#oc pioneer zephyr

[greatwesternway]

heya! 👋

idk if it's been asked already but: do you have any voice claims for the TFISSAB crew?

Hello!

No one has asked this yet, but it makes sense to. The structure of the letters - that Ray and I each write alternating letters as our respective characters - gives away that its a roleplaying game of a sort. Face and voice claims are quite common in those games.

As it happens though, Ray and I both have backgrounds that sort discourage getting too specific with any kind of work we'd have to outsource. Ray is an animator and so voice casting is something they were trained for in school. I studied game design and learned a lot of the same things they did. Basically that not only is it no use getting your heart set too specifically on a particular voice, but it's also limiting. It's better to go into a casting with an open mind because an actor could surprise you. You could miss out on a truly iconic voice for a character if you're too focused on casting, say, an Ann Margaret type. 'Cause after all, at the end of the day, she won't be Ann Margaret.

Not to say that we consider casting actively for this particular project (most of our engines are stationary displays and so what would we animate them doing? Maybe we could do a radio play, lol). Just that we've been schoolt not to devote much energy in that direction in any project.

That said, we do have generalized ideas about voices though.

Truro describes Pioneer as having a "radio announcers voice", which is a very short way to tell you a lot about how he sounds. Authoritative yet approachable with an air of trustworthiness. And distinctly non-regional.

Pilot and Mate would have had urbanized (read: diluted) Texan accents during their work lives, but Pilot's has been dulled further by his retirement in Illinois. In the scenario in which Mate is rebuilt, his accent remains (Ray also likes the idea of Mate having a particularly deep voice for such a small build.)

999 is a New Yorker and so has an appropriate accent. While I wouldn't call this a voice claim, I did have Jill Zarin from Real Housewives of New York in mind when writing her haranguing U-505. 999 is not quite as nasal as that though.

2903 has a more southwestern accent but it's also diluted by urbanization and the need to be understood everywhere from Los Angeles to Chicago.

Basically, most of these are dictated by where they lived out their service lives. Although Frisco 1630, the Russian Decapod, pretends to have a Russian accent when she meets new engines.

[forffax]

returning the favor with oc asks since i always wanna hear about yours !! if you had to pick like your top 5 favorite characters who would they be and why 👀 bonus if you want to pick your favorite like settings/worlds/universes youve made for ocs too!

OOOUH thank u chase!!!

I'm gonna list out my favs then talk abt my main oc universe a bit ^_^

This got ridiculously long so it's going under a readmore <3

1. Tos Family (sorry this is going to be. the whole family bc I cannot possibly choose between them)

i. Lux Tos (he/him)

(realizing now i haven't drawn him in a hot fuckin minute)

MY DAD. guy of all time ever. everyone's favorite half-human time traveling alien war vet. it always feels weird referring 2 him as part alien even if it's technically true sdjfgs. fun lore fact: he was the Dead Older Brother in original iteration Zephyr's Sad Backstory but I liked him too much so I decided he got to live <3

Lux is one of my older ocs that I still actively draw and think abt (late middle school...) and he's changed a LOT over the years but he's so so so dear to me. my guy who has Seen the Horrors and is now happily gay married with a kid :') sdfkjsk most things abt his story is just me being So Incredibly Self Indulgent (cool powers, complicated sibling relationships, gay) but it makes me happy and I love sharing it with ppl! Someday Voided 2 will be real and ready to share with the world...

ii. Ferdinand Tos (he/him)

Dad....2!!!!!! I don't remember when exactly I thought him up but it was probably around when Lux's backstory was getting a major overhaul... He's a man out of time he's training to be a doctor and his will to live is so strong he spent the better part of nearly two decades building himself a new body! Guys who died but got better <3. I think I literally got brain blasted one day and decided he's a non-op trans man and it was the best thing ever for him actually. He's a southern californian stuck in the cold northwest (probably. either that or the northeast im not settled on that aspect yet skdjfs). He's been super fun to write from a worldbuilding perspective too bc his main goal is to pioneer a new branch of medicine using his powers! His relationship with Lux and the rest of the family (and his reconciliation with his sister) is sooooo important 2 me :]

iii. Athanasius Tos (she/her)

THANAAAAA most normal sibling (lie). She was adopted formally right after Lux "died" and had a bit of a complex about just being a "replacement" for a good while, and she THOUGHT she had worked through that when Lux suddenly re-appeared... they're on great terms now but it was Tense. She's a biochemist and probably makes the most out of the household (she shares an apartment with Zeph!) It's very important 2 me that she can let herself be vulnerable with her family and close friends after years of bottling everything up... Epic nerdy autistic butches in your area <3 Fun fact she is the only full human of the main cast!

iv. Zephyr Tos (she/him)

