Peace be with Marty's family and friends. I will cherish the wisdom that Marty shared with me and us all. God bless.
Our deepest condolences to The family. He will truly be missed.
Very sorry to read this sad news. Rest in peace Marty. My sincere condolences to Dottie and Marty's entire family. We will all miss him on this forum.
Karl
I had the honor to have signed Marty's wall of fame. I will never forget that. I am so sorry to have heard the bad news this afternoon. Stay strong Dotty, I will miss him greatly. Ed & Lisa.
This is sad news but Marty is at rest now. Dotty my prayers and best wishes going out to you and all of Marty's family and friends.
Rest in peace buddy.
Mario Evangelista
We all lost a great ambassador today in this hobby who will be missed for years to come. We were football foes from around August to January every year but still good friends for every day of the year. I guess Dottie will take up where Marty left at in harassing me about my football team. I am surely going to miss those Sunday afternoon texts from him during football games.
Thank you Don Masso for posting this picture. I was not aware of this one.
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3 years or so ago, Marty posted a Lionel Santa Fe Heavyweight StationSounds car for sale, on the OGR For Sale Forum, and I was lucky and he sold it to me. It’s still new in the box on my shelf in my train room. He was fun to work with, I’ll always think of him when I see the car, and one day I’ll display the car. My prayers to Dotty and all of their family. It’s very comforting to see all of the above testimonials, he truly was a one of a kind guy, a fantastic ambassador of this great hobby, model railroading.
scale rail posted:I have no words...Please watch and think of the wonderful times...Don
Don,
The video brought tears to my eyes. A great ambassador, a good friend, and a football foe/friend has left the train station. I will always remember his reaction when he received that home model in Alex's basement. He was genuinely surprised and overwhelmed with emotion!
We’ve lost a good man. One of the nicest I’ve met. RIP, Marty. We’ll miss you!
Dottie, accept my condolences for your loss.
Sorry to hear the sad news.
Marty was one of the Great Ambassadors to this hobby. He will live on throughout the model railroading community.
These are two pieces I have and will always think of Marty. The first is a tinplate box car I painted to bring to Trainstock one year to run as well as a friendly ribbing for the guys at the club. The second I bought from Marty that Dotty had started to refinish but didn’t have the time to finish. I stripped it all down and brought it back to its former glory. They have a special spot in my train room.
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I had the privilege of singing his wall. RIP my friend.
Jim D
RIP Marty. One of the true greats of this hobby. He will be missed.
Dear friends:
It's been 7 hours since Dotty texted me the message of Marty's passing. It has been a time for reflexion.
When I told my youngest daughter the news she reminded me that she had purchased her first car from Marty either in 1990 and 1991 and at that time I had told her she was buying the car from my good friend. Simple calculations show that I've known Marty for 30 years or even a bit more.
How has the time passed so quickly? I can still remember bringing over some of my Hornby trains to run at his house and then somehow running over the trains in their flimsy container. Several of the lithographed coaches were flattened. But, Marty somehow brought them back to life with his magic.
Or how about when he built my first real layout to replace the strictly amateur job I had endured for about 10 years. The new layout featured Marty's trademark --tinplate track on cork roadbed, on homosote (spelling??), on plywood, all supported on L shaped girders. I loved it, but Marty was disappointed, because I refused to make the move to DCS or TMCC.
So here I am 30 years later. Many of my toy train friends are gone --Jim Storer, Mike Cann, Tom Browne, Jerry Kratochvil, Jim McClellan, Eberhard Leuthke, Richard Tesero, and Roger Somers. And now Martin Fitzhenry. I miss them all.
In the Hebrew tradition we have a prayer that says Blessed Art Thou O Lord our God who gives life to the dead. Marty will watch over us and we will meet again.
Josie and I offer our sincere condolences to Dotty and the Fitzhenry family.
Lew Schneider
Dottie, so sorry for your loss, i never met Marty in person but by way of the forum, he was gracious enough to walk me through a couple of problems i was having with my layout, may he rest in peace and the peace of the good Lord above be with you and your family, God bless, Sandy and Phil
Marty was such a wonderful welcoming person.
