Side Stories
There are some stories we’d like to tell that just won’t fit in an envelope. Those are collected here.
- Bridge: Visitors ask Pilot why the IRM’s line doesn’t go further.
- Having Your Giant Birthday Cake and Eating It Too: Despite years of correspondence, Pioneer is still wary of showing off to Pilot.
- Iron Show Pony: 999 and Pioneer discuss their acting careers.
- What Might Have Been: City of Salina reflects on his old rival as he’s lowered into his new exhibit.
Humanization
Ray’s Character Art: Were it not for an initially facetious interest in The Railway Series, we’d not have started this project at all. Since the beginning, Ray has drawn humanized interpretations of both Reverend Wilbert Awdry’s trains and our own. Now you can see of all of Ray’s Thomas the Tank Engine and The Future is Still Silver and Black art in one place.
Preservation Series: It should not be surprising than that we also wrote stories about our engines in an alternate universe where they can assume those forms. These are meant to be unserious “Barbie playtime”, fanfics-of-our-fanfic where we explore interactions between characters who normally could not due to their locations in the museum (or in the case of Silver Mate, due to being scrapped). However, along with Ray’s character concepts, the humanized stuff has come to be one of the most popular areas of this project.
- Just One of Those Things: The fastest trains in the world gather once a year at the Railway Speed Record Club to celebrate their achievements. This year, New York Central No. 999 has someone she’d like to introduce to the Pioneer Zephyr…
- Once, and Then, No More: A reunion of the U. S. Navy capturing party of the German submarine U-505 is held once every ten years at the Museum of Science and Industry. This year, for the first time, U-505’s own crew attended as well. It’s also the first time U-505 has ever sought out 2903’s company.
- Talk is Silver: Silver Pilot gets ready to head home from visiting the Pioneer Zephyr at the Museum of Science and Industry. U-505 offers to walk him down to the lobby…
- Those’re His: Pioneer and 999 have come to visit the IRM for the first time since Silver Mate was rebuilt, giving 2903 a chance to be Useful.
- Airplanes in the Ocean: In a bout of guilt generosity, 999 decides to reward a certain submarine’s meddling in the affairs of others with some meddling of her own.
Other Art
A Postcard for the Flying Yankee: to congratulate the Flying Yankee on its recent relocation to the Conway Scenic Railroad, we designed and sent him a postcard from the Pioneer Zephyr.
Flying Yankee Doodle: a cocktail napkin drawing Ray did that the Flying Yankee Association asked us to turn into a vector graphic so they could use it for promotional materials.
Our Memorabilia Collection
Philately
Letter Covers: throughout the Pioneer Zephyr‘s service life, special letter covers were issued to celebrate its place in railroad history, a practice continued into its preservation. We have nearly all of them.
Postcards: postcards are a surprisingly valuable resource when it comes to documenting our engines’ appearances over time and their place in the world, so of course we collect those too.
Original Site
https://thefutureisstillsilverandblack.neocities.org/: an archived copy our original site build from when we were still set up on neocities.org. Take a trip down memory lane.