Dear Pilot,
You’d be surprised by the words U-505 does know. His conversational English is still improving, but his guides think it’s amusing to teach him fancier vocabulary to spring on us unexpectedly. It drives the steam engines mad to be sitting quietly and have U-505 remark on the weather with what Injun Joe used to call a “five-dollar word”. Last week, it had dropped down to 40 when we woke up and the steam engines were grumbling about it. He let them finish complaining, waited a beat, and then said, “Mm. Temperate.” They haven’t been in steam for years, but I could swear I heard them wheeshing. He thanks you for the “munitions”, as he puts it.
2903 also thanks you for your continued compliments. You make a very good point about an uneventful work history being a good work history. I’m sure it’s just as much of a struggle there for engines who don’t have a service life full of exhibitions or accidents to talk about as it is here, particularly for us stationary exhibits. Not that we don’t enjoy talking to the guests, of course, but it can be taxing for even those of us who were drawn for it. For engines who were built for labor alone, guests expecting to be entertained can leave one at a bit of a loss. At least your steam engines are getting the benefit of actually running to break up the face time with the public. Certainly no stationary engine – here or there – is truly sitting idle though!
To the point, you shouldn’t be so modest about pulling the first Vista-Dome train! Obviously I never pulled one, but I always imagined they’d be quite popular with passengers. As nice as our observation cars are, it’s surely different to be up high and able to see in all directions (and maybe a little scary if you’re going into a tunnel with close clearance). Did you pull the train somewhere scenic to take advantage of it? It’s perfectly Burlington of them to assign you and Silver Mate to the job too, since your names are aviation themed. In a glass dome with the scenery speeding by, it must practically feel like flying.
You’ve also had a perfect safety record, far as I’ve heard, so you two were probably the top choice for a job as important as that. I’m afraid to say that I had heard of the Naperville wreck (indeed, I’m afraid everyone has). One thing that always stuck out to me about it though was that Speed’s engineer survived the crash and his fireman might have too if he hadn’t jumped out first. I’m certain that’s owed to E5’s improvement on the shovelnose design.
I mentioned entertaining guests with stories about one’s accidents, but that’s sort of discouraged here. That’s not to say I can’t talk about my own accidents at all, but it’s not really the thing the museum would like to focus on. Maybe it invites too many questions about how much of me is original. Pretty much everything up to my RPO had to be replaced altogether after I hit that Mikado in Napier. My entire front end was demolished and my engineer and fireman both died. I was rebuilt and back in service in two months, with assurances that the accident wasn’t my or my crew’s fault. They said the other engine’s flagman got confused and threw the switch on my line when he shouldn’t have. Still, the accident was enough for the union to demand that Burlington not make any more of us. Which was fine by them as it happened. We were all custom-built and so we were expensive compared to the new mass produced engines that were coming out.
I won’t say that my brothers and I had a bad design (it’s poor form to admit a flaw in public, you know), but Zephyrus had a crash about three years later that killed his engineer as well. I can’t complain about how things worked out for us in view of that. E5s were a safer successor to our line and even if we shovelnoses were risky for our crews, none of us were retired or scrapped before our time for it. One can’t ask for much more than that.
You said Silver Inn couldn’t be repaired like your brothers were, but I could swear there was a Silver Inn on the Kansas City Zephyr.
At least Speed and Power were repaired and finished out their service lives together too. That they were the only other pair besides you and Mate to do so… I hesitate to ask what happened to the others, yet still want to know about them.
After all this gloom I’ve inadvertently asked for, I’m happy to have reminded your coaches of something more cheerful. I would expect they knew the Æolus better than I did, since they were built to cover their train when their usual engines were due for maintenance, but I’ll tell you what I know and they can correct or add as they see fit.
They weren’t diesel like us, but they were given fluted stainless steel shrouding to streamline them and match our trains. Since the idea was that they would cover the train when the usual Twin Cities Zephyr or Denver Zephyr engines were indisposed, they were named for the mythological Keeper of the Winds. If I remember it right, the Æolus in the story had a bag that he kept the four winds in and he let them out whenever they were needed. The winds all had names too, but I only remember the gentle West Wind was named Zephyrus like my brother.
Usually the Twin Cities Zephyr and Denver Zephyr didn’t need to be covered, so when they weren’t filling in there, the Æolus would pull the Black Hawk. I think they pulled the Overnite Denverite and the Aristocrat too for a season or two? Once they had all you E5’s for coverage instead, they took the shrouds off and mostly did odd jobs around the railroad until they retired. I’ve heard they’d been preserved too, set up outside a baseball field in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. That sounds more like being a statue than an exhibit like we are, but at least people visit for the ball games and they have something to watch to pass the time.
I agree; it is nice to hear how another yard is doing. My yard hasn’t changed much since ‘62 when 999 arrived so I feel I’m bringing less to the turntable than you are. So it goes! If your volunteers are working so furiously as they sound, then your museum is getting better by the day. It must be frustrating that they put up doors on the steam shop so you can’t see though. Everything exciting that happens at my museum goes on indoors too. Maybe they can keep working longer even when it starts to get too cold if they have doors.
I’m sure you’ll be on the service side of the door soon if they’re being so industrious.
Your friend,
Pioneer