My fuckign auncle. Within the story she only recently realized he was bigender and is much happier for it, even if you couldn't tell by her permanent scowl skjdfgs. Zeph was the original protag (along with Thana) of the short story I wrote in middle school that turned into Voided 2! In-universe he was very clearly supposed to be the protag but missed/ignored the "call to action" phase and just got a shitton of Issues and Traumas instead <3 She's so everything 2 me he's a freelance writer/artist she's kinda cringe and he is trying only as hard as she absolutely needs to in order to get by. While his relationship with Lux is MUCH better than it was when Lux first came back, she's completely inseparable from Thana and would do anything for her (I feel like they spent equal times protecting each other from bullies as kids...) He's changed so much from her original incarnation but developing him has been SO much fun <3 Since Voided 2 runs on real-world time (in that I have specific real-world dates for most major events) she turned 50 fairly recently and that's fucked but also funny. old.

v. Alan Tos (any)

Alan! Love this kiddo. He's Lux and Ferdinand's adoptive kid! Xe doesn't learn about it for a while but she was a government secret experiment test-tube baby (they were trying to artificially fuse souls together, distantly related to the later Child Soldier School ze was placed into) (kid cannot catch a break). He's a good kid, if not a little clueless and naive... someone who would hold no ill-will if you had to cut their leg off (this is not a hypothetical GJSKDS). Somehow, despite all this, she is by far the most Normal out of xer family <3 His fashion sense is some kind of spectrum between 60s businesswoman and scene and tbh? Very fun to draw! Her friends and family are very very dear to them and at the moment xe's just kind of letting life take zem wherever.

2. Vague (it/they)

unauthorized fucking thing kill it with hammers NOW!!!!!

Vague started as I think just a proxy for myself in vent art I drew in like early high school sdhjfgds they have since become. something. my mascot I guess? (I still end up using it for vent art sometimes bc it's functionally unkillable and it's fun 2 get narsty sometimes.)

originally it was just the weird cat-shaped angel thing but a couple years ago I gave them a human design that I really love too <3 vague technically has a place in Niko and my other cat furry ocs' story but their human form exists in the real world and is just Like That i think. vague is just a little guy okay? they're sorry about crying and bleeding all over the place (not bc it sees any issue with this they just noticed you looked upsetskjdfhs)

3. Niko (he/they)

Baby's first fursona! Niko was always mostly his own character but now that I have new This is Just Me sona(s), they've been officially retired from that front <3 Niko's story is mostly planned out, I just desperately need to write it somewhere skjdbfs but the gist is that Niko works a shitty minimum wage call center job and finds meaning and love through forming a band with people he happens to meet... also there's some whistleblowing and betrayal and vague slams down out of the sky at some point <3 Niko's band doesn't have a name but they're the lead vocalist! (Niko 🤝 Blue (is blue and sings in their band)) This is a universe where everyone is cat furries simply bc I wanted to design lots of cat furries but also I haven't drawn like half of his bandmates/friends.... orz

Fun fact I found my original doodles of him in an old math notebook and apparently I seriously considered the name "chandler" for them. Help,

4. Larkspur (they/them)

Laaark my friend lark :] they're my player character for a friend's tabletop campaign! *hands you a bug* *hands you a bug* *hands-

Their design was super fun to come up with and they're fun to play as :] They were raised on a farm and have a deep love for animals (insects in particular), but they have a hard time connecting with others and understanding why people act the way they do.. They wear an eyepatch to cover their multiple other eyes bc it gives them bad sensory overload to see with them! They also spent quite a bit of time as a bounty hunter before they were blacklisted from further work bc they let a target escape on purpose... Lark is a ranger/bard and they play the hurdy-gurdy! They're dear to me and I really need to draw them more sjdfhgs

5. Chungy Fresh (she/he/they)

Chungy my belungy.... she's a mimic who spent most of his life being a chest in the temple of a forgotten goddess until they gained sentience and saw a fursuit from far away and decided yep! I'm gonna look like that Now <3 She didn't get all the details right but he's never been happier! I think Chungy spawned from me drawing a weird fox thing and simultaneously thinking "hey wouldn't it be funny if a character had a verbal text/forum signature and it was also their name" skdjfgjskdfls. Chungy is def up there with "most fun ocs of mine to draw" bc she's so Noodly and Malleable... I started playing as him in a friend group's tabletop oneshot thingy (where multiple ppl write different unrelated oneshots but we use the same characters for each session) and it has been a lot of fun!

OKAY OC UNIVERSE TIME. I call my main oc story "Voided 2" bc it takes place in the same universe as my v personal self insert oc story "Voided" that I have been working on/writing/thinking abt since late middle school... It's kinda vaguely modern fantasy/sci-fi? Main things are that there are beings born at the beginning of the universe made of pure energy called Lunoirs. There are countless universes, and each universe has Lunoirs in some capacity. They mainly exist to "keep the balance," but if you ask any specific Lunoir what that means you'll get a million different answers. Mainly they gravitate towards any life within their universe and integrate with them, observing them and protecting them from Shadows and Vacares. Shadows are the unliving souls that will eventually be reborn and reformed into a living soul inside any given universe-- they exist in the space between universes, called the Void. the Void looks different to any being that crosses into it, and it's hard to say what its "true" nature is. Vacares are Lunoirs that have had their souls corrupted and eaten, usually by other Vacares. While Shadows, being amalgamations of soul energy, are strictly neutral, Vacares seek to cause chaos and eat more Lunoir souls, increasing their numbers in a vain attempt to satisfy their endless hunger.

