#pioneer zephyr

[monstroso]

As another year comes to an end, The Future is Still Silver and Black 1975 update is here!

This update includes a new batch of letters, some new engine bios, two new illustrations; art of ATSF 2903 by the always-impeccable @ferlost and a postcard that DJ and I worked on together and sent in real life to the Flying Yankee Association! We're trying new stuff out, with more plans for new content in future updates.

And for the update art: Our boys are sporting the official Amtrak and CTA holiday sweaters for 2024!

[pioneerzephyr]

Informational booklet from the Museum of Science and Industry's 1984 50th Anniversary of the Pioneer Zephyr event A Celebration of Railroading.

"The Pioneer Zephyr in Detail" was a four-page centerfold that folded out from the "Zephyr Trivia" pages.

[greatwesternway]

[ciaervo1]

[charring58]

#PioneerZephyr! Ride back to an historic day, on the train that would reinvent travel and design.

On May 26, 1934, a gleaming new train named for a Greek god of wind began a nonstop "Dawn to Dusk" speed run from Denver to

[kindashywriter]

Well well well! I have a fun update since I reblogged this. I went looking online for the two ornaments a month or two back. Couldn’t find the Silver Pilot one online, and the Pioneer one was out of stock. And for context, here’s the tags I put on the post where I gushed about the ornaments and the actual locomotives:

Well I have fun news! Me and dad had what we called ‘Pioneer Day’! We went up to the city and saw both the Pioneer Zephyr AND the CNW Pioneer! And of course good ol 999, she’s very big for a 4-4-0! Very gorgeous engine, all three of them! But I went looking in the gift shop for a certain Pioneer Zephyr ornament at the Museum of Science and Industry. And was I in luck! Look what I managed to snag!

On top of that, I also got a little something else as well. The start to my locomotive and railroad pin collection! And I doubt there would’ve been a better engine to start with! (Apart from my dad’s 4014 pin that sits on his desk)

I swear I do NOT have a problem with the CB&Q and I swear I’m normal about the engines on said road. Tried to get something with 999 on it but they didn’t have anything! No mug, no pin, no shirt, nothing! Missing out in all honesty. As far as we saw the Chicago History Museum didn’t even have a gift shop!

Now all I’ve got to look out for is the Silver Pilot ornament at the IRM when I go this summer! I’ll be scouring both the gift shop and the hobby shop for treasures! If no Silver Pilot ornament then I’ll certainly look for a pin for him or good old 1630. But for now that’s the update I have! A few pictures (albeit poor quality because phone camera and bad museum lighting), of my trip to Chicago! I know the pictures of CNW Pioneer are bad but most of the better shots had me in them and I don’t wanna post me. So without further ado!

[rrtfs-official-blog]

The Seventh Poster For The Ninth Somewhereica Short Is Done!

This one took me quite a while to do! I was very proud of it in the end though. I started the short with nothing more than a silly short involved Randolph and Montgomery, plus the snowstorm in the 50’s that crippled the PRR’s Gg1 fleet. Well, here’s the result of that! Funnily enough when writing a short about the famous Pioneer Zephyr I ended up watching the 1934 movie “The Silver Streak” starring the engine! This the drawing was inspired by the poster for said film, just a bit. I hope you like this silly silly short, and the next one will be the last one of the first half of season one! As per usual if you wanna read the shorts just let me know and I’ll drop links in the pinned post so you can have access! I’d love to hear any feedback and I hope you enjoy! If you don’t read the story than I hope you like the drawing!

(And yes I finally posted this despite the short having gone public in February, I finally found the time and motivation for it. Bite me, at least u got it done)

[stone-cold-groove]

Tenth anniversary of the Pioneer Zephyr. First diesel streamline train in America - 1944.

[monstroso]

Attention passengers! The mail has arrived from 1974.

It's been a hectic couple of months between work obligations and DJ's real-life move to Chicago, but the latest update to The Future is Still Silver and Black is live!

We have a few major updates to the site this time around. DJ spent the better part of her off-hours working on the Timeline feature introduced in the last update. It now covers all the Illinois Railway Museum's acquisitions, significant events, and projects (that we're aware of) from 1953 to 2024. We've also added some gorgeous art for NYC 999 and the U-505 submarine to the Engines, Etc. page, once again courtesy of the amazing @ferlost!

To everyone who asked about updates, sent in questions, and gave our old letters a reread in the meantime: Thank you for your patience. You are what keeps this train rolling forward. On to 1975!

[djangodurango]

I think this is the first fanart we've gotten and this is quite a unique variety. :D

Do Screenshots Count as Fanart?????

Ever since I discovered that both Pioneer Zephyr and Silver Pilot (from @monstroso & @djangodurango 's The Future Is Still Silver & Black) exist in Rolling Line (my favorite train sim game) I had to do some screenshots involving the two of them.

To start, this was literally the first idea I had.

Here is some possibly self-indulgent shennanigans involving my little techinchally English but design is German tiny man Dean stuggling to move the Godesses, and then other guy (that I haven't shown on tumblr yet) Mutt hanging out with Pioneer Zephyr. Two former express engines watching the sunrise.

And then here's just some shots of the bois goin along.

Hope you enjoy these!

