Bring Back the Trains

As a train buff myself, and a guy who at one time built a pretty nice HO layout, I find this a pretty sad story:

FULLERTON The death of his grandpa in December devastated Jay Wydra, 14.

The two had spent years together visiting train shows, driving to NASCAR races and watching baseball.

Jay Wydra and his mother, Ann Wydra, show a picture of Grandpa Bernard taken when he was a young man in Pennsylvania. Jay, 14, is hoping burglars will return his grandpa's train collection, which he had willed to Jay.

Grandpa Bernard Wydra, who died of lymphoma at age 65, even willed his collection of more than 50 rare "S" gauge and a smaller number of "HO" gauge model trains to his grandson.

Now, Jay is dealing with his second loss in as many months.

Burglars broke into his grandpa's vacant home in east Fullerton on Monday, taking all of the trains and a rare Infant of Prague statute of the baby Jesus that the elder Wydra's Polish mother had given her son years ago.

Jay and his mother, Ann, are hoping someone in the train-collecting or Polish Catholic communities will stumble upon someone trying to sell the merchandise. A police report was filed estimating the financial loss at $7,000.

Police Sgt. Andrew Goodrich said the stolen goods could pop up for sale on the Web.

"It's the sentimental value of all this," Ann Wydra said, with tears in her eyes. "Dad had three girls and when Jay was born, he was ecstatic. He finally got his boy. The two did everything together; they even looked alike."

Ann Wydra periodically checked on her father's house in the Troy High School neighborhood. On Monday, she walked in to find the newspapers in which the trains had been wrapped scattered all over the floor.

"I'll never forget the shock of seeing the mess," Ann Wydra said. "How was I going to tell Jay?"

I hope they find them. They probably don't have that much monetary value to someone trying to fence them, but the sentimental value must be enormous to the family.

This story give me an excuse to run a 19-year old video of the HO set I used to have before my son got big enough to want to grab everything and knock stuff over. I finally had to break it all down and put it away.