Dear Pioneer,

Ha! That was a bit of a gambit on the part of Mr. Paley. You’re right, he would have been perfectly suited to a position at Burlington. I’ve often wondered if engines on other railroads had the same sort of relationship with their marketing departments as we did with ours. I’ve never heard a Santa Fe engine accused of being ‘slick’ or ‘glib’, but I know we got that a time or two while in service. It’s funny, we never considered ourselves luxury engines, but the way some of the other trains talked about us, you’d think we were pulling gold cars and not silver ones!

Wholeheartedly agree that what ought to be inside should stay inside, whether that be people or engines. I’ve not been under-roof here except for a few hours for maintenance, but our barns are indeed quite cozy from what I’ve heard! They just finished the new electric carbarn in Yard #3 back in April and so far there’s been nothing but praise from everyone being stored there. It was pretty funny; since the barn didn’t have any electricity yet, they had Tuskegee 101 do the shunting! There were a great many snide comments made about how the place was brand new yet it still somehow smelled of old smoke, but it was all in good fun.

Each department here tries to store their most vulnerable and esteemed equipment first, to keep the most delicate ones from being damaged entirely beyond repair. Aside from the fact that there’s not really a full-fledged diesel department to build us one, that’s why me and the Goddesses have been kept outside on the wye. A little rain and wind won’t do us any harm at the moment and I haven’t been here long enough to have earned a spot otherwise. I’m not too worried though. There’s plenty of room and motivation to go around. There’s already plans for the next barn.

It always manages to slip my mind that your articulation meant your service life was different from mine in a basic, mechanical sense. I didn’t spend much time in a roundhouse myself (we were almost always on assignment or on our way to an assignment or waiting around to be assigned) but those moments of downtime under a roof, in the company of other engines, without cars to attend to… It was nice in its way, but it could devolve into arguments and sulking as quickly as any regular trainyard. Sometimes quicker! I promise, you weren’t missing much. You’re right, a yard can be just as companionable as a roundhouse or barn, and my train agrees. You can see who’s coming and going better out here.

And there was quite a bit of coming and going to observe! After a lot of hard work by volunteers and crew, the Green Hornet completed a successful test run on June 22nd. There was some uncertainty beforehand, as she’d been under maintenance since a brake failure in May, but everything was in fine working order this time. If we hadn’t seen it for ourselves, the cheering from all the onlookers would surely have tipped us off! There’s still work to be done before she’s ready to take passengers, but this is great news for the car department and the rest of the museum. My letter writer says the Green Hornets were iconic to the people of Chicago, and one in operational condition will be of interest to enthusiasts from the whole state, which means more visitors!

And this month, 1630 finally (finally!) finished her restoration! On the 18th she did her test run after coming out of the shop and was pressed into service the day after. She looks magnificent. One of the guys redid all her hand-painted lettering. With that on top of her new number plate and spray-painted gloss finish, she was a sight to behold! It was only somewhat tempered by the fact that she whistled loud enough to wake all the surrounding farms, but I think her celebration was well-deserved. The steam department said her restoration represented around 13,000 hours of work. That’s almost a year and a half! When they said it was probably the largest effort the IRM has undertaken to date, I believe them.

True to her disposition, she’s been working her tender off pulling cars for passengers and practically singing all the while, which is nice because next on the docket is Shay who goes in for some routine maintenance alongside Old Smokey and everything that will go into her restoration as well. The work never ends! At least 1630 is more than happy to pick up the slack.

And as for the biggest news– Hm, how to put this… Well, they’re working on getting me back on the line next! I didn’t want to talk it up too early, but they’re looking into problems with my air brake system and we’ve done several test runs recently that have shown some marked improvement on my prime mover. I know my letter’s getting quite long as it is, so I’ll have more details for you soon, I promise. I don’t mean to keep you in suspense, but it’s been a jam-packed month and a half and I wanted to make sure you and your yard got to hear about it all.

And of course, the faster I can wrap up my letter and get it sent, the sooner I get one back!

