Railroads in the SWU

CRMcNeill · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 1:45 am Post subject: Railroads in the SWU

Among my many interests, I am also a rail-fan. I enjoy it very much when my interests overlap, but trains in the SWU have gotten little or no attention. Since its limited to following a track from Point A to Point B, a train certainly lacks the versatility of other vehicles, but it would make a great setting for adventures.

I did see one website that did floorplans for a SWU passenger train, but it was comparable in size to modern single-deck trains. While I liked the detail, I think standardized train sizes in the SWU would be much larger. Modern railroads in the US abandoned passenger trains long ago due to the fact that it is almost impossible to make a privately owned passenger train commercially viable. This has left the US government to take up the slack by the formation of AmTrak and various local rail networks. The big Class I Railroads (Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe out where I live) make all their profits hauling freight, and 1/3 to 1/2 the trains I see going by my house are double-stack container carriers. That got me thinking that maybe things are the same in the SWU as they are here.

My theory is that major railroads in the SWU were long ago standardized around being able to haul standard-sized container that are transported aboard Container Transport starships. Since the largest standard container is 40 meters long, 20 meters high, and 10 meters wide, a deep-well container transport car would need to be at least 42-43 meters long (to provide room for the coupling systems on either end) and 11-12 meters wide on either side to account for the well-walls wrapping around the base of the container. A standardized car could carry a single 40x20x10 container, or a mix of smaller sizes, and there could be other, similar sized cars used for hauling bulk materials (tank cars and hopper cars), as well as other types.

An SWU railroad would function much like a modern RW one; ships come into port carrying containers, which are then loaded onto railcars for trans-shipment to destination points. Passenger trains would be like moving hotels or resorts, as individual cars would have many times the internal volume of modern trains. Military transport versions could also be used, with dedicated weapons cars attached to trains in hostile areas to help defend them from ground or aerial attack. They could even serve as mobile bases for airspeeders or heavy artillery platforms.

I'm kinda rambling at this point, so I'm going to go ahead and stop. I'd appreciate your thoughts.
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Anakin · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 3:15 am Post subject:

Have you seen the movie Casshern? Check out the trains in it Smile

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Hellcat · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:19 am Post subject:

Try checking out hover trains on Wookieepedia. Also if you have them, check Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments of the Rim (Chapter 12 Leisure Activities has stats for the Vohai Unirail which is a model 10-T Monorail) and the Shadows of the Empire Planets Guide (Chapter 4: Kothlis has stats for "The Loop" which is a modified KDY Model 8-X Unirail) Both can be found in Gry's Vehicles Stats PDF on page 42. The "People-Movers" in Goroth: Slave of the Empire (Chapter 7: Major Settlements) are also a kind of monorail.
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Raven Redstar · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 12:53 pm Post subject:

Corellia also had a number of mag lev train systems.

Whill · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 11:42 pm Post subject:

As you know, Revenge of the Sith opens with The Battle of Coruscant in media res. In the prologue novel Labyrinth of Evil, the final third of the book is the first half of that battle. It kicks off with the kidnapping of Palpatine and that involves Jedi in lightsaber battles with Grievous on top of a speeding train through the city. (Yes, something based on a rough draft of this novel did appear on the orginal Clone Wars cartoon, but the book version was improved after it was too late to revise the animated version, so the book is better). It was exciting. Basically anything happening on top of a speeding training is exciting!
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Hellcat · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:11 am Post subject:

You mean like the mission to Corellia in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. Jaden Korr running about the maglev hover train, battling mercs and the Disciples of Ragnos who've captured the train and are planing on crashing it into a building in Coronet (been a while since I played the game, don't remember exactly where it was supposed to be heading). Korr having to leap from car to car at least a mile in the air. Touching the track meant electrocution, missing a car plummeting to your death. Actually that was a fun mission.
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CRMcNeill · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:28 am Post subject:

There was a similar mission in the Shadows of the Empire game, where Dash Rendar had to jump car to car on a freight train on Ord Mantell (IIRC).
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Dustflier · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 2:02 am Post subject:

Bren · Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:32 am Post subject:

Whill · Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:10 pm Post subject:

No you were not. I thought it was going to be a gripe about "linear" adventures.
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CRMcNeill · Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:32 pm Post subject:

LOL. Like it wouldn't be the first thread on this forum to go off-topic by a parsec or five. I've run more than one linear campaign, especially when I was just starting out as a GM. For a beginner, it makes a good practice run, and if you don't make it too obvious, the players don't really mind. It's when the GM starts micromanaging that things get ugly.
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Fallon Kell · Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:04 pm Post subject:

I also remember a train-style starship that carried massive quantities of cargo. It had a drive section at either end and carried spherical cargo compartments in between. I think it may have shown up in the imperial sourcebook.
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Hellcat · Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 8:04 pm Post subject:

May be thinking the Bungo and Rusti comics. The original, Bungo & Rusti Get Carry Out is the only offical comic as it appeared in AJ 11, the rest of the series is fan made (FAQ) because Anderson's comics were not picked up and run by Dark Horse (which he states overlooked Bungo & Rusti Get Carry Out when it appeared in AJ 11). The Chubby Gundark is a cargo barge driver space transport. Basically think of it like a locomotive, cargo barges are hooked up like the cars of a freight train and are then pulled and pushed by cargo barge drivers.

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CRMcNeill · Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:10 pm Post subject:

There's that, too, but I think he was talking about Black Ice, the adventure with the Field Secured Container Transport mentioned in the Imperial Sourcebook.

Speaking of, though, have you seen Frank Bonura's deck plan for the Chubby Gundark? Almost makes me want to have one in-game.
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Hellcat · Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:53 pm Post subject:

You can get there either through Deckplans Alliance or the Bungo and Rusti site I do believe. I know right now the Bungo and Rusti site has a great 3D brochure and cut-away of the Nyubba-class cargo barge driver (and the Chubby Gundark inparticular) that was done by Brandon Koller and Frank Bonura. Deckplans Alliance has 2D deckplans of the Gundark and the Nybn Cargo Barge Modules. Stats on the Gundark are offical WEG stats and don't list the Chubby Gundark as being modified so their the Nyubba stats in general. It is a bit slow for my taste, but it can take a pounding. Would mod it with faster sublights, though there is a bit of a question as to how fast the cargo barges can go before the couplings on the cargo barges could fail.
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