Hello fellow O Gauge Railroaders, in the early morning on Halloween, 2024, my worst nightmare occurred that many of us fear. At around 5 am, my parents detected smoke and after getting out of the house, a fire broke out and destroyed the upper floor of our ranch style home. Thankfully all of us are fine and safe. Unfortunately many of our personal possessions were lost in the fire. My train layout and collection were located in the basement which was not harmed by the fire, but it is now water damaged as a result of the firefighters extinguishing the blaze. The majority of my collection is surprisingly salvageable and I retrieved pretty much most of my trains including my Thomas the Tank Engine toy box my grandfather made for me 21 years ago for my 6th birthday. However some items are going to be considered a loss as they were exposed to the water more than others including some of my Lionel accessories and two Lionel SD-18 locomotives that I purchased from my dentist just to name a few.
While it is very hard for me to take this all in and losing some pieces of my collection that I worked hard to obtain over the years, I feel relatively optimistic of the future in the rebuilding process and collecting again once the nightmare is over.
The support and comfort from fellow enthusiasts, friends and family members is really helping us go through these times, but I am very grateful for this forum and OGR Magazine themselves. After reading and watching the story of fellow enthusiast Frank Battaglia has really helped my mindset and gives me hope for the future. Seeing his beautiful attic layout and collection being destroyed in his attic fire and how he was able to build a new layout up from the ashes really brought a tear to my eye. If I could I would love to get in touch with him and tell him my situation and how optimistic I am thanks to him, John Vincent ,Rich Melvin and all of the staff at OGR magazine. Id love to maybe one day show my collection and new layout in a future article in OGR.
Thank you everyone, stay on track, and keep smiling.
- Nikolas
