he was careful to make sure Richard got the credit. Goes to show you what a truly great guy John was.
Next to John Allen, no one had more influence on my enjoyment of this great hobby than did John Armstrong. As one of the hobby’s greatest thinkers and creative minds, John Armstrong’s impact on model railroading has been felt for nearly two generations, and will be felt for many, many years to come.
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