Red Flag Horseless Carriage Tour visits

BRIGHTON (GTNS) ? A cheer went up Saturday afternoon as the lead three of the 14 ?light locomotives? that participated in the Red Flag Horseless Carriage Tour rounded the corner of Washington Street making their way for the finish line.

As the initial three cars passed the stop point, the lead vehicle, a 1922 Detroit Electric, didn?t make the ?chug chug? sound distinctive of the horseless carriages that participated in the run. Fourteen golf cart batteries power the car, driven by Gerry Schnepf of Johnston.

?We made it here and I think we have power to spare,? Schnepf said. ?Today?s new cars, 100 years later than this one can?t do a lot better. This will probably do 100 miles and it averages about 25 miles per hour. New ones can go faster, but they can?t go further.?

Schnepf said the vehicle is owned by the Iowa Transportation Museum.

As the vehicles parked along the street, the drivers ? many dressed in traditional Victorian garb ? went to get their participation certificate stamped by Mayor Rob Farley. The certificate was first stamped several hours and about 43 miles earlier in New London when the run started Saturday morning.

The run wasn?t about who crossed the finish line first, but about completing the course. For the next hour cars crossed the finish line and pulled into spaces on the square to be examined by the street full of onlookers.

The event, which has been two years in the making, is expected to be the first of a yearly horseless carriage tour. It is a re-enactment of the 1896 burning of the red flag and tour between London and Brighton, England. The law repealed a red flag law stating a vehicle could travel no more that 2 miles per hour in town and 4 miles per hour outside of town. The law also stated that a person precede the vehicle on foot waving a red flag. After the law was repealed the vehicles could top their speeds at 14 miles per hour.

Tim Johnson, portraying Murray Finch-Hatton, the 12th Earl of Winchilsea, the person who had started the race 117 years ago, donned a Victorian suit of clothes for the event. He had burned the flag in New London to start the tour.

?It?s kind of a trek for some of the older vehicles,? he said.

Mark Hempen and Jamie Collier, members of the Red Flag Horseless Carriage Tour board of directors, welcomed the drivers into town. Collier said three board members had attended a similar tour in Minnesota that the event was modeled after.

?Surprisingly there are only a few communities that are a London or a New London and a Brighton or a New Brighton that are close enough together to simulate the tour,? Hempen said. ?Fortunately Iowa is one of them.?

Collier confirmed this was going to be a yearly event. All the drivers believed that more vehicles would attend the second year.

During the tour, Carol Ray and her granddaughter Rosalie watched the cars leave New London and arrive in Brighton. Rosalie, who is visiting from Boston, said she had seen a re-creation of the tour when she lived in London, England. When she learned a similar event was planned in Iowa, she had delayed her plans to visit in order to see the tour.

?It is a fun way to see southeast Iowa,? she said. ?This is a chance to see the rest of the region and to see the cars ? the American ones that probably don?t make it to London.?

She said along the trails the organizers had prepared the roadway. She said there were even signs along the course pointing down that said ?bump.?

Carol Ray said she and Rosalie had followed the old cars in their 2000 Ford Ranger pickup truck.

?It?s fun to find an event that is unique,? Carol Ray said. ?Every car seemed to make a different sound. Very few were even enclosed. When we followed them on the road, people looked really cold.?