I am sad to tell you that my brother, Bill Morlitz, passed away earlier this month. He was known as PRRBill on the Forum and was quite active on the Forum from the beginning until several years ago. Bill is between Marty and me in the picture below which is from 2013 at my house when he still had some mobility.
Bill started with trains in the late 1950’s, with Lionel’s single motor New Haven F3. I was four and a half years older and had the twin motored GG1 and Illinois Central 2363. As you can imagine our “tug of wars” between Bill’s New Haven and either of those engines always ended up with Bill losing. And an older brother torturing a younger brother as brothers sometimes do. But it started both of us on a life-long hobby.
Bill was a history teacher. As life went on, he developed and suffered from diabetes and died from complications from diabetes. He had not been very active on the Forum or with trains the past several years because of that and the neuropathy he suffered from it. Over time he lost substantial feeling and control over extremities making it impossible to work on a layout or even walk.
He always remained interested and knowledgeable about trains and was particularly interested in history and trains in the Philly area. Earlier this year I asked him something about the P&W (Philadelphia and Western) which ran from 69th Street in Upper Darby (where Philly’s “El” terminated) and Norristown. The Liberty Liners that MTH modeled ran on that line in the 1960’s. Some of you may recall there was a train accident there earlier this year. Anyway, I got tons of information. Way more than I ever wanted. But that’s the way Bill was – he always did stuff in depth and was always willing to share it.
Bill will be missed.
Gerry
