I am a miniature Railway Club member in Australia working on plans for construction of a one fifth scale Burlington Zephyr. I have seen some material in the past on this site about the Mark Twain Zephyr being moved through various owners and relocated on a couple of occasions. Does any member have current knowledge of the trains present location or it's ownership?

I have obtained 2 general arrangement drawings, one of the Mark Twain and another of the Flying Yankee however neither these or any of the several published texts of the Zephyrs provide detail of the vertical car sides. I thought if I could ascertain the current owner and location of the Mark Twain it might lead to the location of associated plans and drawings. Knowledge of the location might also assist me to ask a local preservation enthusiast if they would be interested in spending a half hour or so taking half a dozen measurements should plans or drawings not be located.

I would be grateful for any relevant information members could provide.

Patrick Minihan

As of October 2019 it was still at Gateway Rail for sale.

http://www.mississippivalleypublishing. ... f9479.html

Why build a 1/5 scale replica when you could buy the original and ship it Down Under? :-)

I would check with the Burlington Route Historical Society

http://www.burlingtonroute.com/

and the Pullman Library at the Illinois Railway Museum.

https://www.irm.org/

-Hudson

I dunno, maybe because most of Australia is broad gauge? ;)

Not any more. All the state capital cities are connectecd by standard gauge, as is the entire state of New South Wales. The traditional broad gauge states of Victoria and South Australia have reduced broad gauge mileage. Queenland, Tasmania and Western Australia still operate some narrow gauge.

I don't recall what part of OZ Patrick is from.

Melbourne area, I believe.

The article indicates it would take roughly 4 million dollars for a cosmetic restoration and probably double that for an operational trainset. Most steam restorations on long-idle park locomotives come in a lot less than that. Why so expensive for this diesel trainset?

Good question....
I heard somewhere that the trucks for this one were sold off, if true that might account for some of the cost...
Otherwise, the Winton 201 engine is basically unsupportable...and this particular units engine is gone anyway.... A more modern EMD might be able to be adapted, but that would probably require extensive structural work....
I've also head that A lot of the internal bits are gone....interior parts, seats, etc...
Basically all you're probably getting is a stripped shell...

I second the Pullman Library at IRM, since they now have the entire Budd Co.drawing archive. Here is a more direct link to their contact page:

https://www.irm.org/pullmanlibrary/

Seems like the Wisconsin Great Northern is now going to try to restore the Mark Twain Zephyr according to Trains Magazine.

https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... 2HYTD4z4aM

Does anyone else see a long-term issue with the name of the power car of this train set? Injun Joe! Talk about interpreting context. It's a good thing the train didn't have a Huckleberry Finn theme.

I myself have no problem with the name Injun Joe, however I see where it might be a problem to some. So a suggestion; change the name to Engine Joe. A recognition of the original name, but politically correct these days!

Les

The cars in the train set are named after Tom Sawyer characters though. One is named Huckleberry Finn, one is named Becky Thatcher, and one is named Tom Sawyer.

I think if the restoration is successful (which it hopefully will be), it’s important to keep the name “Injun Joe”. Even if it isn’t the most politically correct, it’s still historic. In a historic context like the train set is going to be presented in, I think it’s appropriate to keep it.

Restoration group's website:

http://www.marktwainzephyr.com