Traveling Display: George Fenn’s Buddy ‘L‘ Train

A 1927 Buddy “L” “Outdoor Railroad” train set, and the story of the boy who loved it, travels with the National Railroad Museum to train shows across Wisconsin. Its original owner, 2nd Lt. George E. Fenn of Oshkosh, was a World War II fighter pilot who remains missing in action. After four generations of his family played with the train, they donated it to the Museum in his honor.

See the Buddy “L” at Trainfest 2026

The Buddy “L” display is coming to Trainfest in Milwaukee this November. Stop by the National Railroad Museum’s booth to see the nearly 100-year-old train set and the story of his life and service.

Trainfest 2026 | Baird Center, 400 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI | Saturday, November 7th & Sunday, November 8th | 9 AM-4 PM

Past appearances: Mad City Model Railroad Show & Sale (Madison), Titletown Train Show (Green Bay), and Trainfest (Milwaukee), 2023.

George’s Letter to Santa

George received the Buddy “L” train as a Christmas gift in 1927, at the age of 7. That year, the Oshkosh boy wrote a letter to Santa:

Dear Santa Claus.
How are your Eskimos.
And your raindeers.
And you.
I forgot to tell you not to bring me any thing if you bring me the Buddy “L” train.
From George Fenn

A copy of the letter is part of the Museum’s display. The original was saved over the decades and is now kept with George’s niece, Joan Ziegler, of Wisconsin, along with his Purple Heart and his letters home from the war. His other nieces, Ann Reinke Strong of Massachusetts, and Mary Reinke of New York, also care for some of George’s belongings. All three are daughters of Lucille (Fenn) Reinke and her husband, Leonard. George also had a younger sister, Marjorie.

A Boy Who Loved Trains and Planes

By all accounts, young George adored his Buddy “L” train and played with it outside at every chance. Even Wisconsin winters couldn’t stop him: pictures from that time show the train traveling through tunnels he carved into snowbanks.

His parents, Frank and Mary, gave their only son several other Buddy “L” toys, including an ice truck and steam shovel. But George’s biggest passions were trains and planes. His family has still has his detailed drawings of railroads and runways. As a boy, George and a friend would bike to the Chicago and North Western Railroad depot in Oshkosh to greet the Soo Line and C&NW trains. They got to know the railroad workers and spent hours there.

George’s bedroom was stuffed with Hardy Boys mysteries and adventure books, stacks of train and plane magazines, timetables, posters, models and drawings.

George graduated from Oshkosh High School with high honors He was a member of the National Merit Society and the debate club, and served as president of his DeMolay Chapter. During the summers, he worked at Oshkosh Pure Ice Company to support his hobbies. In high school, George took flying lessons with renowned airman Steve Wittman, namesake of Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh.

George studied for a year at what is now the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh before transferring to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he rowed on the JV crew team. At 21, he and his brother-in-law Leonard made the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern as the first people on the scene to help rescue a man and his 17-year-old daughter after their boat capsized on Lake Winnebago in eastern Wisconsin.

Serving in World War II

After the United States entered World War II in December 1941, George enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in April 1942. He qualified as a fighter pilot and served with the 36th Fighter Squadron, 8th Fighter Group, in the Pacific Theater.

Missing in Action Over New Guinea

On October 28, 1943, the 23-year-old second lieutenant took off over New Guinea aboard his P-39 on an armed patrol. He was never heard from again. 

On November 11, 1943, the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern article reported that George was ‘missing in action,’ according to a government telegram the family had received that morning. The last letter George’s family received from him was dated October 22nd.

In recent years, the Past Conflict Repatriations Branch of the U.S. Army located the crash sites of the two other pilots lost with George that fateful day and successfully returned their remains to their families. George is still listed as “missing in action,” but his family is hopeful that recovery teams can return to the region and bring him home.

According to the Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency, George is among more than 80,677 Americans who remain missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the Gulf War and other conflicts.

Four Generations of Play

George’s loss devastated his family. His mother didn’t leave her house for three months, and for the rest of her long life she couldn’t bear to speak about her son. Out of respect for her, the family rarely talked about George, and for four decades they kept his bedroom untouched.

The Buddy “L” train was put away too, because it was too painful a reminder. Years later, Lucille and Leonard brought it to their new home, where their three daughters played with it. Leonard eventually built a display shelf high on a wall to keep it safe. When grandchildren arrived in the 1970s, the train came down again for play in the basement or on the porch, though never on the grass. Later, great-grandchildren made their own memories with George’s Buddy “L” train.

A Gift to the National Railroad Museum

When Lucille passed away in 2020 at age 102, the family generously donated the train to the National Railroad Museum in George’s honor. The Museum now shares it as a tribute to George and his sacrifice for our country. “I am thrilled my Uncle George’s Buddy ‘L’ is in good hands and will have educational value for the National Railroad Museum,” said his niece, Mary Reinke.

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