We'll all miss you, Lou  

Lou Flammia of Springfield, VT, long time member of the BTO and our Web Master and our friend passed away June 10, 2020, after a brief illness.

Remembrances from good friends and BTO Members;
Kathy Nassif, Bob DiPietro and Past President and Conductor, Larry Cromwell and then a few pictures.

from Kathy Nassif

     I first met Lou in 1994 at the BTOC on Cape Cod.  He was friendly, funny and smart.  Whenever there was a train show, Lou would join us.  Afterwards, we would always get together for an entertaining dinner!  Lou was one of the characters, one of the gang and one of a kind.  To say I will miss him is an understatement.  As time went on, we became pals.

     We would email each other funny stories.  You could almost hear Lou laughing in his responses.  Lou became editor of the BTO magazine.  Knowing him spurred me on to write my first train article in 2001.  We would spar over photos, color and content, but in the end, Lou would win and get a chuckle out of one of his contributors!  In addition to loving LGB trains, Lou enjoyed designing web pages.  In particular, he designed a web page for Limerick Bear of Vermont under Lou Flammia Design.  He was a talented man who also brought his talent as web master to the BTO.

     Every Thanksgiving, Lou would head to Boston to visit his Dad and aunts, uncles and cousins,  We always made it a point to have our After Thanksgiving Day Dinner with Lou and the gang.  Those are some of the most memorable dinners.  It didn’t take long before the antics would start and we would be laughing!  Lou worked for many years at Land Rover in Vermont.  Apparently, they are well known for breaking.  Lou dealt with a lot of disgruntled people.  He had the personality to keep things light with his keen sense of humor.  I’m going to miss Lou, but I am grateful that I got to know him and call him friend.

from Bob DiPietro

     We recently lost one of our special train buddies. Lou Flammia aka our clubs webmaster was one of the good guys that could easily become a life long friend. You know the type; can't do enough for you, or you could never pay them back. He could make a desktop computer sing. Not only with the clubs web site but also for some of the annual convention pages. He also did the graphics for the 2000 and 2004 Convention engines and many other club related items. As I said “one of the good guys”

     I know his health was failing recently as he missed an annual Saturday after Thanksgiving get together with some of our clubs characters.

    I will bet that many of us have some special memories of Lou. I will leave with the one of him conducting the Ana Balloon Boat Races with some 50 children at the Mystic Convention.  

from Larry Cromwell

     Lou was a big guy with a heart to match. I first met him at Bill Loubsky’s table during a Shriner train show near Boston. Lou got there just before me and had just purchased a very neat car. That’s when I learned early is good but earlier is better!

     Lou was very generous with his time and talents with the then LGBMRRC. During my two terms as president I often thought that Lou as editor of the BTO was the more important and indispensable person of the organization. He enjoyed his job immensely as it allowed him to showcase his considerable artistic talent.

     Lou found a real niche collecting Gnomys. He had a pretty extensive collection of rare and unusual ones. When he got into 3-D printing one of his first projects was to make a Gnomy E-lok. As the T-shirt says “to Gnomy is to love me!”

      Lou was proud of his Italian heritage. He considered the second Monday of October a High Holy day. He was also a consummate car guy. What you might not know is that he drove a Cadillac Eldorado in the non-winter months. He even had a second Cadillac that he used for parts.

     Lou designed the artwork for several of our convention cars, notably the truck that “climbed Mount Washington“ for the North Conway convention as well as “the little engine that could“ for Mystic.

     As an academic radiologist I discovered  that it was easier to get a paper published if you had good photographs. When Lou and I collaborated on a couple of articles about collecting LGB for the BTO it was mostly because of his photographs that our articles were published.

     Lou and I made several trips, by train of course, to New York City in February for the International Toy Fair. We created business cards to gain entrance but his was actually legitimate since he was a journalist. We made that yearly pilgrimage to photograph the new LGB products for the BTO. Some of Lou‘s photographs were so good that LGB asked permission to use them.

      I know Lou was very disappointed when corporate LGB withdrew sponsorship of our club. He had close relationships with the people at LGB of America in San Diego. He couldn’t believe the misguided marketing attempts and financial mismanagement. He often said that one could criticize their marketing but you couldn’t knock their product. Little did we know at the time that LGB was in dire financial straits.

     Hemingway reportedly said to F. Scott Fitzgerald upon Zelda‘s death that “the golden bowl is broken, but it was golden, and it was ours!“ I miss the golden days of LGB but I was privileged to have shared them with Lou.  See you down the road, big guy! 

Lou, Larry Cromwell amd Joe Hylva
Our Conductor, Larry Cromwell with Lou Flammia
Lou, Bill Loubsky and Bob DiPietro	Lou and our Conductor Larry Cromwell
Bob DiPietro, Jim Matthews & his son and Lou
Lou with the gang at the 2015 BTOC in NH	Lou with Bill Loubsky and Bill Gagne
Joe Hylva, Lou, Bill Loubsky & Larry Cromwell
Bill Loubsky, Lou, Ulrich Fassbender & Joe Hylva in Bird-in Hand in 2008	Lou's 3D printed Gnomy  Back to top



I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator. - Mary Harris Jones