The Pacific Northwest Tour, 2003

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WELCOME

Welcome to my pages on the Pacific North West Tour, July 2003 This site has now been up for ten years - very hard to believe. It was back then, and is still today, the highlight of my involvement in the speeder hobby.

These pages will take you on 40,000 miles of air travel, to the United States, to cover some 1500 miles by road across the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

You will see some of the 1000 miles of railroad that I travelled, and meet some of the most welcoming people in the world

This site is not quite the full tour, as John Black, my host, and I deviated south the Train Mountain for the 2003 Triennial event - a get together of the largest number of Seven and a half inch models in the world, on the longest railway of its type in the world. So this site will also cover some of the things we saw on our way to and way from that event.

 About the Event

 My impression is that this is one of the biggest events on the Speeder Calendar in the United States, and is up there with some of the epic runs undertaken in North America.

Regardless, to have traveled so many miles by speeder in such a short period was an epic for me.

This Event, is perhaps "the" event on the Motorcar Operators West Calendar, and this time attracted upto 25 cars over its three weeks. It attracted about 40 people, ranging from young children through to retirees, academics and tradesmen and women, business people, and an extremely excited Australian.

It operated over mainly shortlines, but covered metals from 80lb through to 132lb, and speeds as varied. People operated all manner of cars, from the "fresh out of the railways" cars to machines that have been extensively rebuilt and customised.

Interestingly, the "Two Stroke Fraternity" was limited in its numbers, although an ST2AA lead the crew, and was accompanied at various times by an ex RCMP M9, another M9, and an M19. The dominant species on this run were the Onan (and similar) powered MT14 and MT19's, with a number of A series gang cars.

Special Thanks

Special thanks:

• To John Black and Jeanne Kleyn, who invited me over, and who were most gracious hosts.
• To the MOW Board for their support and willingness to Host An Aussie.
• and to everyone who was part of this run - Thank you for such a great trip, for sharing your time and experience with me, your hospitality and allowing me to join in on such a great event.

 This website

Is not all the tour. John had to head north and me back to work before we ran the Puget Sound Railroad.

It also misses the trip to Hooper, where some were hoping that the snakes and other nasties moved out of town before the speeders moved in, as John and I did a side trip to Train Mountain for the Triannual steam up there. It does not include the Camas Prairie section to Riperia as we were on the way back. I will include links to other pages covering these runs as they become available.

I was also too slack to take my camera into San Francisco when I had a stop over there on the way back. Here is a link to the Cable Cars for you. Do visit the museum. There were too many wanting to go to Alcatraz, but at least I have seen it across the bay

The photos used in this site were taken on a camera that John uses, therefore the photos are a combination of his and my work. As I have so much to recall, if you note an error in a caption or description, please let me know and I will correct.

Much of the historical data included has been extracted from the meet Tome, which in turn has used research by Denny Anspech. Thanks to Chris, Marg Hope (who I hope to meet next time) and all those who assembled it, it was a joy to be able to read each night where we would be heading.

In breach of some of the Golden Rules of web design, these pages use numbers of pictures. Most have been compressed to allow for fast download, please be patient.

I hope you enjoy these pages, I welcome your comments and feedback.

If you attended the 2003 PNW - I'd love to hear from you.

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