#oc texaco

Pioneer is an exception in general, but the MSI curates in such a way that he is the rule there. Many of the MSI's exhibits have experience showing off and selling themselves as interesting and exciting to crowds of new people every day. Pioneer, 999, Jenny, and Texaco all had background in this before coming to the museum. The MSI, which is housed in the only building remaining from the Columbian Exposition's White City and founded in time to take advantage (and possession of much) of the Century of Progress, largely selects for exhibits like this.

Stuka also had prior exhibition experience, though his context is obviously different. He's not especially talkative to guests unless they speak German and to him directly, but he's got a winning attitude about staying in character as a losing but formidable opponent to Spitfire so he gets on fine.

Pioneer and 999 are obviously the masterclass on courting a crowd, both being speed record breakers and Worlds Fair alumni. 999 has been displayed at several Worlds Fairs, in fact. Pioneer only edges 999 out on this in terms of the MSI because he debuted at the Century of Progress same as his museum did and he came up during the dawn of modern advertising so he's got a bit of salesmen to him that 999 lacks. That's why he makes for the ideal first exhibit. If you somehow weren't planning to pay to see the rest of the museum, Pioneer can convince you it'd be a good investment.

Like Stuka, U-505 will also answer questions posed directly to him, but given his context, he prefers to let his guides speak for him. Makes everyone's lives easier that way.

2903 is also a bit reserved with guests, but this is because he is a regular working engine. He was not brought up to sell himself the way Pioneer and 999 were and unlike U-505, he doesn't have any work stories to relate either. There's not a lot for him to really say for himself beyond what his placard already states.

Which is why eventual his move to the IRM is good for him. There, there's not any expectation of being notable (nevertheless, he does become notable there for being the largest engine in their collection). IRM stock comes from a wide variety of backgrounds, but very few of them are show ponies in the way that the MSI seeks out.

Pilot probably interacts more with guests than anyone else at the IRM does, but even if he's not a famous engine, he is a passenger engine and Burlington besides and that gives him an immediate leg up on everyone else. Obviously a passenger engine is going to have more experience and innate talent at talking to people. 727 similarly has this advantage in her exhibit.

There is the thing too, that not all people can or want to talk to engines. It's not difficult to become the sort of person who knows how to talk to engines; all of their guides do and pretty much everyone who works at the IRM is this sort of person. But a working engine is generally preferred to be seen and not heard. Engines therefore do not usually speak to people unless spoken to first. Pioneer's good enough at gauging this that he can take the liberty to initiate (especially since many of the people he'd talk to these days are shy children), but most engines wouldn't want to risk seeming impertinent. The vast majority of IRM engines are like this, but they also see more specific train enthusiasts who are seeking them out so they still have some facetime to serve.

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).

Not really.

They've experienced the real thing, they'll nearly unanimously say. A simulation cannot compare!

40B finds the whole idea stressful to even think about. All the flight sim planes are combat jets. They go so fast and pewpewing all the while. Who needs that? Weather's enough of a struggle.

As for everyone else? The flight sim's selection of planes are mostly newer, faster, better planes than ours are. It's one thing to simply know you're an old, obsolete plane. They're still being enjoyed and admired every day and that they've been surpassed and are now a relic of the past is part of their appeal. It's entirely another thing, though, to get in a machine that's designed to show you exactly how out-of-date, under-powered and slow you are.

If the warplanes are picking (play) fights with each other, they are not picking those fights with anyone else.

It's not the the little planes don't get along. They have their squabbles sometimes, but for the most part the Transportation Gallery is peaceful despite largely being occupied by dumbass little planes.

That said, Stuka and Spitfire are machines meant to destroy each other. No one cares about this detail particularly: one is what one is made to do. If they were made to destroy other machines, they can't really help that. But they play rough - as rough as they can get away with without actually damaging each other - and they take it further than the other little planes are interested in.

Jenny and Texaco are both scrappy and playful too, but Jenny is a stunt plane and Texaco is for racing. Neither of them is trying to knock the other to the ground. They prefer parallel competition to combat.

And 40B (a mail plane notable for his even and level flying) is not suited to either of those pursuits. He prefers to sit quietly with the Rocket and Wright Flyer replicas or with 727 if she's not otherwise engaged.

All the little planes do socialize with each other though. They're all quite proud of their exhibit and feel it was built around them (which they are half right about) so they need to work together to make it as dynamic and fun as envisioned. When there are spats in the gallery, they adjust their group flight pattern accordingly, separating into smaller social groups, to maintain the peace.

There is a time in the 70's when Stuka was sent offsite for refurbishment and Spitfire was left alone. It's not that the other little planes didn't want to help, but again, they're not really built to play with him on his terms. Technically speaking, a Supermarine Spitfire is actually meant to be roughhousing with U-505, but he's not playful except under very specific circumstances.

Fortunately, 2903 stepped up to keep peace in the... yard, as it were. He's one of the few civilian machines that can match a warplane in a brawl. And much as he disapproves of Spitfire's choice in besties, he can set that aside since Spitfire is an Allied unit and playing with him keeps out out of everyone else's hair.