Speeders Still Draw a Crowd!

There was a different feel to the annual speeder event today, a much less hectic pace.  With less speeders coming to share rides, however, don't think there was less enthusiasm!  People seemed to enjoy sitting on the dock, visiting while waiting for their turn.  And they definitely liked the longer rides.

Irv and Janice Johnson (above) eagerly bought tickets when they first went  on sale, knowing this would be their chance to take grandson James on the ride to Princeton. Janice (Vowels) grew up in Princeton, and saw the trains run right past her house each day.  James and his parents were visiting from Sacramento and the whole gang rode the rails.

Fearless leader Jim West was on the move all day, starting probably at 4 am when he opened all the windows in the depot to cool things off. He had his comfy motorhome parked near the caboose, but never accuse this guy of slacking or sneaking off for a nap. He worked non-stop all day!

David Zuhn is another trooper, serving on the HPG board and coming all the way from St. Paul, Minnesota to help with speeders.  Thanks Dave, we love seeing you out this way!

And let's give a lot of applause to the model railroaders who delighted everyone with their layouts. The N gauge set-up came from Lewiston and the HO layout traveled from Spokane.  There were some tense moments when the guys from Spokane saw the freight scale standing right smack in the middle of things, but amazingly enough the layout wrapped perfectly around the scale.  Whew!

Kenney and Jenny Gonzales came out to grab a speeder ride after seeing the announcement on Facebook.  Kenney grew up in Princeton and saw the trains come through, but he and Jenny chose the Kennedy Ford route to see some new country.  Jenny's grandpa, Bill Biggam, had been an active member of the Latah Railway model railroaders at the Latah County fairgrounds in Moscow before his death.