Vintage car tour rolls through Brownville
BROWNSVILLE – A parade of vintage cars made its way into the borough last week, as the Antique Automobile Club of America held its 2003 Vintage Tour. It was the final day of a five-day tour held every other year, with Nemacolin Castle as Friday’s destination. The Northern Panhandle Region of the AACA hosted this year’s tour.
Ted Bunnell of Bethany, W.Va., the president of the local chapter, said about 80 people participated in this year’s tour.
“It’s a weeklong tour for vehicles made in 1927 or earlier. There’s more and more interest in touring with cars of this era,” Bunnell said.
While the Northern Panhandle region has members from the panhandle of West Virginia, western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, the tour attracted vintage car owners from as far away as Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Delaware and Maryland. The tour group used Washington as its home base for the week. Each day trip encompassed about 100 miles and included a coffee stop in the morning, visits to historic sites and lunch along the way.
“You have a tour book that tells you how to get from point A to point B, and it’s never in a straight line,” Bunnell said. “We stop at historic sites like this.”
The group toured Nemacolin Castle, then headed out for lunch and the return trip to Washington, with a final stop at the trolley museum and a banquet to close out the week Friday evening.
Bunnell said one challenge of laying out the route for a vintage automobile tour is finding little-used back roads suitable for the slower-moving vehicles.
“Most people in old cars would rather climb than go down, because the brakes aren’t that great,” Bunnell said.
Driving through Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the cars spent a lot of time in first gear to hold them back on the hills, Bunnell said.
Monday’s tour took the group through Waynesburg, Point Marion, Friendship Hill, Masontown, Penncraft, across the ferry to East Bethlehem Township and on to Marianna and Lone Pine on the way back to Washington.
Tuesday’s tour was highlighted by a stop at a toy museum in Elm Grove, W.Va., via Claysville, West Alexander, Dallas and Sandhill, with a return trip through Oglebay Park and the college towns of West Liberty and Bethany, W.Va.
Wednesday was the longest trip, with 140 miles logged roundtrip. The group wound its way through Hickory and Burgettstown before crossing through Chester, W.Va., to Middleton, Ohio, to visit a private truck collection owned by Dick Best. Thursday’s trip followed the mountain ridgeline in Marshall County, W.Va., before touring the former West Virginia Penitentiary at Moundsville.
“The best part is the weather changed. We’ve had nothing but rain until this week,” Bunnell said. “We have a good time with the old cars. We’re going places and seeing things, and there’s camaraderie.”