Dear Silver Pilot,
A postcard? How odd. I seem to recall being asked if I wanted to include a photo and saying no, as I am writing to a friend, not an enthusiast asking for an autograph. The guides insist they only did it because they doubted you’d ever seen a submarine before. U-505 was quite flustered at being told he looked “dashing” once we explained to him what it meant. One can imagine he doesn’t get that sort of compliment very often.
I haven’t asked – for the same reason you haven’t asked your Goddesses, I imagine – about Silver Mate. I wonder if you might want to tell me about him? I hadn’t realized how everything would have happened for you as it has.
It was all arranged so the transition went easily when I was given to the MSI. As easily as being retired can go anyway. I finished my last run and then a month or so later, I was set up here in the yard. I knew exactly what was going to happen the whole way through. I hadn’t been told about how you’d been to a scrapyard. My guides seemed a bit iffy on the details, but it sounds as though it’s been much more difficult for you in just about every way it can be from there on.
When they suggested writing to you, I had to think about it first. I wasn’t sure if engines really ought to be writing letters. The only other time I’ve written one, I didn’t receive a reply. I had hoped, though, that reaching out might be useful to you. When I was a new engine, I had other engines to show me how to do the job, but there wasn’t anyone to show me how to do this one.
If my letters have done more than that for you, beyond just telling you what to expect… Maybe I’ve been at my standstill for too long and am overestimating things, but it seems a more important service than any I’ve yet done.
I think you are probably through the hardest of it now. Your mechanics know precisely what your limitations are. In a museum, they will not ask you to do anything beyond your ability. They wouldn’t want to risk damaging you. And once your cars remember what it’s like to travel again and they see how magnificent their train is – the whole train with you at the head – everything else will work itself out.
You are going to be the shining star of that museum. Us Zephyrs always are.
As to whether we can weather the weather, my exterior’s starting to loosen up again now that it’s getting warmer. The steam engines are happier since they’re meant to run hot, but U-505… he doesn’t complain, but he’s supposed to be underwater so he prefers cold to heat. He worries that he might spring a leak if his exterior expands too much. I think it’s kinder not to point out that he’s not in any danger of sinking if he did.
Your friend,
Pioneer Zephyr