Wow, this was quite a post and I cannot let it go without doing a reply for sure.
My initial contact with Marty was on this forum as I noticed a picture he posted standing next to his 1965 Red Corvette Z06 which I sent him an inquiry asking if the corvette was really a Z06 which he replied "that it indeed was".
My next encounter was on a visit to Ohio to attend one of Mike Reagan's famous Lionel open houses and I was in Dave's train store and in walked Marty and Dotty for which I went up and asked if he was Marty Fitzhenry for which he replied "I am indeed" letting him know I was the guy who asked about his corvette.
From there we all went and visited Lou Palumbo Underground Railroad Shoppe which Lou was gracious enough to show us his back room layout and even powered it up for which was a real treat to say the least. We next went out to lunch and then met up at the hotel and did dinner with Mike showing up with some of his crew creating quite a night and of course the next day attending the open house.
A few months later I called Marty and offered to fly him and Dotty out to Seattle to visit a rather unique layout built by Dave Hikel and although it took a little arm twisting and thanks to Dotty's persistent encouragement they finally flew out and spent the next 4 days or so visiting the layout, touring downtown Seattle where we did lunch at Pike Place Market where he purchased a Seahawks t-shirt.
We spent almost the entire first day touring the layout that took Dave around 5 years to build and was by far one of the best master pieces of a train layout ending the day going to dinner with Dave and Ted at a Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant in downtown Bellevue which he thoroughly enjoyed.
We also took them to Boeing field to tour the air museum which he really enjoyed since he was involved with aviation while in the service. There was also of course a visit to Eastside Trains where he found a unique Lionel set that he had been searching many years for and of course snapped that up immediately.
He told me during the trip and I quote: "ya know Larry I do a lot of things for a lot of people and it is rare for someone to do something for me and I don't even know you all that well nor have I ever done anything for you". That comment will always stay with me as he was indeed a very special human being which I know everyone of you would agree.
I also recall my wife and I took him and Dotty for breakfast at a little restaurant in downtown Kirkland (Hector's) and did a dinner as well and he asked if we would mind going back to the restaurant for dinner as he really enjoyed their "meatloaf" and so every time we would go back there I would have the meatloaf and send him a picture which he would reply "oh man, I can taste it now"
A couple of years later we flew out to Boston and visited him and Dotty and of course the highlight of the trip was visiting his layout and most of all I got to sign the famous wall and for which I actually saw my signature on the wall "larry w. Brown" from the picture you folks just posted on the forum which of course was very special.
I also remember having coffee and Donuts in the area just off the layout which he proudly showed me where he kept all the little special tools I used to send him which I thought would come in handy since he worked on trains for Charlie Ro for which he had known for at least a hundred years.
He and Dotty also took us up to Charlie Ro's train store and as you can imagine we got a first class tour of the store from Charlie's son and even got to see all the behind the scenes of how the store worked which was a treat in itself.
Anyway, I could go on and on about that guy and although I only knew him for a short time it will be a friendship I will always treasure and remember. I will always hear his voice and hope some day I can attend one of the NJ High Railers events and see some of Marty's treasures.
Larry Brown
