You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Pacific NW Tour <strong>2009</strong><br />
Our 13 th consecutive tour By Marg Hope<br />
We should never have given our tour the<br />
number 13. In retrospect, I wished we’d<br />
called it our “umpteenth” PNWT and let<br />
our participants figure it out if they wanted<br />
to. I’m not normally a superstitious EC but<br />
the tour we planned and the tour we took<br />
were certainly not identical. And, while my<br />
EC partner Chris Baldo and I were disappointed<br />
that we couldn’t do all<br />
the rail that we planned we did<br />
have a great tour, wonderful<br />
participants and 4 of our 12<br />
days were on railways that have<br />
never before hosted a motorcar<br />
club. About 5 weeks before we<br />
were to leave on tour, a railway<br />
on which we’d scheduled 7 (of<br />
12) days, decided they could<br />
not host us. We scrambled!<br />
Chris worked with his contacts<br />
to find us 6 days of rail in the<br />
US and I worked with my contacts<br />
to get another day of “new<br />
to the hobby” railway. I hope<br />
we never have to do this again<br />
but if ever there was a story<br />
about the power of networking,<br />
this would be it.<br />
So, the highlights of 12 days<br />
on rail:<br />
July 4 – 11: To start the<br />
PNWT this year, almost everyone<br />
had to float their speeders<br />
using either BC Ferries or WA<br />
State Ferries as our first day<br />
was at Port Alberni, BC on Vancouver<br />
Island. This town and<br />
this railway wanted us. Several<br />
local motorcar operators and enthusiasts<br />
had worked tirelessly for many consecutive<br />
weekends to restore the rails for our<br />
tour. They brushed, they moved slides,<br />
they shored up and replaced rail – and we<br />
got 46 miles of mountain railroading and<br />
ended our day with a tour of an operating<br />
Steam Sawmill before escorting their<br />
Steam Locomotive back to town. Next<br />
came three days (287 miles) on Southern<br />
Railway of Vancouver Island (SVI), a railway<br />
that hadn’t hosted speeders before but<br />
did a magnificent job of getting us through<br />
countless paved crossings by having a<br />
team of signal and maintenance workers<br />
race ahead to help us through the urban<br />
and suburban areas. From the yards on the<br />
waterfront at Nanaimo we toured north to<br />
Courtenay one day, then south to Victoria<br />
where we stayed in luxurious waterfront<br />
hotels and then back to Nanaimo. We<br />
stopped along the way for a First Nations<br />
planked Salmon luncheon, a tour of a logging<br />
museum and for our group photo at<br />
the cairn commemorating the last spike.<br />
We finished the island tour with a day (112<br />
Coulee City industries - Marg Hope<br />
miles) on Canada’s only remaining logging<br />
railway, nearly 4 hours north at Woss, BC.<br />
July 13: Next it was off to Abbotsford,<br />
BC and a day on Southern Railway of BC<br />
(SRY) - our last day of new-to-motorcars<br />
railroading. (82 miles) Although SRY traverses<br />
urban and suburban areas much like<br />
its sister (SVI) railway, we were amazed to<br />
find ourselves riding along dikes, skirting<br />
mountains and passing large stretches of<br />
agricultural land. Two antique powerhouses<br />
along the way served to remind us<br />
that this was once a completely electric<br />
railway.<br />
July 15 – 22: With an extra day to do<br />
laundry, repair speeders and grab some<br />
rest, we reassembled in Spangle WA to run<br />
for a couple of days (152 miles) on the<br />
Washington & Idaho RR with an overnight<br />
stop in Pullman. Tiny grain-dependant<br />
towns have withered to a few shops and a<br />
grain elevator each but winding through<br />
verdant fields, rails flanked by bold wildflowers<br />
and abundant wildlife makes this<br />
trip a pleasure. Although deer, hawks and<br />
coyote were most common,<br />
horned owls and a moose were<br />
also seen by many of the group.<br />
Our next set on was at Wilber<br />
WA where we were hosted by the<br />
Eastern Washington Gateway<br />
Railway (190 miles) traveling<br />
first west to Coulee City then east<br />
to Medical Lake. With an<br />
overnight in Wilber in between,<br />
we created our own entertainment<br />
and raised nearly $4000 at<br />
our annual charity auction. Proceeds<br />
were split between the Port<br />
Alberni group and a youth group<br />
at our final destination – Mac-<br />
Gregor Ranch at Hooper, WA.<br />
There we camped on the lawns<br />
and in the non-commercial hotel.<br />
A local youth rodeo team hosted<br />
a BBQ dinner and breakfast before<br />
seeing us off on our final two<br />
days. The Palouse River Railroad<br />
was our host as we toured (162<br />
miles) to Thornton and then Colfax<br />
and back to Hooper. An impromptu<br />
pizza party in the lobby<br />
of the only hotel in town seemed<br />
a fitting end to this year’s tour.<br />
A tour of this magnitude takes<br />
an enormous number of volunteers. Sarah<br />
Kelley (with Diann Sorenson) handled registration,<br />
Mike Kelley (with Mark Sorenson)<br />
inspected cars, Diana Wigen & Karen<br />
Wilber sold commemorative t-shirts (with<br />
help from Don and Alan) and our auctioneer<br />
was Bill Schertle. We celebrated three<br />
golden wedding anniversaries and five<br />
birthdays. We mentored four new operators.<br />
In total 34 cars made some of the tour<br />
although our daily count ranged from 26 –<br />
30. We had an injury free tour and only one<br />
reportable incident. Our group pulled together<br />
wonderfully to support each other<br />
and make our days on rail<br />
safe and enjoyable.<br />
Thanks everyone!<br />
The SETOFF SEP / OCT <strong>2009</strong><br />
Page 17
Change language