with various other potential partners. Ideas included constriction of a Twain-themed amusement part in Bettendorf, Iowa, a dinner train from Chicago to the Quad Cities, or a stationary restaurant and hotel in Downers Grove or DeKalb, Illinois. In 1997, the federal government began redevelopment of the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant into the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Plans included removing all railroad sidings on the property, including the ones where the Mark Twain Zephyr had been parked for the previous decade. Krupske, Lowe, and Lorenzini then made a partnership deal with the Relco Locomotive Shops in Minooka, Illinois to store the train. It remained on this property from May 1997 to January 2008. Relco and Mark Twain Zephyr, Inc. could not find additional investors or capital to restore the train. Besides the original Winton engine and trucks/wheels being removed, not much work occurred on the Mark Twain Zephyr. In late 2007, Relco decided to begin a complete shut down of its Minooka Plant. This forced Mark Twain Zephyr, Inc. to find another home for the train. In January 2008, the Mark Twain Zephyr was moved down to Gateway Rail Services in Madison, Illinois, in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. Gateway Rail Services has two shop buildings and a dedicated staff to refurbish old passenger railroad cars. Management was interested in potentially getting the contract to do the rebuild of the Mark Twain Zephyr, a deal that would have worth millions of dollars. Unfortunately, not much was done to improve the train during the 12 years it remained at Gateway Rail Services. The Mark Twain Zephyr had basically become an empty stainless steel shell sitting along a fence on the property. Current ownership and operations The Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad, a family-owned and operated company, located in Trego, Wisconsin, purchased the Mark Twain Zephyr from Mark Twain Zephyr, Inc. on February 19, 2020. The sale was officially closed on June 30, 2020. The Wisconsin Great Northern's owners, Greg and Mardell Vreeland, made their purchase public on July 27, 2020 through exclusive news articles in TRAINS Magazine and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The four cars of the Mark Twain Zephyr and the spare car of the Pioneer Zephyr were shipped from Madison, Illinois to Trego, Wisconsin by semi-truck (Over the Top Contractors) between August 1, 2020 and September 4, 2020. A full-time crew of electricians, carpenters, and other skilled craftspeople employed by the Wisconsin