Dear Pioneer,
I’m glad U-505 was eager to share more of his stories with us. The Goddesses seemed to have an impression of him as standoffish before but they’re quite interested in him now, ha! I understand your guide’s reservations, though. Maybe we can save the stories for special occasions.
Are all the trees in your Christmas exhibit donated? I remember you mentioning that at first it was just one big tree when the tradition started but now there are a great many smaller trees, which sounds like a lot of work for your volunteers to keep up with. It’s nice that at least one has a group dedicated to decorating it. Either way, the clipping they sent along with your letter showed off the Lithuanian tree very nicely.
I’m glad about your visitor numbers. It’s great that people are able to take the train to visit you and that it’s even being encouraged by the CTA! They and their trains have been good friends to both our museums it seems. Not only did they help us out by giving the museum old line parts when the trolley bus services shut down two years ago, but this month we’ll be working with them to do our second annual Snowflake Special.
Our guys are chartering a train of old 4000s trolley cars to do a fantrip over the weekend on the L. The 4000s series are very old. They were built between 1915 and 1920, and they were the very first steel-bodied cars used on Chicago rails! They weren’t very fancy. Utilitarian, as U-505 might say. Since they had no decorations on their roofs, they got the nickname “Baldies”, which Vesta thought was very funny until Venus pointed out that she’d qualify for the same nickname if she’d been around back then. Vesta didn’t think it was so funny after that.
There are a few 4000s here at the museum, sisters 4146 and 4412, but the cars for the charter train are ones that belong to the CTA. As nice as it would be for our 4000s to join the train, it would be too much work to try and have them pulled all the way from Union to the city just for one day. They don’t seem to be jealous though. My letter writer tells me 4146 is quite pleased that her sisters will be getting some more miles under their wheels. 4412 says she hopes that if they make a good enough impression that more of the 4000s might find their way here.
I hope all those new visitors your museum is attracting are coming out to visit you in the yard! March is the first time I get to see visitors too, but not too many are willing to brave the unpredictable temperatures this time of year except our most ardent regulars, haha. We don’t have a cultural exhibition to attract new visitors, but there’s a rumor going around that something new will be coming to our museum soon. In the meantime it’s just me and my train and those who are willing to brave the mud to come chat with us for a bit. It’s not so bad though, I can already feel the pace picking up around here!
Thank you again for your words of encouragement. I’m already looking forward to April and the spring thaw that accompanies your letters.
Your friend,
Pilot