Your friend,

Pilot

Dear Pioneer,

I’m so pleased to hear about your special visitors and potential record attendance! It seems as though those circus antics paid off, at least during the summer. Some of our younger volunteers were also excited to hear about this Mick Jagger guy and lamented the fact that our museum was too far away for him to visit us. Famous people are very busy. Not unlike famous engines, in fact! I’m not either of those things, but you wouldn’t know it from what’s been going on the past few months.

I promised you more details and I’m finally able to deliver! As you know, September is the end of our usual operating season which traditionally concludes after Members Day, when all the hard work our staff and volunteers have done over the course of the year is shown off. A couple of the guys here made it their goal to get us operational before then.

I mentioned in my last letter that they ran some tests over the summer to determine what exactly needs work, since you might as well address all the problems at once. There’s the broken valve spring that put an end to our Members Day run two years ago, but one of my engines was inconsistent at best and I’ve been told I have a “mysterious” air brake system. Put simply, sometimes my emergency brake would kick on and no one was sure why! There’s also the various issues that come with being stationary for so long; Leaky seals and such that needed replacing, cleaning, repainting. It wasn’t an insignificant amount of work. I don’t want to say I wasn’t optimistic going in, but the list of to-dos seemed daunting to say the least.

You’re right when you say the people here are very dedicated. Through July and August the guys did everything they set out to do and more! They replaced a bunch of seals, improved the brake system by quite a lot, and got both my engines back in working order. It wasn’t a solo effort, and I’m very grateful to the people from Westinghouse Brake Co. and even EMD who offered their services and documentation to help the process along. It’s not unlike when U-505’s manufacturers helped with his restoration! I understand why Frisco was so optimistic during her overhaul. It’s hard to feel down when you have so many people around you doing their best to get you up and running again.

The Goddesses were as pleased about the time the team spent cleaning as they were about the mechanical work being done. You can imagine the state my interiors were in from being outside for so long. Vesta said there was 35 years worth of accumulation to undo, but I think surely someone must have swept me out at least once or twice while I was in service. That I can’t remember the exact details doesn’t mean it didn’t happen!

Anyway, the last step was steam cleaning and repainting before the big day. It didn’t feel like previous years where we were all holding our breath and crossing our fingers just hoping for the best. Even before they hit the starter, I knew we’d be off and running again. Everyone put in so much effort and time and care that being operational again was a foregone conclusion. It was well worth it just for the looks of excitement on the guests faces as we spent the whole day taking them up and down the line!

Of course, the rest of Members Day was a treat, as usual. Frisco and Tuskegee double-headed their train, so we got double the number of whistles and cheers when we pulled into the station since they were both waiting on the other track. I’m told double-heading for steam engines around here is quite special, since it requires so much coordination and effort for their crews. Needless to say both of them were quite boisterous and the visitors loved every minute.

More exciting now that the event is over is the prospect of being able to do this again, and soon. I’ve been stationary for so long with only one outing a year, the idea that we might be relied upon to take more passengers is a bit nerve-wracking! Mostly I’m happy for my train, who haven’t stopped raving about the delightful time they had during Members Day and how next year it’s going to be their turn for a steam cleaning and new paint job.

I know this has run long again and I apologize to both your reader and my writer. I just didn’t want to leave anything out! Everyone here is anxious to hear more about your operations as ours come to a close. We might be semi-operational again, but our museum won’t see any guests for another season, so we’d love to hear more about yours.

And as always, thank you for the kind words and encouragement.

Your friend,

Pilot

Dear Pioneer,

Thank you for the kind words. The Goddesses were very flattered that you want to see our picture and have assured me that when the time comes, there will be so many pictures of our train that we’ll be spoiled for choice on what to send. Vesta suggested our letter writer might send a second envelope altogether, haha. I reminded her that stamps are expensive, but I’m very glad for the collective enthusiasm. I can’t remember the mood on this train being so light in a long time.

