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18-24 August, 2003 The engines at the show are wonderful, and the sights we see of America away from Portland are amazing, but the people we meet at Portland are the real reason for us to make the trip. The really difficult part of this is knowing where to start! Well, that has to be at the motel, where we thought Rob and Kelley had arrived before us! After all, Rob had been contemplating making official SEL tattoos .... For once, we were not the only Brits around. Philip Thornton Evison had made his first pilgrimage to Portland, where he was acquainted with his Maytag Twin. Here, Philip and Ted discuss the quality of the smoke being produced. Philip wasn't the only one with a new engine. Dave bought one out on the rally field for a freind back home. It was only missing the fuel tank, and Dave wanted to be sure it ran .... When the Royster brothers arrived, I watched their unloading process with interest. First there was Steve's big Gade, then I spotted a most beautiful, original Baker Monitor with a pumpjack on the trailer. "Isn't that gorgeous?" I said to Jim. "Glad you like it", he replied. "It's yours!". Turns out there had been a LOT of plotting behind my back over the winter, and I was now the very proud owner of an engine I've decided will be called Norma Jean. Of course, having one less engine to take home meant that Steve had to buy one to take its place - purely to keep the balance on the trailer! This Stickney seemed to fit the bill. His Gade also attracted plenty of attention, with Richie Backus of GEM trying to take an artistic shot of it in front of the old log cabin. No problem to just move a little thing like a Gade across the showground! Luke Tonneberger had prearranged his new engine, a Mery model, to be delivered to him by the maker at Portland. Here's Luke and Reg with the engine. On the subject of models, Tom Ball was displaying one of his Fairbanks Morse Eclipse casting sets, along with a completed model and several other models. Here's Tom chewing the fat with Jim! Devin Holland was determined that Portland 2003 would be the year he bought his first engine. Although he'd been "bitten" by Norma Jean when Arnie was examining her at a show earlier in the season, he also decided on a Monitor, and posed happily with the family and his new engine. John Culp brought his daughter Jennifer and her new husband to Portland for the first time, and Jennifer gave a public display of her talents painting a Maytag. Tommy Turner hadn't brought a new engine, but his Hagan was having its first outing since a tornado had torn through Tommy's place about 10 years ago, doing untold damage to his collection. The final stages of the restoration were completed on the showground. Jim Fehl had to do a serious repair on his engine at the show after things had gone wrong, but serious concentration and some drilling in the right place solved the problem and the engine was running again for the last few days. Keith Kinney's half-breed needed some parts - what better place than Portland to get what's needed? And there's nothing like the feeling of satisfaction on getting an engine running nicely! Dave had brought his Petter for Jim to work on. It took a couple of days, a few trips to the sale area and a few rude words, but eventually it was running sweetly. Arnie had Lincoln in training, tending Sophia, his Czech-built Lorenz. Lincoln had further training from Reg, in the fine art of headgear. When Reg first met up with Lincoln and Reg's adoptive nephew, Tom French, Lincoln's headgear was a plain baseball cap. Then Reg introduced the first badges to his hat collection, and after a couple of days, Lincoln was sporting a smart Reg-lookalike hat. This had to be correctly adjusted, before Reg and Lincoln posed for an official photo! Reg, incidently, was the perfect gentleman, seen here purposely blocking the view of a certain Southern Belle who was unwise enough to fall asleep and thus allow the pranksters a chance of taking incriminating photographs. 2003 was also the 100th anniversary of Root and Vandervoort eninges, celebrated at a special show. Unfortunately, because that was to be held 3 weeks after Portland, we were unable to attend. But we did enter the show, so the organiser, Dick Wells, brought all our exhibitor goodies to Portland. We needed an R&V to pose with, so we borrowed Patrick Livingstone's, which was travelling via the Old Iron Express to the R&V show. Visiting with friends is an essential part of the show, but it took several days for Jim to meet up with Larry Thomas, as they both seemed to go visting each other at the same time! Here's the founder of this group, Brice Adams, modelling his Thomas Edison t-shirt, and Tim Chrisoff performing for an impressed group of ATIS members! Missy Holland and Keith Kinney, and here's Philip with Richie Backus, possibly looking critically at Philip's Maytag? Jim, Steve and Rick enjoy a joke, and this is just Leroy (couldn't fit anyone else in the picture!). Finally, here's Tom and Chris French, posing with a little piston and valves we saw!
This tractor thing ... hmmm. Well, here's Dave being an FATG. And here's me being one - I even had the badge reading FATG - Fat Ass Tractor Gal. When someone suggested maybe on the girl's badges, the "F" could stand for "Fine", Dave just said "You haven't seen the rest of them!" With Dave's tractor in place in the engine row, his harem used it for posing (we'd also posed by his truck!). As we climbed down, questions were being asked about the .... er ... delicate subject of measurement. To be on the safe side and purely for the record, Dave took official axe handle measurements of myself (Dolly), Susan, Missy, Mel and Kelley. On Saturday, Steve Webre started to get panic-stricken. The show was drawing to a close and he STILL hadn't bought an engine! It was time to remedy this failing! He came back from the sale area with a Hercules, and soon attracted an admiring group of SEL folk keen to see the new purchase in action. Mel and Susan were suitably awed by the men's ability. Turned out that thing could smoke better than a Maytag! No sooner than he'd got it running, than it was time to pack all the toys away - lucky they drive a Suburban, and can fit in the odd engine, horse trough and a vast collection of goods destined to appear at Mel's antique stall. When it comes to loading up, at Portland there's no shortage of help - it comes in all shapes and sizes! Philip, meanwhile, was checking out Jim Dunmeyer's Dodge Ram for size! A crucial event is the official List photos, usually taken on Thursday and Friday. These pics are a little bigger than the others on these webpages, so will take longer to download. Always the very worst part of Portland is the farewells, and with everyone travelling such great distances to be at the show, the goodbyes start almost before the hellos have finished! The trick is, of course, to make your goodbyes with style, and no-one does that better than Reg. I think Missy Holland's face as Reg hugs Mel says it all! But everyone gets a turn in the end, and Mel wipes away a tear thinking how long it will be before she can receive another authentic Reggie hug. Shirley and Luke's little girl, Brooklyn, made sure to give her friend Susan a big hug on leaving! Sunday morning and the showground is all but deserted. Arnie's Jeep and trailer were loaded (or should that be OVERLOADED??) for the trip back to Pittsburgh, and Dave's trailer had a lot more on it going back than it had coming!!
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