Allen suffered a fatal heart attack on the evening of January 6, 1973. He had previously suffered at least one heart attack during the 1960s. Although he was not feeling well, he worked at completing the Gorre & Daphetid. In a telephone conversation with Linn Westcott, he suggested that he would drive the last spike in the spring of 1973, and that Linn should come for a visit then. In 1972, he was already suggesting that things might not be going well, and wondering "what to do with the railroad" in letters to a friend. Ten days after Allen died, some of Allen's friends gathered for an operating session and discussion on the preservation of the railroad in accordance with Allen's wishes. When they left, someone set a furnace in the train room to 65 °F. Allen never used the furnace and had covered it with tar paper. This caused a fire, which was quickly reported and extinguished fast enough to save the house, but it destroyed the final, still-unfinished incarnation of Allen's railroad. The damage was mainly contained to the layout room, and the house was rehabilitated and sold. A few model railroad items attributed to Allen survive and have been authenticated. According to Linn Westcott's book Model Railroading with John Allen ("The Book"), the fire was determined by an investigator have been started from a small gas furnace. John rarely used the furnace, because he liked to keep the house cool, or possibly because it was not vented correctly. Linn Westcott was asked by Andrew Allen (John's brother) to investigate if the layout could be salvaged. The fire caused extensive damage. They tried to save the "French Gulch" section, but it collapsed as they moved it after two hours of work. Legacy Allen's death was first mentioned in an obituary penned by editor Tony Koester in the March 1973 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Allen's death was also covered in the April 1973 issue of Model Railroader magazine. It contained an obituary and Allen was featured on the front cover. There was also a retrospective on John Allen in the January 2003 issue of Model Railroader in remembrance of him 30 years after his death. Former Model Railroader editor Linn Westcott's final book, entitled Model Railroading with John Allen, was published posthumously in 1981. Westcott died in 1980 while writing the book. It contained various quotes and photographs