It’s wonderful to hear about your new ice cream parlor! I especially like that your visitors will be able to see the windows and fixtures in an authentic setting, being used for the things they were designed to do. It’s very… interactive! I don’t think the cold will deter your guests from enjoying the ice cream. Ceres says that people, children in particular, don’t mind eating cold food when it’s cold—especially ice cream. She would know better than an engine, I suppose! Personally, I think it sounds a bit like running your air conditioning in the snow. Maybe Finnegan’s can put hot chocolate on the menu during the winter months for cold guests who still want something sweet. (Gosh, that makes me sound very ‘Burlington’, doesn’t it?)

We have something similar here at the IRM, though it’s a bit more humble. Our East Union depot station on the main line is the original one from the nearby town of Marengo. It was originally built in 1851 and moved here to serve as our main line railway station in 1967 after it was retired. They actually cut the whole building into pieces and moved them on a flatcar, then reassembled them once it arrived. They tell me it was the first permanent structure on the property!

It’s nice, because it’s part of the local history as well as the history of railways in general. Not much of what we have at the IRM comes from this area specifically, especially now that we’ve grown so much that we can afford to take equipment from all over the country. That the first building on the property is something that locals have known and appreciated for its entire operating life—It feels like a fitting tribute.

Now it’s a nice spot for visitors to get out of the sun and wait for the trains while looking at old maps and brochures and pictures and various pieces of railway equipment that we received as donations. Venus says all of that stuff is called ‘ephemera’ which comes from a word that means “fleeting”, or only around for a short time. Of course, it’s part of our museum now, which makes it history!

All the steam engines and trolley cars have been winterized for their season-long vacation. During Members Day, I asked Frisco and Shay what they all get up to during the cold months when we have no visitors and Shay says it’s mostly talking about the old days and sleeping. They used to discuss their maintenance plans for the coming year, but Frisco said it often turned into a competition; Which she put a stop to last year by reminding everyone about every single thing they still had left to do for her restoration. “I’ve had enough work done for another service life. I win that argument every time,” were her words.

Of course, we’re all looking forward to our own list of things to be fixed out here on the wye, but for now it’s time for our volunteers to spend time with their families. The work will continue in January, I’m sure.

What are the MSI’s plans for the season? I have been looking at our museum in the snow and thinking about your Christmas trees and how wonderful they’re going to look! I think one day it might be nice for us to be open for a few days during the winter and hang up our own lights and things. They tell me engines always look good in the snow. I’ve been thinking about your yard in the snow, too.

Please wish everyone happy holidays from me and my train!

Your friend,

Pilot

Dear Pioneer,

Thank you for the postcard and the newspaper clipping! Our letter writer walked down the whole train with both to make sure the Goddesses got a good look at them. Ceres was very interested in the photo of the ice cream parlour in particular.

Some old railcars on static display get turned into restaurants, so she was curious about what a stationary dining establishment would look like. Vesta was not particularly kind about it and said old cars still look like old cars no matter how you dress them up, but the rest of the train was impressed anyway.

The Goddesses are looking forward to their own restoration, so I think seeing the inside of something old polished up and made to look new again is exciting for them. When they restore us engines, interior work doesn’t usually look pretty to most people (unless you count our mechanics, haha). Interior work on a car is a different proposition, especially high-end passenger cars like our trains. They have to look nice! It’s art vs. science all over again.

I’ve heard of busting snow! We never did it as a staged thing, or really at all if we could help it (passengers don’t find it as appealing as people looking at pictures do) but sometimes the bigger engines who ran ahead of the snowplows would brag about the size of the drifts they’d busted. Mate never really believed them, but it was harmless siding talk so I never minded if it was really true. I should have liked to see a slant-nose do it though! Burlington always went out of their way to make their stainless steel equipment look good, and I’m sure those promotional photos were no exception.

There’s been a little activity around the museum as the guys from the shop take stock of what needs doing in the coming year. They didn’t stop by our spot on the wye for very long, but that’s not unusual. Being outside means work on us has to wait until it’s properly warm and there’s less of a chance of everyone getting rained on. Every engine and car under-roof will be getting a visit from the shop guys very soon though. They tell me they’re planning on getting Green Hornet ready for the summer months and everyone’s very excited for her!