The Lunoir population on Earth is fairly numerous, and since Lunoirs can take on whatever form they choose, many of them live and love and have children with humans, making partial-lunoir children (physically they are nearly indistinguishable from full humans, save for longer lifespans, odd hair and eye colors, and sharper teeth. also they have semi-physical wings, but these have to be manually brought out and often ppl don't even know they have them (*cough* zephyr *cough*)

Lunoirs aren't fully immortal, but they have a different life cycle to most other forms of life. When a non-lunoir dies, their soul disintegrates and is amalgamated with the souls of others in the Void to become Shadows. When a Lunoir dies (outside of having their soul completely corrupted/destroyed), they instead go into a sort of stasis and are reborn later; they have no memories of their previous life (the ones on Earth don't, at least) and they can take on wildly different appearances.

Lunoirs and partial Lunoirs have powers in the form of energy manipulation, particularly when it comes to the energy of their own souls... They can use their souls to form weapons, mainly to fight against Vacares that tend to be immune to physical weapons. Most people have one weapon that they specialize in, but in a pinch nearly everyone can form a knife. Humans can manipulate their own soul energy in this way too, but this ability must be taught/"unlocked" by a Lunoir or a partial Lunoir first (Zephyr, at some point, did this for Thana without either of them realizing it). Lunoirs can also manipulate the energy of the very universe to create Rifts in time and space, sometimes leading between separate universes... These rifts also open of their own accord from time to time, and there's a good number of people who have been displaced from their time or even their universe by unwittingly falling into one.

Every living being has a "soul" (a collection of their life energy), and through a kind of "reaching out," one can feel/taste/smell/hear/see another's soul... every soul is a bit different, so this is an easy way to identify people even from a distance!

The Earth Lunoirs once had a country where they congregated called Saluria, which was the site of a brutal multi-year war against an army of Vacares that wanted reign over Earth... Many Lunoirs and partial Lunoirs across all of Earth's history felt drawn to Saluria, often willingly or unwillingly being rifted to the time of the war to go fight in it... Some partial Lunoirs especially believed it was their sacred duty, while others believed it was a curse leading them to inevitable death... there's even whispers that Saluria itself is alive, luring in young partial and full Lunoirs out of self-preservation.. who's to say. Ultimately, the Salurian War was a victory, but not an easy one.

Lux and Zephyr are half Lunoirs (their mom being full), and Ferdinand is 3/4ths Lunoir! Alan is a bit of a weird case but functionally he's also half Lunoir :]

This is v much simplifying Years of worldbuilding ssjhdfgjks and I can FEEL I missed a bunch of stuff but it's all very very dear 2 me :]

[master-of-the-railway]

List of my Big Boy ocs for my upcoming fic <3

And also their pronouns!

No. 4000, Big Boy (he/him)

No. 4001, Stampede (he/him)

No. 4002, Westlander (she/her)

No. 4003, Captain (he/him)

No. 4004, Silver (they/them)

No. 4005, North Star (she/her)

No. 4006, Prairie Rider (she/her)

No. 4007, Pioneer (he/him)

No. 4008, Fireball (he/him)

No. 4009, Midnight (she/her)

No. 4010, Cowboy (he/him)

No. 4011, Wildfire (she/her)

No. 4012, Alpine Torch (she/they)

No. 4013, Bear (she/her)

No. 4014, Big Iron (he/him)

No. 4015, Buck (he/him)

No. 4016, Jolene (she/her)

No. 4017, Delilah (she/her)

No. 4018, Clay (he/him)

No. 4019, Dally (she/her)

No. 4020, Flint (he/him)

No. 4021, Zephyr (she/her)

No. 4022, Houston (he/him)

No. 4023, Blazar (he/him)

No. 4024, Sally (she/her)

[zponds]

Some time ago, I made a post talking about expanding my roster of OCs from five other American railroads; Chesapeake & Ohio, Baltimore & Ohio, Milwaukee Road, Burlington Route, and Chicago & Northwestern. Now this post will go over and jot down the OCs from the…

Now these engines are within BNSF’s Burlington Route heritage fleet…

and they can only be found in railroad territories that were once owned by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, or more commonly known as the Burlington Route. And these engines are…

Aeolus, the streamlined 4-6-4 class S4 #4000

Aeolus II, the streamlined 4-6-4 class S4 #4001

Jimmy Guord, the first Twin Cities Zephyr engine (#9904)

Jerry Guord, the second Twin Cities Zephyr engine (#9905)

Bullseye, the Texas Zephyr engine

Silver, the Pioneer Zephyr engine

Alan, the Mark Twain Zephyr engine

Ian, the Denver Zephyr engine

Nick, the EMD F7 #167

Danny, the EMD F7 #136

Melmon, the EMD F7 #169

Charlie, the 4-6-4 default class S4a #3001

Donna, the 4-8-2 class B-1a #7020

Norma, the 4-8-2 class B-1a #7018

Archie, the 4-8-4 class O-5a #5629

Dreelen, the 2-10-4 class M-4a #6313

Blanshard, the 2-10-4 class M-4a #6315

Eema, the EMD E7 #9917

Zuba, the EMD E7 #9918

Jonathan, the EMD E7 #9932

O’Connel, the EMD E7 #9929

Sir Birch, the EMD E7 #9933

Paxton, the EMD F7 #165

Han, the EMD GP20 #876

Benson, the EMD GP20 #922

Nigel, the EMD GP20 #935

Harold, EMD GP20 #928

[greatwesternway]

I have an question NOW

How do what have you engines happily employed to just sit around feel about random people climbing on them?

