Another EuroWest has come and gone. And as in the past this one surpassed our expectations. EuroWest had more layouts, more vendors and had Marklin USA and E-R Model Importers with Dr. Thomas Birner of Roco, Austria. Each importer had a whole room at their disposal for use, and use it they did. Both importers set up impressive displays. Big Boys passed each other in Marklin USA's train layout, one pulling a line of cars. Roco demonstrated their engines with Loksound decoders and their digital crane. The crane can use a clamshell bucket or electromagnet controlled by the Roco joystick.

The old familiar layouts were there and all had added modules. The San Diego crew had added four extra modules. Two had a station and passing loop while a third had a couple of dead end sidings. The Bay Area crew had added their freshly sceniced inside and outside corner to give their layout an "l" shaped look. The Pacific Northwest Gang had minimized scenery on a 48 foot long straight run. Digital Command Control allowed operators to follow their trains and actually drive them. The public was invited to operate the trains on the layout and just about every kid did including Uli Schwiekhardt. Uli as we all know is a kid at heart. He and Carsten Ramcke operated trains for about an hour on the PNW layout. The Bemo Boys had added an interior staging peninsula and added more scenery to their layout including a Faller car system. Peter Barnes returned with his "N" scale layout, Cees Feith of Prime Time Trains brought down a display layout by Noch, and both importers had display layouts to show off their coveted trains.

Alas we said 'Adieu" to Vance Mitchell as he had a going out of business sale with prices you'll never see here again. A Roco Landi-Lok went for $120.00. Smooth track and a downhill grade to you Vance and thanks for all the great show sales.

There were other deals to be found there from other vendors. Andreas Hildebrandt and Uli Schweikhardt teamed up to have some great deals with Uli bring items from Germany to sell.

Then there was the raffle which was well attended. I can personally attest that investing in $20.00 worth of tickets netted me two prizes. No I won't tell you what they are. The top prize went to Steve Stern a Roco Landi-Lok. I offered to trade him one of my prizes for it but he was quite happy with it. I feel the raffle was better than the stock market this year.

The ETE National Board and San Francisco Bay Area Chapter would like to thank Marklin USA, E-R Imports, Prime Time Trains, Nothin Specific Company, Rudi Pfeiffer, and all who donated prizes for the raffle.
 

Now let's enjoy the pictures.