John Armstrong (model railroader)

Armstrong died in Montgomery Village, Maryland of complications due to pulmonary disease on July 28, 2004, and was widely mourned.

Armstrong was well known in the model railroad community in part through his memberships in the National Model Railroad Association, the Capital Area O Scalers and the Lexington Group. He was named to the O Scale Hall of Fame in 1998. He was a two-time recipient of the National Model Railroad Association's Distinguished Service Award, in 1968 and 1997, and was named an NMRA Pioneer of Model Railroading in 2001.

Armstrong was extensively published in the U.S. railroading press, publishing 13 books including "Railroad: What It Is, What It Does" (1978) and articles for Model Railroader and trade magazine Railway Age. He has over 300 references in the Trains Magazine Index.

After earning a mechanical engineering degree from Purdue University, he settled in Silver Spring, Maryland in the late 1940s. He was employed at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory of the United States Navy in White Oak, Maryland and contributed to the design of weapons systems for nuclear submarines. Following his retirement from the Navy, he was a contributing editor for Railway Age magazine for ten years.

In the late 1940s, Armstrong submitted a track plan to a contest sponsored by the magazine Model Railroader. His plan was so successful that it led to an invitation to contribute an article to the magazine on the Canandaigua Southern, which appeared in 1946. He remained a regular writer for the magazine, contributing 76 articles over his lifetime. His last article, was 'Main line through the mountains', was published posthumously in the April 2005 issue.

John H. Armstrong (November 18, 1920 – July 28, 2004) was a mechanical engineer, inventor, editor, prolific author, and model railroader best known for layout design and operations. He was married for 44 years to Ellen Palmer. They had four children.