RIP my friend
Ted, when I was cutting this short video, I to had tears to my eyes. One of my bucket lists was to sign that wall. Don
Marty was a great guy to deal with here on the forums. It’s really sad to hear that he has moved on, This is a major loss to the train community. I hope he’s in a place where he can finally have the train collection and layout he has always wanted.
RIP Marty.
So sad. My thoughts and prayers are with you Dotty and the family. Godspeed Marty. A true gentleman.
Andy
The blue line stands sir. Rest now. EOW 1/2/20.
I did not know him, nor ever spoke with him. But after reading the many posts here, it's easy to see that he is loved and will be missed by many, many friends and his family. RIP Marty.
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away" Revelation 21-4
Rusty
Jim Rawlings posted:Our dear friend, Marty, was taken to our Lord at 2:48PM today. I am heart broken. Your prayers of comfort and consolation for Dotty and Marty's family would be deeply appreciated.
God Speed and God Bless. We will miss him dearly. I will remember him from this beautiful piece that the both of you sold me from this forum.
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Like Rusty, I never met Marty or had any dealings with him. But, after reading his many post over the years I feel that I knew what type of person he was... A good and generous man. I have been following this thread for some time now. Every time I would read everybody's posts my eyes would tear up. Today the tears flowed freely. RIP Marty.
Tom
prrhorseshoecurve posted:Jim Rawlings posted:Our dear friend, Marty, was taken to our Lord at 2:48PM today. I am heart broken. Your prayers of comfort and consolation for Dotty and Marty's family would be deeply appreciated.
Well FWIW, At least Marty made it to the new year.
Condolences to his family in this difficult time.
I never knew Marty except through this forum. But I believe Marty is already planning his new layout in Heaven with God at his shoulder.
God Bless Him and Dotty.
scale rail posted:Ted, when I was cutting this short video, I to had tears to my eyes. One of my bucket lists was to sign that wall. Don
And I was supposed to sign the Train America Studios sign he got from Mike.
Lou N
Well Marty.....I never met you...but it looks like you have a lot of great friends....and that alone speaks volumes. Save me a seat...
Marty you invited me into this forum and it has made a great deal of difference to my view of our hobby. Gods speed on your journey. I know the conductor will take good care of you.....
My sincerest condolences.
Marty's contributions to the hobby and to this forum will be remembered always.
To his family, my sincere condolences. And to Dotty in particular, thank you for all you've done for Marty, especially during his long illness and well-fought battle. Bless you.
He's now in a place where there are only high-ball signals ahead.
Chris
Our sincere condolences, Dotty. I know Marty is beyond his suffering and now rests peacefully.
Chris and I treasured our visits with you, Marty and Ralph. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Bruce and Chris Leone
Prayers and condolences to family and friends. He will be missed by more than you will ever know.
Godspeed to Dotty, family, friends and forum friends. I just got active here a few years ago, and know the joy and friendship I missed, that most of you have had with Marty. What a wonderful blessing. My family prayers will remember the Fitzhenry family through this difficult time.
We also will pray for the health, comfort and safety to all those on the forum and their families. God bless and here is hoping that everyone has a good healthy year.
Respectfully and in friendship,
Bryant
he'll be sincerely missed by all never met a kinder gentler man in my life. he would help anybody with anything . I remember I took some of my trains over to there house a few years back and we ran my challenger with his passenger car set. stayed there 3 days and we both had a great time.in fact when I went to the bath room and went back down stairs he was running my challenger and he said I really like you're engine and it runs great. while running trains and doing some yard switching he had a siding switch that broke and I helped him fix it except he had to order parts and then fixed it later when the parts came in! one of his z4000 developed a bad throttle pot in his transformer so I replaced it for him, we made a good team working together . we just had a lot of fun together no matter what we did or talked about.
sincerely Alan Mancus
Condolences to the Fitzhenry family.
Rest in peace Marty!
So sad to hear the news. I was privileged to speak with him a few years ago as he sold me a Lionel Milwaukee Road S1. It will continue to stay in a very honorable and proud place in my house. May he RIP.
So sorry to hear of Marty’s passing. RIP Marty...
So sad to hear. Marty you are always in our hearts, until we see you again.
I am at a loss for words, Marty belongs in the O-gauge "Hall of Fame". Condolences to the Family, and Dottie ,stay strong! You did all you could.