It’s funny that you mentioned snow feeling like the end. Us E5s did our first runs in the January snow, so to me the cold always reminds me of a fresh start. What was your final run like? Was it regular service or a special event?

The thought of everyone in your peaceful yard looking like a little Christmas storybook was a nice one, especially during those particularly dark and dreary days at the tail-end of the year. Please send New Year’s greetings to everyone from me and my train!

Your friend,

Pilot

Dear Pioneer,

Have I said recently how much the yard looks forward to your letters? Of course it goes without saying that I always do, but it only occurred to me that everyone else loves getting them just as much when our letter-writer brought the last one out to us and seemed excited that there were two whole pages to read. My train have been keen on your longer letters recently (I think they’re hoping for another submarine story) but after the line about being reupholstered it took about a minute before everyone was quiet enough to continue listening, haha. Once they did though, I think they enjoyed it as much as any submarine story.

When you talk about your history, I feel like I’m there. Is that strange? Venus says that’s the mark of a skilled storyteller. Vesta said it was the good fortune of a famous engine to have stories worth telling. Personally, I think you could probably make a day in the yard sound interesting, but then again Mate always said I was too easily impressed. But can I help it if it’s easy to imagine seeing you fly over the rails in the snow? Your passengers and all the people in the towns you passed must have thought you were the grandest thing running! And being so close as to catch a greeting from an already-preserved engine feels… Well, it feels a bit like finding out that the Pioneer Zephyr– who lives in the city nearby– wants to be pen pals. Fortunate indeed!

Having two last runs isn’t dissimilar to what happened to us on the C&S in 1967, oddly enough. Maybe it’s an unofficial Zephyr tradition? They didn’t mean to give us two, but when we were retired in October, the railroad realized they didn’t have enough engines for all their trains and we were called back up into service for a few more months pulling drag freight. I wish our second retirement run was as grand as yours, but by the time we were headed up to McCook, we were all just tired. None of us wanted to quit, like you said, but being re-geared to haul miles-long freight trains was not what we’d been built for. In a way, a rest sounded nice regardless of what came next.

Usually this is where I would say that March is still considered part of our slow season and we’re waiting for the weather to get better before anything of note happens here, but last month something very interesting happened! The news wanted to do a special feature on local attractions, so they came to our museum to talk to the staff and volunteers about their work on one of the private cars, Ely.

Ely is very special, so I get why they wanted to do a feature on him. He’s a private railcar built during the 1890s for special guests of the railroad to travel in comfort. The camera crews from the television studio came out and took some film of his beautiful Gilded Age exterior; red and gold and very intricate. Not very much like streamliner, but lovely all the same. Apparently he took very well to the attention! You’d never know he was built before television was even invented with how he preened for the camera.

The staff here were very excited about the news program. Not only is being featured on the television good for Ely and his restoration, but it’s good advertising for the museum too! A few years ago we did spots on the radio telling people about coming out to visit us. The folks here say the TV is like that but even better because people can see what we have to offer with their own eyes. It’s no Silver Streak, but still very Burlington!

But it’s not all lazing about for the film crews around here. Illinois Terminal 101 is starting her restoration soon, and I’ll be getting ready for some test runs myself! It’s looking to be quite the busy season ahead of us. I hope your spring season is looking just as eventful.

Your friend,

Pilot

Dear Pioneer,

I’m glad to hear that my letters get to entertain the whole yard. It makes our letters a bit like a static display, free for everyone who happens to be around to enjoy! Just like a static display as well, everyone usually has something to contribute. When the Goddesses heard you were asking for a story about their history, they were very eager to move into the role of museum exhibit just for you. Some days on the wye are pretty quiet, but after your invitation they spent a good half a day deciding what story they were going to share.

