Dear Pilot,
I’m not sure how much of a city engine I really am, haha. My routes were mostly between the smaller cities and even now, my museum is somewhat removed from the skyscrapers to the north. I expect your Green Hornet would consider me a bit of a hayseed compared to her, interested as I’d be to hear about her service life too. As you’d know, since we operate to and from, we never really get to see the city up close like she would have.
I hope your D.D. was not too embarrassed to derail like that. If it would be any consolation to her, people sometimes enjoy when things go wrong during a performance. There’s a kind of suspense to seeing if things can be put right or worked around while letting the show go on. They really like when they get to see something more than they were promised. That your crane got to save the day too? It’s great theatre and sounds like an excellent Members Day all around. (999 is teasing me about talking “like a show engine” as if she did not perform in the same pageant I did.)
I am, of course, most happy that you and your train got to feature even if there’s no specific day for diesels. I do hope eventually your museum finds enough of us to make a showing one day, but I’ve always found steam engines quite gracious and willing to share with us. Even early on, when they were saying diesel might replace steam, all it really took to resolve the tension with a steam engine was having a breakdown they could assist with. It’s hard to feel worried about being replaced by an engine you are having to haul into an event he’s late for and I think getting to see such a marvelous (or humorous because there was definitely laughing) sight made up for the delay. As I say, people sometimes like it when things go awry, even if it means they have to wait.
As to the goings on here, we are starting to wind down for winter in our yard, but inside is busy as ever. There’s the Industrial Research 100 exhibit where they show the top hundred new technological developments this year and a new one about clean water. Most exciting though is there was a dragon in the West Pavilion!
It’s not a real dragon, but it still sounds quite impressive! It’s eighty feet long and covered in sequins, those sparkly things that ladies’ dresses have on them sometimes. It was here from Taiwan as part of the Republic of China’s exhibit for the bicentennial. My guide says it’s a costume for eight people to share. They all stand under it and hold it up and move together, following wherever the person in front goes.
“Like a train,” she says. I imagine the dragon can take curves much more sharply than we can, but she says all the dancers have to work together to make the dragon move convincingly. Each of them is important to make it work right, which does sound very much like a train. They have to practice the dance a lot because messing up ruins the illusion that it’s a dragon. And because if you trip, you’ll take seven other people down with you, haha!
I thought comparing our train to a dragon was strange at first, but then 505 reminded me that the artists on The Silver Streak set drew us as a dragon once as well. It was a gift for our driver to thank him for helping us perform our stunts in the movie. They seemed to think we’d be more bendy as a dragon too. We’re very fortunate dragons aren’t real or we all – steam, diesel, and electric – might be out of work!
The dragon left on Tuesday because it’s due to perform in Chinatown on Sunday. I wish it could have performed here too because it’s still sort of hard to imagine how it works. It’s another one of those things only the city engines get to see, I guess! Maybe your Green Hornet has seen something like it before?
We here in our yard, guides and engines alike, all look forward to hearing what is happening in yours. We get a great deal out of your letters as well.
Your friend,
Pioneer