Dear Pioneer,
I’m glad to hear everyone’s well! It’s nice to be told about the goings-on from another yard. Not that my own isn’t interesting, mind, but it’s just me and the Goddesses out here most days. Even when we do have company – engine or human – they’re usually working so it’s best not to distract them too much. Hearing about how you all are getting on is a nice change. Reminds me of pulling into Union Station and getting caught up on all the news and gossip from while we were away. This is good gossip too. A submarine on rollers! What will they think of next?
I’m happy to have given 2903 something to get puffed-up about as well. An unremarkable work history is a safe, reliable work history. Being one of a small class, and Burlington besides, I did get some marketing material. They might have put me on a poster once? Aside from that, the most notable thing Mate and I ever did was pull the first Vista-Dome train, but that doesn’t really compare to all the events in your career or even Silver Bullet’s inaugural tour. It was just another cold January morning for us. All this to say, from one working engine to another, 2903 should be proud!
Not that there’s anything wrong with being famous either though. Attending a Railroad Fair and seeing two Pioneers (not to mention the famous No. 999) would have left quite the impression on the attendees! That’s quite a coincidence about your names, but given how long the railroad’s been around, I suppose it was bound to happen eventually. The Q knew how important the engines that came before us were to their success so it’s only natural that they’d make hay about our lineage where they could.
I didn’t know anything about Silver Slipper though. I’d never even heard of a railed engine running on rubber tires! My volunteer letter-writer tells me it was a short-lived experiment – which, given her nickname – makes sense. I know names that come about from design flaws are something of a touchy subject (more on that later) but it seems like this one worked out for Burlington in the end and for our roster especially.
Of course, last time when I said I hoped 9901 and 9902 being part of a pair made them feel better about not having names, I hadn’t considered that they might not see much of each other. That makes sense if it was only the two of them and they were eventually replaced because just them alone couldn’t meet demand though.
I can’t say I blame 9901 for his attitude. All of that moving around must have been awfully stressful. We did our fair share of route-switching during our time on the CB&Q, but I always had Mate with me so it was never a lonely job. Even those E5s without Bs were still better off than 9901 because Burlington knew the passenger load better by then and would send them backup if they needed it. It’s because 9901 kept getting shuffled around to meet demand that the Q better understood what the limitations of their engines were. Once again, we owe much of our success to the shovelnoses who came before.
None of us E5s ever had a route named for us, but that was only because all the routes had their names by the time we took over and they weren’t making new ones after 1953. It might have been nice to have a whole route named after me (The Pilot Zephyr has a nice ring to it!), but then when I retired it wouldn’t be mine anymore and some other engine might grumble about being called The Pilot instead of their proper name.
I’m sorry to hear of 9901’s fate. I don’t like to bad-mouth other railroads so I will just say I’m grateful to the Q for the care they took with all of us. At least 9902 had a happier end to his service, named train and all. I even think Baby Zephyr is quite cute for a nickname. The Goddesses do not agree with me!
I don’t think you went on very long at all. There’s so much to your history and of your brothers and sister and I’m more than happy to read all of it. Of all the benefits of preservation, this has to be my favorite so far.
Of course I’d be happy to talk about my kin in exchange and it only makes sense to talk about Silver Speed and Silver Power next. I don’t know much about twin engines, but Speed might be the closest I ever got to having one. He and I were the first to be built, we both had B units to match, and we both ended up assigned to the same jobs. We even ended up being what they call ‘Phase 1’ now, but at the time no other E5s existed so they didn’t call it anything when we were new. The second half of our class to be built in 1941 would have some modifications made (inside and out) that would set them apart from those of us built in 1940. In a way, I’m more closely related to Speed than to any of the E5As who came later. You wouldn’t know it setting us side-by-side though. Speed was not very much like me.
I don’t know how much experience you have with engines who are first in their class besides yourself. I think you must be one of the best First engines to ever be made, being so knowledgeable and level-headed as you are. That’s a rare thing. It’s not an enviable position, being First. When you’re First, they haven’t had time to work out your quirks yet and there aren’t any other engines to ask for advice. I think Speed and Power felt pressured to be flawless right out of the gate. In some ways they were! They certainly didn’t have any mechanical issues anyway. The problem was more that they didn’t have a good example to follow on how to be two engines together, A and B. They couldn’t very well ask how you all did it and the fact that they went right into service meant they didn’t have a lot of time to figure it out. The result was… less than agreeable.