Pegasus, they say, didn’t actually get to pull their train for very long. She had the same trouble you did, where your train would get too popular for you to carry all the people who wanted to ride. Since she could be detached from the train and more cars could be added on to their consist, Pegasus often got reassigned to a lighter train and one of the Æolus or later us E5’s would take over instead.

By the time they became the Nebraska Zephyr, Pegasus was more or less permanently reassigned to the general passenger pool for Chicago suburban routes even if no one had come out and said so. And since no one had actually said it wasn’t her train anymore, she would sometimes ask after them to see how they were if she hadn’t seen them in a while.

One time, though, 4001 was a little rude about it. It sounded like Pegasus asked, as a joke, how she was taking care of her train and 4001 said something snotty back about how it was hardly her train anymore. Apparently the uproar was cacophonous, which Venus says is when every car in a train is all shouting at once and the stationmaster comes outside to tell them off for it. They all told 4001 that they were more Pegasus’ train than hers and that she shouldn’t let getting to pull them go to her smokebox because she was also still in the general pool too and didn’t even have a name to herself.

Whether Pegasus thanked them or apologized for them is a matter of debate (maybe she did both; she sounds tactful) and then – with a bit of shunting from Venus and Vesta particularly – 4001 apologized too. That story is a good reminder that every job on the railroad (and in the museum) is important and we should all be respectful.

You know, your Rocket sounds quite similar to B-units, come to think of it! A good quarter of the E5 fleet were built as Bs – not transitioned into them later like Pegasus and some of the other shovelnoses were. They never got the chance to pull trains on their own, but many of our long trains would be much harder to pull without them. They were built to their purpose too, and all our jobs were easier for it.

I don’t think it’s embarrassing at all to want to keep working the rails rather than retire, especially since it sounds like you were in good enough condition to continue passenger service for a long time. I expect we would have felt the same if we’d been sent straight to retirement rather than spend a couple months hauling freight. It was tough, especially on the B-units. For your sake, I’m glad you didn’t have to help us with that, haha.

4 billion people is big news! My letter-writer read that number and I had to really think about it for a moment. She explained that a billion is one-thousand millions, which didn’t help much, haha. Some engines travel one million service miles or better in their lifetimes, but imagine having to do that a thousand times, and then four more times on top of that!

Our big news was the arrival of our newest acquisition, Norfolk and Western 2050 last month. She’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen, and she’s articulated just like you! She used to work in West Virginia hauling coal trains up in the mountains, so you can imagine how much power an engine needs to have to go up a steep grade with such a heavy load. It requires two different sets of cylinders, which is why she’s articulated.

I was a little nervous to meet her at first. When an engine that big rolls up into the yard, sometimes it’s hard to know what to expect, but she was so polite and soft-spoken! It turns out we have a lot in common.

Like me, she was moved to a scrapyard after retirement at the Armco Steel factory in Ohio, but just like me she was picked to do a little extra work. In her case, they used her as a portable boiler around the plant a few times. Having her around to help made the steel factory workers a little sentimental, so she got to stick around as a kind of static display inside the factory yard. The men loved her so much that they even wrote her a poem, which I think is sweet! It’s written right on her tender in chalk. It talks about death, which Vesta says isn’t very sweet at all, but Venus said no one’s ever written Vesta a poem. That made 2050 laugh so hard she scared some birds out of a tree.

Because the men at the factory liked her so much (and because she needed a lot of work done to be moved) Armco were reluctant to let 2050 go at first. Apparently two other museums wanted her too, but didn’t have the manpower or know-how to get her ready to move which would leave Armco footing the bill. That’s not a problem for our guys though, and eventually the IRM worked out a deal with the factory to do the work for free and give 2050 a home where she’d be loved as much as she had been there.

Since she lived in Ohio, that meant the work had to happen slowly over the course of several months. Every few weeks a team made up of our guys would make the trip to Middletown to do the work of cleaning, degreasing, regreasing, repairing, and restoring her so she’d pass inspection. Ohio isn’t a short trip, especially if you’ve been sitting still for over 15 years!

