From: Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad <rtabern@spoonertrainride.com>
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 8:03 AM
To: dave_lotz@bellsouth.net
Subject: Mark Twain Zephyr E-Newsletter: 12/21/2020 | EDITION 3 - MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2020 This E-Newsletter is produced by the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad's Office of Passenger Development to keep our supporters informed about the restoration of the Mark Twain Zephyr. We will send one to two updates per month and never sell/give your e-mail address to any third party. |
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WHAT A DIFFERENCE THREE MONTHS CAN MAKE ON THE MTZ! |
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Looking at the two photographs above --- it is hard to believe that it was just Labor Day Weekend when the "Tom Sawyer", the rear observation car of the Mark Twain Zephyr, arrived at the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad. Our main renovation crew (Bob, Phil, and Beverly) have been hard at work the past three months -- mainly focused on the "Tom Sawyer". One of the reasons for this is because of the curved back of the car, it is actually the most difficult part of the train to re-design and renovate. By getting the most tricky part done first, the rest of the cars can be renovated even quicker than what was done with this car. Hopefully you have been watching our Facebook Page and MarkTwainZephyr.com where have been posting several updates each week. If not, feel free to check them out, as they are all available for you on-demand. You will be able to watch our renovation crew work on the "Tom Sawyer" from designing the new windows, to scraping the old paint off, to installing the new insulation, electrical work, painting work, wood work, and so much more. You can step aboard the "Tom Sawyer" almost every day and notice the progress. Even those who attended our last open house on October 24th and October 25th have dropped us an e-mail saying they are impressed. So what will be next? Picking out carpet samples, seating samples, and then working on the bathroom and tile for the vestibule is on the agenda. From there, we move on to the other two passenger cars, the museum car, and then the engine work that needs to be done in the "Injun Joe" -- and repairs on the trucks. |
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| OUR VERY OWN "ZEPHYR PIT" The unusual warmth and almost complete lack of snow that we have received here in Northwest Wisconsin over the past month or so has allowed us to complete preliminary work on the WGNRR "Zephyr Pit". This track (located just west of the depot track) is where the MTZ will be stored when not in service. Once they return from the holidays... our track crew, lead by WGNRR Ops Manager Nick Turinetti, will switch to doing refurbishment work on the Mark Twain Zephyr. Some of their duties will be looking through the kitchen areas of the "Huck Finn" and "Effie Dean" and seeing what, if any of the old freezers and appliances might be able to be salvaged... and what will need to be purchased new for the design of the cars that the WGNRR plans.
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| JOIN US FOR SPECIAL VIRTUAL YOUTUBE MTZ PROGRAMMING OVER THE HOLIDAYS! We know a lot of people will be staying close to home for the holidays this year, so the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad's video production crews put together some special "virtual" programming you might enjoy about the Mark Twain Zephyr -- some of which contains historic footage that has never been seen before! Here is a look at some of the special updates you can join us for: |
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| TOMORROW, DEC. 22ND @ 3PM CT Alexander Vreeland, the 10-year-old son of the owners of the Wisconsin Great Northern shares a brief new video of himself helping out our construction workers on the "Tom Sawyer" -- learn those skills while young! |
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WEDNESDAY, DEC. 23RD @ 3PM CT Join Bob for a quick walk-through of the observation end of the "Tom Sawyer" where the lights continue to go in -- and a look at the new speaker cover built! |
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| SUNDAY, DEC. 27TH @ 3PM CT Albert Dean, the designer of the Zephyrs for Budd, shows off the original wind tunnel design for the Pioneer Zephyr in this 1992 interview that has never been broadcast before! |
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SUNDAY, JAN. 3RD, 2021 @ 3PM CT The former owners of the Mark Twain Zephyr filmed its departure from Relco (Minooka, Illinois) in 2008. We put together some never-before-seen video clips of this move of the train set. |
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| We have received a lot of calls and e-mails over the past few weeks from people who are interested in the special book that the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad has been putting together on the MTZ. Thank you so much for your interest!!! While we originally hoped to release the book before the end of the year... a lot of the research libraries we have been working with that have the historical photos we needed of the MTZ ended up closing again with the most recent spike in COVID-19, such as the Newberry Library in Chicago. Once limited staff was allowed back to the research libraries after Thanksgiving, we were able to work with them and get most of what we needed without having to do in-person visits to their collections (which remain off-limits due to the virus). So, progress continues! WGNRR Management plans to review the rough drafts over the next couple of weeks while we have some "down time" around the holidays. The good thing is we have so much information and photos collected, that we expect to not only produce one book ---- but to produce a three-volume series! We hope to have the first two volumes ready for sale in Spring 2021...with the third volume (covering the on-going restoration at the WGNRR) for sale in Spring 2022. Stay tuned to your e-Newsletters for more updates on the book series. Those who sign up and show interest in the book on our website will receive a small discount when each edition is first published.
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| FOR MORE UPDATES... FOLLOW THE MARK TWAIN ZEPHYR ON FACEBOOK & TWITTER |
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| Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad N6639 Dilly Lake Road Trego, Wisconsin 54888 Depot Phone: (715) 635-3200 Please direct inquiries about the MTZ Restoration Project to: Robert Tabern, WGNRR Director of Passenger Development (c)2020 Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad, Inc. - All Rights Reserved
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