The passing of Ben Dorsey on Saturday 24 March 2018

All:

Just thought I would pass on this update to everyone.

I was able to talk to Ben's wife this morning and passed on all your condolences as best I could. I also told her to take a look at the Funeral Home Guestbook and see the out pouring of all your comments on that Guest Book.

She was not aware of the true extent of Ben's contributions so I provided that information to her, and she was rather surprised when I told her that Ben had made over 7000+ contributions to Trainz over the years.

She expressed her thanks to everyone of you for your thoughts and well wishes during her time of grief.

As a footnote she very much does not want to see all Ben's work lost to the Trainz community, as she knows how important this hobby was to him, so we are trying to work out some type of arrangement so that all 7,000 Gmax meshes, with all the supporting files (ie; textures, scripts, etc), are transferred through me to N3V, if that is possible (probably by physical shipment of the backup harddrive he used to store his project files on). By transferring the meshes and related project files to N3V they will allow for the continual updating of his content by either N3V or others who might want to update, revise or expand on what he did. If N3V is not interested in acquiring Ben's Gmax project files for all his content items (at no cost), then we will work something else out. I really want to see his work continue on in the hobby, and I am sure he would as well, and we had discussed that in the past. BTW we are talking about many hundreds of Gigabytes of files here. The ball is in his wife's court now on this issue, which is low priority compared to everything else she has to contend with of course, so it may be a while, if ever. As she is not computer literate I have offered to help her in anyway I can on this and other issues......

Bob
 
A sad loss to the Trainz community.

I was a long time friend of Ben and assisted in some of the technical problems he had in the early days. We used to talk almost on a daily basis

Rest Well Ben, you will be missed

Condolences to his family
 
What a loss indeed. I of course loved his many bridges but my favorite items he made were the battleship gons. Perhaps N3V will consider marking his many contributions to the community in the next version of trainz.
 
All:

Just thought I would pass on this update to everyone.

I was able to talk to Ben's wife this morning and passed on all your condolences as best I could. I also told her to take a look at the Funeral Home Guestbook and see the out pouring of all your comments on that Guest Book.

She was not aware of the true extent of Ben's contributions so I provided that information to her, and she was rather surprised when I told her that Ben had made over 7000+ contributions to Trainz over the years.

She expressed her thanks to everyone of you for your thoughts and well wishes during her time of grief.

As a footnote she very much does not want to see all Ben's work lost to the Trainz community, as she knows how important this hobby was to him, so we are trying to work out some type of arrangement so that all 7,000 Gmax meshes, with all the supporting files (ie; textures, scripts, etc), are transferred through me to N3V, if that is possible (probably by physical shipment of the backup harddrive he used to store his project files on). By transferring the meshes and related project files to N3V they will allow for the continual updating of his content by either N3V or others who might want to update, revise or expand on what he did. If N3V is not interested in acquiring Ben's Gmax project files for all his content items (at no cost), then we will work something else out. I really want to see his work continue on in the hobby, and I am sure he would as well, and we had discussed that in the past. BTW we are talking about many hundreds of Gigabytes of files here. The ball is in his wife's court now on this issue, which is low priority compared to everything else she has to contend with of course, so it may be a while, if ever. As she is not computer literate I have offered to help her in anyway I can on this and other issues......

Bob
Thanks for doing this Bob. I'd hate to see Ben's finished and future projects fall by the wayside.
 
I knew Ben was sick but until I came upon this thread today, I had no idea of how fast it had progressed. So I'm still in shock at the tragic news. Ben was the nicest of gentlemen, extremely generous and a giant in our Trainz hobby world.
 
All:

Just thought I would pass on this update to everyone.

I was able to talk to Ben's wife this morning and passed on all your condolences as best I could. I also told her to take a look at the Funeral Home Guestbook and see the out pouring of all your comments on that Guest Book.

She was not aware of the true extent of Ben's contributions so I provided that information to her, and she was rather surprised when I told her that Ben had made over 7000+ contributions to Trainz over the years.

She expressed her thanks to everyone of you for your thoughts and well wishes during her time of grief.

As a footnote she very much does not want to see all Ben's work lost to the Trainz community, as she knows how important this hobby was to him, so we are trying to work out some type of arrangement so that all 7,000 Gmax meshes, with all the supporting files (ie; textures, scripts, etc), are transferred through me to N3V, if that is possible (probably by physical shipment of the backup harddrive he used to store his project files on). By transferring the meshes and related project files to N3V they will allow for the continual updating of his content by either N3V or others who might want to update, revise or expand on what he did. If N3V is not interested in acquiring Ben's Gmax project files for all his content items (at no cost), then we will work something else out. I really want to see his work continue on in the hobby, and I am sure he would as well, and we had discussed that in the past. BTW we are talking about many hundreds of Gigabytes of files here. The ball is in his wife's court now on this issue, which is low priority compared to everything else she has to contend with of course, so it may be a while, if ever. As she is not computer literate I have offered to help her in anyway I can on this and other issues......

Bob

I wonder how much has been lost over the years with people dying and there stuff being lost to us? Thank you and his wife for wanting to save his work. I agree with you that it is a low priority right now for her and his family.
 
Rest in peace Ben and my condolences to his family. As many have said he was a very nice guy and he will be missed.
 
When I arrived in the Trainz community back in 2004, there was Ben, with his bridge screenshots.
Bridge after bridge, after bridge. He'd put the screenshots up and tell us it was on the DLS.
And he would help out, so many bridges he made for others. I was in awe of his mastery with bridges.

He was courageous, sharing his journey about his cancer treatment, but he kept his cheerfulness
and optimism writing, "be back in a few days" ...

He will be sadly missed, a gentleman with the manners and generosity of a great man.

RIP.
 
I was able to talk to Ben's wife this morning and passed on all your condolences as best I could. I also told her to take a look at the Funeral Home Guestbook and see the out pouring of all your comments on that Guest Book.

@ MSGSapper,

May I suggest you also send her the link to this topic?
A lot of people have left a message here that do not (or did not yet) leave a message on the Funeral Home Guestbook.

@ All who did not leave a message on the Funeral Home Guestbook,

I can understand some don't like to do so. For years I didn't do so simply because I did not know what to write.

But for those who didn't do it because they prefer to stay anonymous:
Even though the system asks for your name, you are not forced to enter your name. If you want to leave a message, but prefer to stay anonymous, leave the name fields empty and only enter your email address. So if you want to leave a message but anonymously, please know you can and please do so. Ben will not return that way, but it would just be great if those he left behind find lots of messages of people from around the world.
Thank you for your reconsideration.
 
Great tribute in today's newsletter:
Obituary
The Trainz Community is saddened this week by the passing of one the most prolific content creators, "bendorsey". With almost 10,000 items uploaded to the DLS over the past 12 years his contribution to the Community has been enormous.
R.I.P.
I would have to say that his contribution is not only enormous, but also nigh irreplaceable.
 
Ben,
Rest in peace, my friend. You have fought the good fight and have finished the race.
My condolences to Ben's family, friends and loved ones.

Claude
 
Rest in Peace, Ben, and know that we miss you already. And thanks again for all those special things you made at my suggestion that get shared by everyone. You are the best asset Trainz ever had.

David
 
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