A piece of o gauge history from our dear friend marty fitzhenry can now be seen at the nj HiRailers layout
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I had the honor and pleasure of signing that wall. Marty was a great man and a huge asset to this hobby, he's truly missed !
Alex
Very nice Ben. Marty would be happy it was at NJHR.
What is the status ofvthe rest of the layout?
And for those of us who are new, can you explain what this is? Thanks.
I never had a chance to visit Marty's layout or sign his wall, but I met and chatted with him, and with his beloved companion, Dottie Perry, many times at the York Meet. He was a true ambassador for this hobby and just a wonderful guy to know. Trust me, he is much missed, not just by me, but by a great many in the hobby. And he will always be fondly remembered. Dottie remains one of my faithful Facebook friends.
@necrails posted:What is the status ofvthe rest of the layout?
The whole layout was transported to the NJ HiRailers in Paterson We didnt take the benchwork but everything else is now in Paterson
@BenLMaggi posted:And for those of us who are new, can you explain what this is? Thanks.
There was a guy named Marty Fitzhenry who was a legend in the O Gauge railroading world Marty Passed away in 2020 He had a section of his layout that he asked everybody that visited his layout to sign The picture is the piece of the wall with all the signatures
Attachments
@bluelinec4 posted:
Is that a Silk City bridge?
That is absolutely awesome!!!!!
@PRRMP54 posted:Is that a Silk City bridge?
Nope That is a Fitzhenry original
Thank you.
Been wondering what became of Marty's layout. Nice to know it's spirit lives on.
Bob
I want to thank all of you NJ Hi Railers who took the time and made the effort to preserve the heart of the layout. The bench work would have been impossible to save, but you got the important stuff. Thanks to your efforts Marty's memory and legacy will live on for decades to come. Dotty P (aka Betty for a few days)
Here's a link to a post that has a couple of videos of the work.
Pieces of Marty's Fitzhenry's Layout Have Been Preserved by the NJ Hi-Railers.
Saving the spirit of this layout if important, i hope it can be replicated in some form at the paterson location.
@necrails posted:Saving the spirit of this layout if important, i hope it can be replicated in some form at the paterson location.
That’s going to be hard to do but you wil see many recognizable pieces from it on our layout. The first thing I plan to place is the model of Marty’s house that Alex m built. Just have to find some corvettes to go with it
Taking down Marty's layout was, in every way, a tough job. Along with the emotional difficulty, it was physically difficult as he built it like a fortress. I spent a lot of time on top of the benchwork that held Marty's large passenger yard, and it was rock-solid. I think it could've held a real GG1.
The signature wall was pretty much the last item we removed. After careful inspection, it appeared that it wasn't sheetrock, but instead it was a thin masonite board fastened to the wall with brads. It's as if Marty had planned that the wall would someday be removed and preserved. It came off very easily, but I was sweating bullets as I went around it with my prybar!!
John