Arnie Travitsky passed away Monday night after a long and debilitating illness. Those of us who knew him well would say that he was the quintessential “train guy".
Arnie just loved trains and model railroading. If there was a movie that had a train in it, Arnie would give it an Oscar, sight unseen. 
To me, however, Arnie was much more than just a train buddy. He was a close friend for almost 20 years and was my mentor when I came back into the model railroading hobby. Arnie introduced me to the TCA and we traveled together to my first York train show in 2003.
Arnie served the TCA Southern Division as its President for two terms and then continued on the Southern Division’s Board of Directors for several more years. He was a member of the OGR forum, although he didn’t post very much. He was mainly a postwar collector who operated his less-collectable trains on the finest Super O layout I’ve ever seen. He mostly ran his trains conventionally, although he sometimes used TMCC.
For many years Arnie was a fixture in the Blue Hall at York, year in and year out. Although he went to York to buy and sell trains, I saw that he derived the most pleasure from York when he was catching up with all of his many, many friends in the train world.
The Travitsky family will be holding services for Arnie this Sunday at 11:00 am, at Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel, 640 Lee Road, Orlando, Florida. I will be there to say goodbye to Arnie, as I am sure will be many of us who knew him.
Rest in peace, my good friend…