In April, everything was finally cleared for her to move. The hope was she’d be hitched to a Conrail freight train and sail up to Chicago and from there make her way home. As you surely know, even the best laid track can often bend awry. First off, the diesel moving her out of Armco’s yard broke down and a second mover had to be called to get her off the property. Then, once she started moving, the crew found that her axles would run hot and she had to be stopped every 20 miles to make sure they weren’t damaging her.

It was slow going, but eventually she made the rest of the way here late last month. She said that final freight train from Chicago was a rough ride at 40mph, but that she was happy to be in a new home that wasn’t on the doorstep of a scrapyard. I said I couldn’t blame her for that!

She’s over in the steam yard now, so we haven’t chatted much since she arrived, but I expect Tuskegee and 1630 will keep me posted about her when they start running more regularly on the main line.

In celebration of 2050 finding a new place to stay, one of the factory workers wrote her two new poems to go with the one on her tender. These talk about ‘new friendships’ and ‘renewal’, which sounds much nicer than ‘steam condensed in death’. Even Vesta couldn’t complain about those!

Shay is back in the shop for what looks like the rest of the year. They want her in the best shape she can be in after how popular her double-header was with 1630 on Member’s Day. It must be difficult being an iconic engine for our museum! I myself will be having some work done as well, though not nearly as much as Shay. They said they want me to do a couple runs this summer, and hopefully another feature on the Member’s Day roster for me as well!

Whew! That was a long one. I hope it kept you and the yard entertained! What number is the counter at now? I can’t wait for your next letter. It’ll be a nice distraction while I’m getting tuned up for the summer.

Your friend,

Pilot

Dear Pioneer,

Your comment about the Goddesses being the very model of a loyal and hardworking train was quite well-received as you might imagine. Almost as well-received as the news that your engine still runs! Can’t say why they were so excited about it, but that bit of news got the whole train aflutter. When I asked them about it, all I got was laughter and something about, “not so static after all”. Trains can be loyal, but they can also be very mysterious. They’ve started laughing again as I dictate this.

I’m not an expert on poetry by any means, but I think it’s pretty amazing that 2903 has a poem! I certainly don’t have one and the Goddesses don’t either, as previously mentioned. My letter writer says people who write poems usually do so because they’re moved by something. Not every person can write a book or paint a beautiful picture– just like not every engine can pull a logging train or be a yard switcher – but almost anyone can write even a small poem just like any engine can be appreciated. I think it’s nice!

Speaking of moving people, we’ve been taking passengers again! I figured I’d better not bury the lede this time, since we’re obviously all very excited. Our runs serve a similar purpose to getting your engine turned over once in a while, I imagine. Keeps us in good working order should we be called upon (for Member’s Day or otherwise). That and the passengers just love being able to ride the train that’s been sitting static in plain view for so long, haha. They don’t even seem to mind the occasional noise or lack of air conditioning. Sometimes it’s just about seeing us move, as your Rocket might attest!

Our visitors have been getting a lot of that sort of moving lately as well. Museum members voted this year to charge an admission fee for the museum grounds (25¢ for children and 50¢ for adults) which went into effect in June. In order to make it worth their while, Yard 1 was rearranged so that all the cars which had previously been sitting by themselves are now part of a few complete trains. Each car is getting a description board as well, painted orange so they stand out and visitors can read about their histories while they explore the train.

It’s a different approach, but it means our visitors can support the museum while getting to learn more about us. There’s not always a guide available to answer questions, so the signs serve to get people interested in the stock they’re looking at. And my letter writer tells me that the policy has actually been received favorably. That wasn’t necessarily a guarantee, but it turns out people are happy to support us any way they can!

In a similar show of support, all the electrics got to sing for us on the 4th of July. At 2 o’clock, every electric car with a working horn on the property honked for two whole minutes to celebrate the bicentennial. Apparently people all over the country were celebrating similarly, which sounds very noisy indeed. 200 years is a big birthday. There aren’t even any engines that old! I guess if folks can be moved by us engines just simply doing our job, it follows they’d be moved by such a significant milestone. Did your museum do anything special for the 4th? Our visitors tell us everything in town is red white and blue right now, I expect you’d have a pretty good view of that from where you’re standing!

