This young man has been at my shop a few times operating 15 inch steamers with us. Very energetic kid.....very outgoing. Possible that he hopped a train out of Cheyenne. We need all Railfans watching for him. As of New Years eve he could be almost anywhere.

Note attached:

Alex Frye, one of RMD’s kids club members, went missing in the Cheyenne area over New Years eve. Friends of Alex’s dad, Bill have been organizing searches to locate Alex. If you can help them search or know anyone that might be able to help, please contact Al or Bryan (search coordinators) at 307-421-5714.


Please keep a look out for Alex as well. He is a serious railfan and toy train enthusiast. You can view a photo of Alex at the following post from trainorders.com-


http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... 64,2650962


Here is a link to the TV report on the search for Alex- http://www.kgwn.tv/story/16431622/searc ... local-teen


Please keep Alex and his family in your prayers as well.

Thanks,

Sadly, this has come to a tragic end.

http://www.kgwn.tv/story/16436418/body- ... n-cheyenne

What a sad story. Prayers & good thought's with Alex's family & friends

Dave Huffman

The saddest part of this whole terrible tragedy appears to be that this very bright gifted young man who achieved things that i am envious of like riding in Challenger, operating a huge model railroad at shows and painting Big Boy in the park, took his own life by the UP tracks he loved so much because he couldnt face the thought of the bullying at school coming up in a few days. He was viewed by some as strange and as was mentioned to me tonight by a schoolmates parent, her daughter when hearing he was missing said 'oh he is a nerd' . Tragic and shocking.... so all of you who have young people involved in your organizations take extra care to talk to them and listen to them as they enjoy this great rewarding hobby that some narow minded individuals view as stupid. I know i have been there too and managed to get through to 45 years.
We lost a potentially huge bright light in the preservation and model railroading world today due to the spitefulness of others.

Mike Pannell
Cheyenne

A great portion of my "non-railroad" time has been spent as a Scout Master and Youth Adviser with-in the areas in-which we have resided. The service aspect of my life has been a great blessing to me and my family. I so much enjoy watching the children grow and learn.

Unfortunately, this is the second young railfan in my life that has made a decision that I did not see coming. Though Alex was not one of my Scouts, he was a young railfan in which I was more than happy to help. Alex spent time at my shop with my two older boys operating our Cagney locomotives. One day in particular, Alex ended one of his trips in a massive wheel slip and rolled off the end of the track, protected by wheel bumpers. The front truck ejected itself from the locomotive......we had a good time re-railing it and getting it all back to normal. Alex also spent time with us at shows operating the steam locomotive. There was no need to teach him.....he knew it all. It was a pleasure to have him around.

As I sit here today, I have asked myself and honestly, I have asked God...."why do we as adult leaders (Scout masters, mentors, friends.....club members) have to endure this pain?" "What could I have done to help Alex.....I had no idea what he was enduring." "Why could we have not had some sign.....something that said......help this kid!" "What did I miss this go around?" Why twice in a life time do I have to endure this?" The questions go on and on. The point of it is and to Mike I agree 100%

When we have young railfans in our groups. PLEASE, sit down with them and ask questions! "How are you doing, how is school, what do you like or dislike?" Our society has become so "kid scared" that we fail, we fail too often, we failed in this case to ask the questions that need to be asked. We fail to see the impact that we make, or can make by being involved or looking the other way. Both have profound impacts.....good or bad.

My plea: This weekend, when you are at your club meeting, find a young person, sit down with he or she and have a talk! Talk about what they want......LISTEN to them. Find the red flags, be the mentor, be the adviser, be the friend.

Maybe Alex is our industry reminder that our work is not so much about preservation of historic railroad equipment. Maybe our work is actually about the preservation of the human ambition to be something, the human ambition to be seen or heard. Ours is the work of ensuring that we all have a place. Indeed, we all have a place!

I really enjoyed listening to Alex. I guess I never heard the things he really wanted to (or needed to) talk about.