Most of them, I think, would not mind this. Steam engines especially were designed to enable climbing all over.

See, here, 2903 has rails to hold on to, running boards to stand on all the way down his boiler, and steps down from his smokebox.

Gettin' climbed all over is part of the job. Obviously we don't have any examples of our engines acting as jungle gyms so here's some from TTTE:

Edward's fireman hanging off his railings to lasso James.

Edward's fireman hanging off his railings again to pour sand under his wheels.

And my favorite example of this:

Sir Topham Hatt and his guards using Duck (whose top is notably flat, rather than rounded like most everyone else's) as a podium on which to announce the trip to Big City to all the engines.

2903'd not mind really if letting people climb on him were still part of the job. He's strong and his parts are made for it. Some engines weren't designed for this - certain streamliners for instance - and would be less happy with it, if indeed they had any grabholds to facilitate it. But some engines are also too afflicted with Midwestern politeness or survivor's gratitude to complain if they did.

As it is, 2903's cab is plexi-glassed off, preventing anyone from touching his empty SunKist and Dr. Pepper cans. He is also quite rusty these days. You practically need a tetanus shot just lookin' at him, let alone climbing about.

My impression from what Ray's written in Pilot's letters is that the IRM did permit visitors to climb on the engines quite a bit more in the past than they do now. Largely, I'd expect this changed as a precaution because we've become a much more litigious society than we were in the 60's and 70's. If you fell off a stationary train in 1974, everyone would probably have a good laugh. If you did it now, that might be a multi-million dollar lawsuit for negligence.

[greatwesternway]

What are some of your favorite pieces of '30s Zephyr-related merchandise?

So in the 30's there wasn't really much in the way of merch as we would think of it today. People weren't enthusiasts about a thing they way they can be now, so there wasn't as much market in the 30's. Most of the Zephyr themed items available were practical items like matches and playing cards you could buy from the dinette.

Here's a matchbook from the Pioneer Zephyr:

Some playing cards from the Twin Zephyrs (I actually have these ones!):

And, in my search for these pictures, I found that Silver Meteor even got to be on the Vista-Dome pack!

Beyond this kind of thing, there really wasn't merch so much as people trying to borrow that Zephyr cache for themselves. People named their businesses for the train and aesthetically, you could imply Zephyrness. In some cases, throwing the word "Zephyr" on was actually more a shorthand way of saying an object was streamline moderne for people who maybe didn't engage with aesthetics in their day to day but did know about that shiny new train. This "Zephyr" teapot is an example of this.

And of course there was some more blatant kinds of stolen valor like this tin lunchbox made to look like a vague approximation of the train.

That said, there are a couple of circa 30's Zephyr things that I think count as merch in the modern sense.

The movie starring the Pioneer Zephyr, The Silver Streak, had a Big Little Book to accompany it (which is good because the movie is kind of hard to follow once the train gets going).

I think the most interesting piece of 30's merch, though, is the Buddy "L" Zephyr ride-on toy.

The original (which sported the accurate silver paint job) was large enough for three small children to scoot about on. Later, they released shorter two- and one-car models in yellow and red respectively. I honestly wish the MSI had one of these.

But I think my favorite 30's merch - and we write this as being Pioneer's favorite as well - are his commemorative letter covers.

For the train's various milestone achievements, people could send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the train and the Railway Post Office would stamp it with commemorative artwork and mail it back to them. I've collected most of them, including the ones the MSI made for his 50th anniversary, although I think there might be a 20th anniversary one that I don't have yet.

Pioneer likes these best because it's very inexpensive and doesn't require the person to actually be on his train, so it was accessible to the most people. It also just feels more personal. It's a little like he actually gets to engage with the post beyond his usual capacity. The people who sent in for his letter covers would have been enthusiasts for him (or for letter covers) in the way that we think of now and he'd have loved getting to send a bit of himself to them for it.

We rather hope he gets to do it again for his 100th anniversary.

[greatwesternway]

Based off my current struggles getting tar off my skin, how would the engines react to getting dirty?

Gonna be real with you. All our trains are dirty.

Or rather, Pioneer, 999, and U-505 are just covered in fingerprints now. There's certainly no one to stop you from touching the trains and the guides even encourage you to touch the boat on the tour. But the engines at the IRM and everyone in the MSI's yard until the 90's were filthy from outdoor dust and debris.

2903 is still dirty, in fact.

There's a part in the letters where Pioneer says that they've all stopped complimenting each other on their looks - a common and polite thing that trains normally do - because they've all been in the yard together for so long that they no longer need to. The unsaid part of that is that they are also deteriorating from the elements and don't actually look their best. There's a post from a while back where we talked a bit about how bad they all looked in the 80's when the yard gets rearranged for the Henry Crown Space Center. They wouldn't look this bad in the 70's, but they all know they ain't lookin' cute. There's a unspoken agreement in the yard not to mention it.