I hope your summer operations are going as well as ours. It’s been nice to settle in at the end of the day after doing a run and thinking about your letters. Sometimes I’m so tired afterward, I fall asleep thinking about what you’ll write next! …Hmm, the Goddesses are laughing again. Ah, well.

Your friend,

Pilot

Dear Pioneer,

When we started exchanging letters, they told me it would be something for me to look forward to during downtime and while I was in the shop. But with all the laughing, I’m beginning to think they get more out of it than we do!

I kid, of course. If I didn’t have your letters, I wouldn’t get the chance to hear about things like your Norwegian visitors and their boat. Our visitors are all mostly local, so we don’t get international visitors – or ambassador naval vessels – out here. It’s exciting to hear about how far the celebrations for the bicentennial have carried. All the way across the ocean, it seems!

My letter writer had to explain to me and my train (a blind spot in their worldliness for once!) what a tri-masted sailing ship was and why one would be visiting Chicago. She said that the same way people love and want to learn to drive old engines, there are people who love and want to learn how to sail old ships. Chrisitian Radich is just the maritime version of those of us at the IRM, in a way. Only he gets to take his crew across the Atlantic to visit your museum and your boat!

It might still look like July around here, but it is in fact September, which means we celebrated Members Day this month. It’s my second in a row and third time overall so I’m getting to be, as they say around here, an “old hand” at this. Since I am such an expert now, I figure I can tell you everything I’ve noticed so far about our big year-end event.

We call it Members Day, but it’s more like a Members Weekend since it usually runs two days – one for electric operations, and one for steam. Each department is in charge of its own itinerary for the day. You might notice there isn’t a day for diesel or gas electrics. Well, the steam department and their most generous engines let us operate alongside them on their day, which we’re very grateful for!

On steam (and diesel) day, we had a similar lineup to last year with Tuskegee and Frisco taking the lead in the morning and me and my train doing trips throughout the afternoon. We did have one new addition to the roster, though it was somewhat accidental.

Pullman 1792 (they call her D.D.’s Delight) is a gas-electric switcher who works around the property sorting track materials and moving cars around for better viewing. She’s as historic as the rest of us, but small and not particularly accustomed to being fawned over by visitors. She’s happier doing work than sitting around being admired, in other words.

Well, the weekend before Members Day, D.D. had derailed and resisted traditional manpowered efforts at being set right. The guys knew our big crane, C&WI 1900, would be out for Members Day and figured he’d be able to sort her out and that it would make a fun viewing experience for our visitors. Not only were they right – a big crowd gathered at the end of the line to see Tuskegee pull 1900 to the rescue site – but then stayed to watch as D.D. hurried back down the line to the yard. A museum in motion, indeed!

Electric Day was not quite as eventful as all that, but Green Hornet made her debut as the belle of the ball and was quite popular with guests, which doesn’t surprise me at all. Since she’s been operational, I’ve overheard visitors talking about her, and they love her stories about her service life in Chicago and how it compares to here.

Having my own window into the exciting life of a city engine, I can’t say I blame them.

Your friend,

Pilot

Dear Pioneer,

It would never have occurred to me to call you of all engines a hayseed! We considered the earliest Zephyrs – and you in particular – much more cosmopolitan than those of us who came later. I remember you mentioning that you spent most of your service life on smaller routes, but you seem so worldly all the same.

Happily, D.D. recovered quite well from her Member’s Day debut. As a matter of fact, my letter-writer tells me that she and 1900 have become fast friends after the whole thing. I think it was just a lot of excitement all at once for an engine not used to being the center of attention.

1900 is a big crane designed for lifting whole engines, and D.D. is so small that when she arrived last year she was driven in on the flatbed of a truck. It was definitely a “performance” in the sense that using 1900 to rerail her was probably excessive, but the visitors absolutely loved it! Part of being a museum of operational equipment is getting to see us do our thing, which includes cranes and shunters. In that way, we’re all performing a little bit every day I suppose!