Please take care of these young people......we can not afford to have them leave.....on their own or otherwise!

We will all miss Alex. It was an honor to have him around!

Respectfully yours,

JohnE.

John, you can only do so much. People have demons no one else knows about. We all have different levels of what we can stand. It's hard to say what anyone could have done to stop him from ending his own life. All we can do is try & stop the next one from happening.
I think you gave him a positive experience when he was with you. Not much else you can do.

Dave Huffman

Alex Frye doing something he loved, painting Big Boy in the patk in the Autumn of last year.

http://blogs.wyomingnews.com/blogs/shut ... paint-job/

This is so sad-a kid who contributes to his community at large, and has an interest that centered on more than the animalistic tendancies of drug, sex and violence that popular culture have drowned our youth in-was deemed a "nerd" by the very worst elements our culture has produced. Our problem is that we have now allowed the most disgusting, foul elements of our society to determine what normal is and who is a nerd-and more and more, those that work toward being blessings to their fellows, contributors to their communities, studious, productive, hopeful youth, are being emotionally destroyed by a generation of monsters.

Once, tinkering with mechanical things was a "normal" thing to do...now, the new normal is nitwits whose whole world is involved with violent movies, violent music, violent games, and violent sex. A kid who wants to spruce up a park locomotive is looked upon with some kind of suspicion, but if that same kid were to be caught looking a some kind of vile pornography or a snuff movie, well, that's just normal.

God bless this boy's family, and God Bless you, John, for having made what difference you could. I wish I could have known him.

My heart goes out to the family and friends of Alex. I think we all need to pray for them through this most difficult of times.

Being a young man myself and only two years out of High School, I can remember that I was bullied by my classmates for liking trains, history, being small for my age, having anger issues, and rarely missing a day of school. So I feel for him very much.

We lost a young a promising life and I'm sorry that I never got the chance to meet Alex.

Martin

Sad indeed... I can't help but feel depressed by this whole event. He's not the only one to be pushed to the brink. When I was younger, about 12 years old, I was being pushed around by this one guy at school. I'll refer to this person as "NA", as even though he pushed me around, I still have to show common decency. NA was using me as a human ping-pong ball, with this abuse coming at me at least three times a week at the worst of it. Suffice to say, the school staff was unable to handle him, and my problems with him only ended when he transferred to another school. NA pushed me to the brink, and a day didn't go by where I just wanted to end it. There's a blank spot in my memory after he left, but I do remember that I started going through therapy to help develop the skills necessary to survive these encounters. I still continue with therapy, but that is to help further continue development of those strategies, while working on new ones to help me with the changing times. Guess that's the benefit of my parents going out of their way for me. My mother even changed careers about three years later, and now works at the Parent/ Professional Advocacy League (which is the Massachusetts state-wide mental health advocacy group) as their parent support specialist.

And John, you sound like me! Lately I've been giving myself to little credit, going so far as to trash-talk myself in an attempt get myself to improve under my own power. You clearly influenced Alex, and not only did you teach him, you were his friend and mentor. Sometimes what we do doesn't go far enough to help and support those we as railfans and preservationists teach. Your pleas to get others involved with the younger generations won't go unheeded. Once we get our youth group off the ground out in East Brookfield, you can count on me throwing my hat in the ring and doing the best to be the mentor the youth division deserves. I guess in short, we need to be there for the youth involved in the preservation field, and give them the support they deserve while telling them they aren't the only person in the world interested in railroads and their heritage.