As for the IRM's engines, most of them are housed in barns these days (which does not exactly keep one from getting dirty), but there's plenty of outside engines left. And the IRM does not have a washdown. Pilot and the Goddesses got a very thorough scrubdown in 2011 though. That post mentions that they powerwash the Nebraska Zephyr on a more regular schedule and I imagine that's true of other painted engines as well, but maybe not ones that have yet to be restored lest it cause more damage, if 2903 is any indication.

Pioneer did get a nice scrubdown too in 1984 for his 50th anniversary. Volunteers came out and shined him and his cars up for his big day. When he was first in service, they would wash his train every night with Ajax. While he does greatly appreciate being clean and shiny after years of not, he doesn't exactly think he needed to scoured every night.

All this to say, the MSI engines prefer to be clean but it simply wasn't practical for the first forty years. The IRM engines, on the other hand, are used to being dirty and know that trying to keep them looking pristine on their working railway would be a fool's errand.

[greatwesternway]

How did Pioneer and U-505 start talking? What made U-505 allow himself that friendship?

It's important to understand that U-505's not denying himself friendship in being stand-offish. And this is also not related to the rules he has to observe as a war machine because Pioneer is a civilian engine.

U-505 allowed Pioneer to start teaching him English within a month or two of his arrival in May in 1960. Up until then, U-505 had gleaned a few words on his own, but he'd been set up outside by himself since 1954 and the museum would have someone who could speak German talk to him if needed. He didn't need to speak to the visitors really so it just wasn't something he'd ever sought to learn.

But having Pioneer installed next to him... trains are social machines. They work closely with one another and they talk. And Pioneer was built to be especially talkative as Burlington's flagship engine.

But moreover, the reason U-505 made the effort is because he admired the way Pioneer took to preservation.

It was obviously a much different scenario for U-505, since his preservation is not one celebrating his existence and it also involved the loss of his sea-worthiness. In that regard, Pioneer was in a much better position. Still, he struggled, as most engines do, with the change in duties. It's why early on in his letters to Pilot, before he realizes he's been rescued from scrap and is grateful to be at the IRM, that Pioneer says that preservation can feel like a demotion. It's hard for an engine to have to come to terms with the end of his service life.

The way Pioneer responded to this, though, was to set those feelings aside and put his best effort into being a good and engaging exhibit. As we've said, he's already got a lot of transferable skills to do this, but U-505 had never seen a machine like this. He didn't know much English, but he could still tell that Pioneer was trying very hard to adapt and not to complain or be ungrateful.

Pioneer would sometimes talk at U-505 just to entertain himself or to make a gesture at including him in conversation with his cars, but U-505 made the first actual attempt at talking. He asked Pioneer, in very broken English, how fast he went. And Pioneer told him; 112 miles per hour. Then Pioneer asked U-505 how fast he went. Which U-505 could not tell him because his speed is measured in knots. They got their guides to help the next day.

Things would have been quite friendly in the yard by now if it weren't for 2903.

See, the problem is, 2903 is wartime build. Because light metals were needed to build airplanes, all that railroad works could get was heavy metal. Too heavy for diesel motors to carry. So they made the 2900 class fuck-off big steam engines instead. Unfortunately, because steam is very costly to run and maintain, this meant that 2903's service life was incredibly short compared to most engines, only 11 years. He is resentful of the effect the war had on his service life and U-505 is a very broad target for those feelings.

He also did not take to preservation as well as Pioneer did, being that he is literally Just Some Guy and had no expectation of ever being put in this position. Having watched Pioneer's transition to preservation work comparatively, 2903's refusal or inability to meet the job left U-505 with a poor impression of him. What little English U-505 had at his disposal could be used to toss a glib barb or two 2903's way.

2903 (and 999 when she joins the yard the next year) hassled Pioneer a lot for fraternizing with an enemy unit. It doesn't bother Pioneer because it's not that serious in the grand scheme of things. U-505 does not like being a source of trouble for him though and regrets that Pioneer got put in the yard with him first.

This is the reason why he's reluctant to entertain 727. It's not that he doesn't like her or isn't flattered (if bewildered) by her attentions. It's that he thinks she's better off not getting herself involved with him. It hasn't done Pioneer any favors.

But by the time 727 arrives at the museum, 2903 has been moved to the IRM, 999 has been away for a couple years for refurbishment, and the social dynamic in the museum has changed for it.

It's actually 999 that convinces him to give in. Asks if there isn't something in his prize rules about having to accept when an American wants a smelly old boat for reasons she couldn't possibly fathom. There's not - 727 isn't a war machine - but it says something that 999 is trying to find a justification for the idea.

[greatwesternway]

Do Pilot and Pioneer's train cars meddle in their love lives like their fellow engines, or is it not done?

Pioneer's do not. 505 and 570 have known him their entire careers and while his obliviousness to other engines' overtures is frustrating, their sense of coach decorum prevents them from saying anything lest they embarrass him. They figure that if it was going to happen for him, it would have by now and that maybe their engine just isn't interested.