What was it like being a show engine? I’d be curious to hear from you and 999 about it, since most of the time our “performances” just look like standard operating procedure. I can’t imagine what being on a movie set or in a railroad showcase would be like, so I’d love to hear if you all had any stories.

As always, the end of summer means it’s slowed down quite a bit over here. This is just fine, as it gives our guys time to do the less glamorous work out of the public eye. We’ve acquired a good stock of materials for the tracks thanks to the Commonwealth Edison Company (the namesake of several of our engines!) taking out all their track at the plant this year and offering to donate it to us, provided we did all the hard work of course, haha. As much as our guys pride themselves on being able to handle most jobs with museum equipment, they wanted to get the rails moved before the weather turned. They rented five semi trailers to get it all hauled out here in just two weeks! Next step is the ties and spikes. This should keep us in trackage for a good while. The tractors and trucks on the property certainly haven’t wanted for jobs to do, even as the operating season comes to a close.

Meanwhile, Green Hornet’s enjoying a nice cozy spot in the newest carbarn on account of her restoration being such a resounding success. None of us begrudge her the spot, since she brought in so many eager visitors during the summer and even did a special run late last month for higher-ups from the RTA and CTA who came out to enjoy our roster of operational Chicago equipment. Our elevated cars and Surface Lines engines did a great job of course, but Green Hornet was the belle of the ball, so-to-speak. Apparently the transit officials were so impressed with her that they shared their compliments with the staff and crew after the ride!

These kinds of visits improve the museum’s relationship with possible donors, so it’s important to show off a good restoration like Hornet’s to prove that the IRM is a good home for retiring engines and cars. It’s flaunting for a good cause! Very Burlington.

As for the Goddesses and myself, we’re hoping for a quiet winter and a chance to show off ourselves next year. Restoration is an ongoing process. Venus called it ‘Sisyphean’. She would know, I suppose!

Your friend,

Pilot

Dear Pioneer,

I hope you and your yard have been managing alright in the snow! They tell me this has been the coldest January on record, and I believe them. My axles almost hurt! Hopefully this letter will take our minds off the cold, at least for a little bit.

This month marks the arrival of some parts we sourced from a trolley museum in Wisconsin. That’s not unusual by itself – we’re always strapped for parts – but these were essential for one of our cars. CA&E 321 is an old wooden interurban car from 1914. She’s been here for even longer than I have (can you believe it’s been six years?) but was not in the best shape. The guys have been in talks to have her scrapped to make room for some equipment that could be made operational, but scrapping is a final decision and requires hard work and shop space.

East Troy trolley museum had CA&E’s sister cars, 318 and 319. When 318 joined them several years ago, the IRM suggested that 318 might be able to provide parts for her sisters to be fully restored, but East Troy wanted a working pair and weren’t ready to give up on 318. Well, news came down last year that the restoration would be too expensive for both cars, so our guys offered to buy 318 to fund the restoration of 319 and acquire parts for 321, saving them both. Our guys drove up to Wisconsin to get the parts and left only her wood exterior behind, since that was the only part 321 wasn’t missing.

Without 318, all three cars might have been scrapped, but through 318’s sacrifice, her sisters can go on to be preserved. But it gets more interesting! After our guys came back with the parts, rumor reached them that 318’s wood body wasn’t taken to the scrapyard, but had been driven off on a flatbed to go live on someone else’s private property. The Goddesses say that’s ridiculous, but I lived off-property for some time myself, so I know it’s not impossible. Either way, 318 will always be a part of 319 and 321, which is a nice thought all on its own.

Anyway, I don’t want my letter-writer to be out in the cold for too long and I’m sure your letter-reader feels the same way, so I tried to keep things brief. Luckily she has a cozy spot to retreat to in our new Technical Library! More on that and some other additions soon, assuming the weather gets better. Please stay warm until then!

Your friend,

Pilot