Dylan Lambert

Posts like the ones above remind me why I was so sold on the NRHS when I was much younger and why I feel a loyalty to it still. I joined when I was 14 years old (back when you really needed to be 18, the chapter looked the other way). They all welcomed me with open arms and treated me like an EQUAL, not some dumb kid to be humored. My folks indulged me as well, driving me to monthly meetings and trips the chapter did. I was luckier still that one of the members (who was pushing 30 at the time) took me under his wing, so to speak, and didn’t see me as the geeky kid I truly was. I moved away from the area in the late 90, but I still keep in touch with him and visit whenever I’m in the area. I consider him one of my best friends, even after all this time.
I never would have killed myself but I was harassed terribly for my interests in trains and sci-fi up to around my High School years in the mid-1980s. By then, I started fighting back and really messed a couple of kids up in the process (sort of like what you hear about prison; take on the meanest guy there, screw him up and people will not want the same by your hand). I’d never suggest that now, as it was a different time when you didn’t go to jail for just standing up to bullies. The teachers wouldn’t do ANYTHING to help you back then, and they looked the other way if a bully got his clock cleaned, too. I don’t feel the least remorse for what I did to a couple of them because people left me alone afterward. That said, I still wish it never came to that.
But until that time, knowing people who were older than I who had gone through the same thing really made a difference, I just didn’t realize how much so until much later in life. In fact, this thread has made me take stock of the people who were so nice to me at a time I really needed it. It’s such a shame it took a good kid passing on to realize it.
At the 2011 NRHS convention, someone saw me wearing my 25-year pin and asked if it’d been my father’s. When I told him not only that it was mine but that I’d had it for two years previously (I must be one of the youngest people ever to be awarded one), he couldn’t quite figure it out. Recently with all these NRHS threads, I’ve been wondering what value it is to me. Now that I’ve had time to think on it, I now realize it’s worth an awful lot.

This has been posted in the past, but seems most appropriate here:

"O Lord, now that I have flagged Thee, lift up my feet from the rough road of life, and plant them safely on the deck of the train of Salvation. Let me use the safety brake known as Prudence, and make all the couplings in the train with the strong arm of Love, let my hand lamp be the Bible. Heavenly Father, keep all switches closed that leadoff the sidings, especially those with a blind end. O, Lord, if it be Thy pleasure, have every semaphore block along the line show the white light, that I may make the Run of life without stopping. And Lord, give us the Ten Commandments for the schedule, and when I have finished on time and pulled into the dark station of Death, may the Superintendent of the Universe say, 'Well be done, thou good and faithful servant, come and sign the payroll, and receive your check for eternal happiness."

I have been very close to tears more than once today after reading about Alex's untimely passing. It strikes close to me because I knew the pain of peer rejection, constant teasing and bullying all through my school years. Only in going away to college did I feel like I got a "fresh start". And during my school years, I must credit many older model railroaders, live steamers and fellow church members in NE Ohio for helping keep my head screwed on straight. I never considered taking my own life, but I had to work hard to overcome the negative pressures. So to everyone who feels a heavy heart, do not be dismayed. Do not give up hope and do not stop trying to make difference. Especially those who knew Alex, undoubtedly you helped him enjoy life a little more than he would have otherwise. You touched him in a positive way. We all touch other people's lives and have a chance to either bless or curse them in what we do and what we say.

Paul, thanks for sharing that passage. Very touching and meaningful in all it says.

John, thank you for doing what you do and what you have done with Alex. We need more guys like you.

Alex, I pray you have nothing but high green signals ahead of you. I can see you now hogging on a 4000 anytime you wish now that you have made it to the other side.

Sincerely,

Rob Gardner

Yes it does move one to tears, what did it for me today was seeing the tributes covering the fence on 4004 in the park and then the sight of the UP steam crew boss laying flowers and UP steam memorabilia at the foot of the fence, this for a 13 year old.....how many of his tauntors could begin to hope for a tribute like that ? that was it for me.

Sad to say it seems like the enthusiast hobby is full of difficulties and struggles when growing up, perhaps thats what makes us so determined to preserve and persevere with a chosen projects.


Mike Pannell
Car 57 Cheyenne

I endured a similar situation when I was in school. Liking trains and railroading I was viewed as an outcast. Fortunately a classmate also have the same interest and we became best friends. I think having someone that was like me helped me get through the bullying, taunting and insults. This is a sad day for all of us rail enthusiasts.