But what do they know? They're articulated so they never really had anyone but each other. They're not the best judge of these things.

Pilot's cars, on the other hand, are a mixed lot. While Pioneer's cars observe a more staid, old-fashioned car etiquette, the Nebraska Zephyr is more outspoken and takes liberties with their duties.

Those at the center of the train do not meddle however. Vesta doesn't because she likes yard drama and it drives everyone else insane that Pilot is uncoupled despite being spoiled for choice. Minerva thinks it is not a car's place to meddle in the affairs of their engine. And Ceres would have to speak up to meddle so that's right out.

Venus and Juno, however, do. They're not overt about it; they know a gentle ride is preferable, but they do nonetheless shunt as much as they can.

Juno is the observation car and so she observes. It seems quite obvious to her that the two Zephyr engines ought be a paired set, particularly once Pioneer starts actually visiting and it'd be more than just letters.

Venus is a little more self-serving in her efforts, if only because she might have thought she and Pilot would have been the It Couple in the museum. Once he cleaned up, that is. That Pilot completely failed to recognize that... well, if she can't have him, someone should. And if it's the Pioneer Zephyr, all the better. (She is the opposite of Mate: If it's Pioneer, then she didn't strike out, she just couldn't compare to the engine in the letters, that's all!)

[greatwesternway]

Traintober Day 6: Special Letters - Having Your Giant Birthday Cake and Eating It Too

2034

For Pioneer's fiftieth anniversary in 1984, the museum had special commemorative postal covers made like the ones his railway post office would issue for his milestone events when he was still in service. For his hundredth anniversary, since he was now indoors and visitors could tour his train again, they went a step further: they had set up a stamping machine in his RPO so visitors could make their own souvenir letter cover. They would slide their envelop into the machine and pull the lever and it would stamp a new 100th Anniversary illustration on it.

His letter covers were always Pioneer's favorite of all the celebrations surrounding his accomplishments. They were humble but accessible and in a day and age when mail was mostly sent through the post for fun, it reminded people that they could still use that service. The museum did have to station someone in his RPO to keep the envelopes from being strewn everywhere so the stamping machine wasn't yet decided to be a permanent installation, but Pioneer hoped that it would be.

One evening, after the RPO had been tidied up, the docent on duty prepared to take dictation on Pioneer's next letter to Pilot.

"Would you like to send it in one of your new letter covers?" they offered. "I bet he'd like to have one."

"I don't want to seem conceited," Pioneer hemmed. Truthfully, he did want to send one though.

"It’s been fifty years," his docent laughed. “If he hasn’t thought that yet, he’s not going to think that now.”

"Pilot's not a train enthusiast," Pioneer hawwed. “Engines don’t collect letter covers.”

"But aren't you going to tell him about them in your letter? Surely he'd like to actually see one."

Pioneer still wasn't convinced. “They don’t do things like this at his museum. I don’t want to look like I’m showing off.”

The docent huffed.

"What if I just send it in one whether you say to or not," they said. "Then when he writes back and says how great he thinks it is, you can act annoyed that I took the liberty."

Owing to his particularly customer-facing service life, Pioneer knew when he was being Handled. After seventy years in the museum’s care though, he also knew when he was being indulged. He could say outright that he didn’t want a cover sent along and this docent would respect that. He was, however, being offered the option to blame any apparent bragging on this docent instead. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with lying about such a pre-arranged plot to Pilot, but it was a Burlington sort of scheme. It gave him a feeling of nostalgia, the way the letter covers themselves did.

And really, it wasn't lying if he really didn't have a choice either way, was it?

“Well, if you’re going to do it no matter what I say…” Pioneer conceded, “Will you make sure it’s lined up straight on the envelope? And not smudged at all?”

“We’ll stamp a few and let you pick the one you like best.”

[greatwesternway]

Lots of traveling for me at the moment. Makes me think of the trains! What was their favorite route to take?

For Pioneer, it's easily Lincoln-Kansas City. It's the route he started on, the route he re-debuted on with his new name, and the route his legacy and the entire Zephyr fleet was built on top of. A humble route for a doughty little train, but the people in those cities loved him so much they had to get bigger and better trains to replace him on it to service the demand.

Pilot's favorite is Denver-Ft. Worth, the Texas Zephyr.

It's a little different for E5's, you see, because E5's never had the presumption of being Zephyrs. Every shovelnose was built with a specific route in mind and, indeed, the first shovelnose trainsets were articulated so it was actually the train that had the Zephyr name and not the route. As the CB&Q abandoned the articulation over time, the route rather than the train carried the Zephyr name, but shovelnoses were still built with their route in mind. A shovelnosed trainset simply would be a Zephyr upon entering service.

But E5's were built to cover the Zephyr routes. They were meant to be substitutes who would work elsewhere unless needed, not unlike the Aeolus. Silver Bullet was given a Zephyr route right out the gate, the Silver Streak Zephyr (taking over Pioneer's Lincoln-Kansas City route since his train took their name with them), but most E5's were given other non-Zephyr routes.

