The Spring 1977 Update

[DJ]

Last year, we moved The Future is Still Silver and Black to its new home on pioneerandpilot.com. This year, we're finally unpacked and hosting a trainwarming party.

In addition to seeing how 1977 is treating our preserved pen pals so far, we've made a lot of upgrades and added amenities that will make your ride with us smoother and more comfortable. While the route is a little shorter this time around, we've built a cozy station in anticipation of your arrival.

Now departing for 1977!

The Spring 1977 Update includes:

Four new letters to kick off 1977

A more user-friendly (and mobile-accessible) art gallery to view Ray's collected art

A complete website redesign built on Wordpress with tons of quality-of-life features including:

• An overall aesthetic upgrade
• Responsive CSS for a nicer experience on mobile devices, including embedded pages like the Timeline and Guestbook
• Every letter is now its own post, making them searchable, linkable, and bookmarkable
• This also allows for reading one by one in the post view or all at once in the blog view
• Additionally, it means that we can post new updates as we write letters rather than waiting until we have a year's worth

New entries on the Engines, Etc. page for:

• The Stephenson's Rocket replica (and his brothers)
• Chicago Transit Authority No. 4391 (Green Hornet)
• Nevada Northern No. 101 "Ely"
• Illinois Terminal No. 101
• Norfolk & Western No. 2050
• Pullman 1792 (D.D.'s Delight)
• Chicago & Western Indiana No. 1900
• Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad No. 9904 "Pegasus"
• Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad No. 191 "Silver Inn"
• Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad No. 199 "Silver Inn"
• Galena and Chicago Union Railroad "Pioneer"
• Santa Fe (ATSF) No. 811
• Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad No. 3001
• Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad No. 4714 "Silver Dome"
• Christian Radich
• USS Constitution (Old Ironsides)

New sections in the "Posts and Parcels" page for:

• Our humanized "fanfic of our fanfic" stories
• A piece of graphic art we did for the Flying Yankee Association last year
• Our collected letter covers and postcards, the first pieces of our Zephyr memorabilia collection that we've curated to share

New Reader Forum where members can discuss the letters, trains in general, or anything else.

• With a merit badge system where members can collect illustrated stamps of all our favorite engines by doing things around the forum

New tumblr blog compiling TFISSAB content over the last few years - both from our separate train sideblogs and fanwork we've been given - all in one place and tagged for easy browsing.

And a new Bluesky account, just to branch out a bit.