I wanted to share a nice story and give a huge thank you to Harry Hieke.
Back in February my grandfather was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. After some failed treatments and wicked side effects he decided to go on hospice and enjoy as much time as he had left. I’m his oldest grandson and was born on his 50th birthday. We shared not only a birthday but this great hobby which he got me into at a young age. He lived in Vermont for over 20 years and focused much of his modeling on the Rutland and other VT railroads. For whatever reason, not much O scale Rutland product has been made so he dabbled with other roads also. He was an active TCA member and held an open house at the 2008 TCA convention of his VT layout. Pictures here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/...s/72157606091704016/
In his final months, other than family, trains were his biggest source of joy. Flash forward to Father’s Day with his condition slowly deteriorating, my family and I wanted to do something special. For 20+ years he had unsuccessfully tried to get various manufacturers to make a mode of the 4-8-2 Rutland Green Hornet, it had always been his golden goose. I reached out to Harry Heike to see about custom painting a Lionel Legacy Southern Mountain. The model wasn’t perfect a perfect match but close enough given the situation. With a tight timeline he very kindly offered to put in extra hours and custom paint the engine ASAP without impacting other customers. This engine has a lot of debate around the correct color green but we worked with the Rutland Historical society to take our best shot. He did an excellent job with added details. He was meticulous about making the model as accurate as possible. Jim Abbot at Highball Graphics rushed to get the custom decals done, thank you Jim. Everything came out perfect and it was done within a few weeks.
Unfortunately my grandfather passed last week, but with the help of Harry and Jim he was able to see and enjoy his Green Hornet for several weeks before passing. It brought him so much joy in his final weeks and he’d show everyone and anyone who came to visit.
A huge thank you again on this special project.