To be sure, getting a named route at all is a mark of distinction to any engine who isn't named on his own. The Fast Mail or the Exposition Flyer is still something special. But E5's were designed to look like shovelnoses and if Silver Bullet was made a Zephyr... well, one can hope they'd get that chance too.

The Texas Zephyr then became the route that made most of the E5's Zephyrs in their own right. Almost all of them saw assignment to it, so Pilot thinks back on it not just as the route that gives him claim to Zephyr lineage, but also as a route he shared with most of his siblings.

That Pioneer also asserted that pulling the Texas Zephyr made Pilot as much as Zephyr as he is helps, though that's a retroactive addition to Pilot's fondness for Denver-Ft. Worth. He also doesn't know that if he'd not pulled the Texas Zephyr first, Pioneer would still have said that pulling the Nebraska Zephyr now makes him a Zephyr engine. That Pilot has the history means Pioneer doesn't have to insist on more tenuous logic since the point of saying so wasn't so much to convince Pilot, but to convince his train. The Goddesses were already dubious on whether the Texas Zephyr counted at all, not being a proper CB&Q route. How would it look for mere cars to argue with the Pioneer Zephyr on the subject though?

[greatwesternway]

so is 999 the only one at the museum that doesn't have a crush on Pioneer lol

I think we've talked about this before, that Pioneer has his admirers certainly but that he's not universally adored in the museum. 2903, for instance, is somewhat dubious of Burlington charm. Stuka also just doesn't gel well with Pioneer (but that has more to do with his being male and American than anything else). There's also plenty of engines in the museum for whom their admiration for him is entirely professional.

As for 999... she thinks he's handsome, distinguished, and well-behaved, which makes him an ideal date for the Speed Record Party but not much else.

To be sure, she likes Pioneer and game recognizes game so unlike 2903, she can tell that his Burlington Bullshit isn't, that he's completely earnest and genuinely means every word he says. They've shared a unique job description over their careers that gives them an innate understanding of their current work that neither of their yardmates can come close to matching. And he looks nice next to her! They're more evenly proportioned to each other so they look nice in photos together. Very important.

But Pioneer is a little boring for 999. He maintains his sense of decorum at all times and he always considers how his behavior will reflect on his railway or museum. He's also very risk-averse which 999 finds a little frustrating from a fellow speed record breaker. (This comes from his being much more delicate than she is. We don't know if 999 ever crashed into anything over her career, but a steam engine tends to crush whatever it hits, while the absolute reverse is true for shovelnoses. He's always had to be more careful, both for his own sake and for his passengers.)

All these things contribute to why 999 ultimately chose 2903 over him. There's also that 2903 is a mixed traffic steam engine, meaning his work history is more similar to hers overall, despite her standing as a famous engine. It would more annoying to her for Pioneer (who is strictly a passenger engine, both in ability and build) to be ignorant of grunt work than it is for 2903 not to understand fairs and pageants.

All that said, 999 wouldn't say no to a consist that included Pioneer.

[greatwesternway]

We know 999's favorite exhibit is the fairy castle, do any of the other engines have a favorite exhibit (besides each other)?

Kinda mean, throwing the "besides each other" caveat in there! Even excepting engines with personal reasons to favor another engine's exhibit, lots of them just really enjoy each other's exhibits for their own merits.

Texaco's a big fan of Pioneer's exhibit, for instance. She likes racing the trains, other planes, and vacuum cleaners on the big panorama displays. She also thinks the Zephyr Fleet film is cool looking, but the questions it begs about who is who leave Pioneer trying to explain his complicated family tree to a little plane who just cannot follow it and loses interest as quickly as she asked. He doesn't mind though; he knows it's a lot.

Every ten years or so, Spitfire will get a little jealous of U-505's exhibit. It's not that he doesn't think U-505 shouldn't have an exhibit that big and detailed. There's a lot to say about him. Spitfire just has wartime stories too! He shot down five Nazi planes and he's got the stamps to prove it. (And he was on the right side of the war so his exhibit could be more fun). But we don't really have a lot of substantiated information about Spitfire, not enough to make an entire exhibit out of. You can't just go by what the plane himself says.

The most expeditious way to get him to let go of the idea is for U-505 to remind him that if he had a big exhibit all to himself, he would have to leave the Transportation Gallery fleet. A submarine is meant to work alone, but a small plane is meant to work in a group. It would be tactically disadvantageous then, both for him and the rest of the little planes, to leave them all to fly solo. (Texaco almost always ruins this because she is used to working alone and her display is appropriately separate of the other little planes. It's nothing an elbow in the ribs from Jenny won't stifle though.)

U-505 enjoys the Dome Theater, if he has claimed it before Stuka and Spitfire can. He particularly likes if the film is about the ocean. When he was in the ocean, it was usually too dark to see everything that was apparently down there with him. They can also go deeper now than he could. He finds films about space intriguing too, because space and the ocean are very similar (expect that one is finite and full of life and the other isn't). He'll watch anything in there though, as long as he's alone or with engines who know how to sit there, shut up, and watch the film.