It’s not so much that they had different ideas on how to run a train, though I imagine they probably had at least one “argument” about it just for the fun of hearing themselves talk. Mostly they were just always trying to outdo each other. Power always wanted to push and Speed would let him because then he’d get to show off how fast he was and how easily he could keep up with Power’s pushing. I say this not because it caused what happened next, but it’s important to what came after.
It may be that you’ve heard of the Naperville train wreck. It seems like engines who wouldn’t normally know about an accident involving only Burlington trains knew about it – but then, it was pretty bad. Remember what I said about nicknames that come about from design flaws? Even before the Naperville wreck, the Exposition Flyer was sometimes called the “Explosion Flyer” for how many accidents that had happened involving it, but out of all of them Naperville is the one most folks remember.
Six years after we went into service, all four of us were still working the Exposition Flyer. Speed and Power were following up the Advance Flyer out of Chicago Union Station, running three minutes ahead of the Exposition. From what I heard after, the two trains often ran closer than they should and sometimes got yellow signals when they ran too close, but the schedule would time it out so the signal would just turn green as the second train passed through. They called it “riding the yellow”. That day, though, the Advance had some trouble with debris under the wheels and stopped to check the running gear. When Speed’s Exposition got the yellow warning light, the engineer thought it was just the trains being a little too close together like usual so he didn’t slow down enough. By the time he saw the Advance was actually stopped and threw the brake on, it was too late.
Speed hit the back of the Advance at high speed and his entire front truck ran through the rear car. The second-to-last car on the train was a heavyweight car and the momentum pushed it into the next car on the train, a dining car named Silver Inn. He was full of passengers and was completely crumpled due to the impact. In total, forty-five people were killed and a hundred and twenty-five more were injured. It was as bad a crash as had happened up to that point on any railroad here in the states.
A lot of things changed after the accident. The railroads posted speed limits across the board, which is why most engines are at least a little familiar with the wreck, I expect. They also were more careful about running lightweight and heavyweight cars on the same trains because of how badly it turned out for Silver Inn and the passengers that were on board when the train crashed. Speed and Power were damaged too, but not so badly that they couldn’t be repaired.
After they came back out of the shops, Speed and Power were a different pair of engines. They were much quieter for one. I never heard them raising their voices just for fun anymore. They also did not like to be separated for very long. Power never complained when he was on my trains, but I could always tell he was anxious to get back to his A. The happy ending to this story is that they never had any major incidents after that and they both lasted until the C&S stopped running Zephyr passenger trains in ‘67. They even ended up going back to LaGrange together after we were all pulled from service. Actually now that I think about it, they were the only other A-B pair that went to the scrapyard together, besides Mate and me.
Your mention of the Zephyr steam engine seems to have brightened my whole train. The Goddesses got all excited and haven’t stopped talking amongst themselves about Æolus for several days. I’m curious to hear about this engine they seem to like so much, but I can’t get much out of them before they all start giggling. I asked them if you might have more to say about Æolus, to which Juno said, “Twice as much!” I’m hoping you know what that means because I sure don’t.
As for the steam engines I do know about: at the end of August, they hung the new steam shop doors and since then it seems like the whole fleet’s been in and out for maintenance or repainting or both. Both the 5s (Shay and CE) had work done as well as Tuskegee 101. They’ll continue to run steam trains until the end of the month. After that, the engines will have to be stored until spring so it’s important that they be in good condition. It’s amazing; they’re still building the steam shop itself, but there’s so much to do for the engines that work doesn’t stop even when they’re pouring concrete.
This month, the focus is on Frisco. She’s real close to being ready for regular service and they’d like to have her finished before the end of the year. Since she’s been undergoing so much maintenance I haven’t seen much of her, but Shay tells me she’s taking the job like a champ. I’d expect nothing less from an engine of her caliber, of course. She seems like the kind of engine who’s hungry for the work. Makes me feel a bit idle, silverbricking it out here on the wye!
I don’t mind it when the weather’s this nice though. The leaves are starting to change and when the steam rises up from the main line, it looks absolutely beautiful. Venus called it “picturesque”, which I quite like. It means that it’s like a picture. Not that I think you don’t know that, but maybe U-505 doesn’t?
I hope you and your visitors are enjoying a similar vista.
Your friend,
Pilot