[ferlost]

pioneer zephyr and silver pilot

drawn for @monstroso and @djangodurango for their ongoing project The Future Is Still Silver And Black

[greatwesternway]

Traintober 20: The What Might Have Been

He didn't think back on his old rival often, only at times like these when he felt the weight of his continuing career more deeply. As he was being carefully lowered into his new underground exhibit, to be the first thing visitors to his museum would see, he remembered that first exhibition at the Century of Progress. They'd been displayed next to each other then, in comparison, one of them a shining beacon of a bold future and the other a guarantee of a safe and secure present.

But the Burlington Zephyr was ahead of his time. It was the Depression after all. What use was a bright tomorrow if you weren't certain you'd make it through today?

So the people made their choice. It wasn't as if Pioneer had a competitor's spirit to fight for their favor anyway. That's why he only lasted nine years.

Still, the City of Salina thought he might - for once - have been better at this than him.

Salina did well enough, to be sure. He was winning, always had been. Maybe he was even a little cocky about it, but the people responded well to that. The times had changed though and Salina was looking his age. His brown and yellow paint were dated, first to the 30's and again to the 70's. He was thought of as a relic of harder times. Pioneer would have been better suited to this era; the people were optimistic and he'd been so shiny and modern. If he had made it this long, his underdog affability and Midwestern agreeableness would have even made it all look easy even.

That was the difference between them though. Pioneer was built on a fantasy that life could be easy, a gentle Western breeze. He'd broken the speed record first and had rested on his laurels. When Salina had surpassed his speed and rolled into the Century of Progress with the title, Pioneer congratulated him warmly as if they were friends. He seemed to have no idea they were at odds or competing.

Hard working people might have liked the friendly way he spoke and the promise of ease his stainless steel carried, but their suspension of belief was thinner during a downturn. It didn't even carry him past a decade.

Salina’s sixty years were enough to know that the world was cyclical though. Times were good now, so everything was colorful and bright. Give it ten years and times would turn again. People would retreat back into the safety of earth tones, and he in his brown and armour yellow would still be here, reassuring that uncertainty could be weathered.

Pioneer's auspicious manner would have been more Useful until then though.

[catenary-chad]

another even MORE cursed roleswap AU: Greaseball as the light, fast, very famous Pioneer Zephyr and Electra as the roughly Big Boy sized Virginian EL-2B

[anintelligentoctopus]

Some Chicago experiences in no particular order:

Had a deep-dish pizza

Saw ice on Lake Michigan

Listened to ice on Lake Michigan

Got snowed on

Met Eden @everymanpdf and had a lovely chat

Bought fancy tea while chatting with Eden

Had a gimlet that was a bit stronger than I usually make them and once I was back in the hotel room scrolling etc. noticed I was getting very giggly at things that were really just mildly amusing

Saw my friend my new best friend Sue the T-Rex

Saw my beautiful silver wife the Pioneer Zephyr again

Looked at the Bean

Made a pilgrimage to Wrigley Field

Bought a Cubs-branded cap and baseball because I'm a sucker

Threw a snowball at my dad

Rode the L

Rode the bus

Walked round in circles, in the snow, trying to find a bus stop

Saw Nighthawks again

Had an almost constant not-quite-nosebleed from the minute I got on the plane until the minute I landed back in the UK from all the dry air

Got fucked around by Icelandair at the last minute

Got rescued at the last minute by Air Canada

Got stuck in Toronto for 5+ hours

Admired Chicago cultural centre and puppets

Took full advantage of my 7-day travel pass and rode the L to go look at Union Station because I had an hour to kill

Was the bravestest boy in the world and flew back by myself

Didn't get jet-lagged either way

[britsyankswheels24]

📅 On February 4, 1922, Ford Motor Company made a game-changing decision by purchasing the struggling luxury automaker Lincoln for $8 million. At the time, Ford was losing market share to General Motors, which offered a variety of models.

👥 Edsel Ford (sitting, left) played a key role in convincing his father, Henry Ford (standing, left), to acquire Lincoln from founder Henry Leland (standing, right) and his son Wilfred (sitting, right). Leland, who had previously co-founded Cadillac before selling it to GM, was a pioneer in precision manufacturing and had founded Lincoln in 1917 to produce Liberty aircraft engines during World War I.

🏆 This strategic move not only saved Lincoln but also helped Ford break into the luxury market, shaping the brand’s future. Under Edsel Ford’s leadership, Lincoln became known for elegant design and engineering excellence, paving the way for legendary models like the Lincoln Zephyr and the Continental.

Transatlantic Torque: Brits & Yanks on Wheels!

[azspot]

A century ago, the United States had 380,000 miles (610,000 kms) of tracks, more than any other nation. As early as 1934, Burlington’s streamlined Pioneer Zephyr crossed a thousand miles of the rural Midwest at an average speed of 78 mph (125 km/h), regularly topping out at 112 (180 km/h) in its non-stop run from Denver to Chicago. In the 1950s, the trip from Chicago to Minneapolis on the Olympian Hiawathan took only four and a half hours (today, on Amtrak’s Empire Builder, it takes more than eight). Fabulously appointed sleeper cars, and chefs that rivaled New York’s best, made trains like the Hollywood-bound Super Chief into international by-words for glamor.

Rail Fail