Mate is not such an engine, so while all these guys were learning about tide pools or some shit, he was left in front of the Swiss Jolly Ball. Which he took as an insult at first, but the Jolly Ball is actually quite enthralling all told. You lean at the railing and watch the ball go on its Rube Goldberg journey and you get to thinking about how one guy put all this together and then you get to thinking about how a railway is a lot like the Jolly Ball except it needs everyone doing their job to run effectively (which is maybe why the Jolly Ball is out of order half the time you visit) and that maybe you yourself are just a large metal ball bearing on your second trip through the Swiss Alps, all thanks to the work of lots of people together. But the Jolly Ball, Mate suddenly realizes, is actually on its fifteenth trip through since he got there, proving... something about why he was left here in the first place, but he's sure it's not anything he wants to bring attention to.

The space wing has just been updated (per billionaire donor interests) and 40B rather likes the new SpaceX capsule room when the video isn't running. The dim lighting when the starfield attract mode is on the screen reminds him of flying at night in the snow. Ray and I have not put much thought into the MSI's space artifacts because we are not billionaires, but I expect most of them (those that might be engine enough to be sentient) also share 40B's sense of seriousness with regard to their work. They weren't just doing exhibition runs.

727 likes to take a stroll through the Ships Gallery from time to time. Aviation borrows a lot from naval tradition and now she's even got a boat to give her a personalized tour (although he doesn't actually know much about sailing).

And Pioneer... well, Pilot's favorite exhibit is the baby chicks. So Pioneer's come to be quite fond of them too. Before that, though, he also enjoyed watching films with a quiet friend who knows theater etiquette, but he preferred the silent comedies of the Yesterday's Main Street Nickelodeon. He wishes they'd thought of the seating they have in the Dome Theater a little sooner though.

[greatwesternway]

what did the indoor exhibits think about the outdoor ones before they all came inside? did they even know there were other engines out there?

The indoor exhibits knew the outdoor exhibits existed, but they didn't really think about them much beyond the way one might think of the people who work at your job but on a different shift.

A thought occurs to me though that some of the older locomotives that were kept indoors might be a bit concerned for the ones outside, if they'd had any experience with being left to the elements. Aside from the Rocket replica, we've put off researching a lot of the other pieces of smaller equipment the MSI has since Pioneer doesn't need to know anything about the guys inside beyond what it would occur to him to ask for Pilot's benefit. You saw my stack of books; this is why we go back and edit the letters every time we update, so we can add in stuff we learned in the meantime.

Anyway, those guys might harbor a worry for the engines outside, but there's not much to be done about it. The exhibits outside are too big to be brought indoors. These little old engines simply wouldn't conceive a way that the bigger machines could be brought inside... until they dismantle that wall and haul 999 and 727 in. Sure, they had to cut off 727's wings to get her through the door, but they put her right to her new use and both of the girls were now safely indoors.

2903 coming inside didn't seem so farfetched now, but U-505 and Pioneer's train are surely too long to bring inside. They'd take up an entire gallery to themselves! Which was true. They were building the Henry Crown Space Center by then so the indoor exhibits probably assumed they'd build annexes for Pioneer and U-505.

That they started digging instead would have been a surprising turn of events. But they did and Pioneer and his train were indeed given their own gallery. They lowered them into their new parking garage exhibit and everyone agrees he's a fine ambassador for the museum.

But Pioneer is very light, as far as trains go. The idea that they could drop something as heavy as U-505 in a hole on the same kind of pulleys they used to lower Pioneer in? Iffy proposition, the small exhibits might have thought. 2903 by this time had been moved to the IRM, but had he still been here, they might have assumed this was why he hadn't been moved inside too. This is the reason given for why he was donated and it was true at the time. U-505 is much heavier than 2903 is, but he is also (not to disparage 2903) a much more valuable exhibit. They were already saying that Pioneer's exhibit was the model for how they wanted to treat U-505. So they sent 2903 off to his new home and began planning yet another logistically complicated move for U-505.

It did take ten more years for them to get U-505 underground as well, but they did it. And that was truly a feat! It just goes to show how great their museum really is. Like, there's not a standard operating procedure for lowering a U-boat into a subterranean exhibit. The MSI not only presents science and industry as it happens, they make their own.

The exhibits themselves may not necessarily appreciate it on that level, but they do recognize the dedication of their museum to their care and maintenance that everyone was eventually brought in, even the most unwieldy of them and even if they had to send them to a new home to ensure they'd no longer be getting rained and snowed on.

[greatwesternway]

When the OP of the Cyber-Trucks-are-rusting-already post decides to disable reblogs so you can't make a smartass comment about how some stainless steel vehicles are going on 90 years without rusting.

[greatwesternway]

Ray and I have taken to sending each other letter-related gifs when we have completed our turn...

DJ: OMG, in April '74, he is a 40-year-old mailbag. To the month! Ray: Don't CALL him that 😭 DJ: Fkn cacklin' to myself! Ray: Stuka: 40-year-old mailbag… DJ: I was just looking for the funniest Simpsons letter gif. To find something so perfect! In 35 years of content! Ray: Amazing. Does this mean I have a letter? DJ: Yes. Ray: :D