The Weird Trains Thread.

[Whirligig Girl]

You could say that Kerbal Space Program combines Orbiter and Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space together into one game, simplifying both, and adding the rocket building feature. So what came before the modern ideas of rocket propulsion and automobiles? Why, Steam Traction of course!

Here's a dumb and not even slightly serious idea: A Train Game where you don't just drive the trains or build the tracks and manage the industry, but you get to do both and build the engines and trucks as well. Think of it as combining Transport Tycoon and Trainz.

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Info: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/fictional/fictional.htm

Who said trains can't be Kerbal?

And the grand finale: The Holman Horror. Calling this a locomotive just wouldn't be right, decent, or legal.

"The wheel arrangement is 6-12-0, if you count the wheels actually on the track. I refuse, however, to classify this with proper twelve-coupled machines."

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Compressed Air locomotives use air pressure from a pressurized cylinder instead of steam pressure to function. A Kerbalized version of this would definitely be hydrazine-dinitrogentetroxide combustion pressure powered.

Edited January 9, 2015 by GregroxMun

[General Rarity]

You want weird trains? I'll give you a weird locomotive...

Behold, the mighty BQ23-7!

Good job Seaboard Coast Line for ordering a horror!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_BQ23-7

For comparison, here's a normal B23-7...

[Yukon0009]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schienenzeppelin

It's a train powered by a propeller, because why not!

[jmiki8]

Propeller-driven train? How about jet-powered railcars?

[mordin86]

well, its not very weird, but its BIG - Union Pacific Big Boy:

[mike9606]

Don't forget the Mordor Mogul at the bottom of the page Gregrox posted a link to. Imagine getting your extra-large rover stuck on the tracks and seeing that thing coming at you.

[BagelRabbit]

I think that this is the closest equivalent to a Hype Train that exists.

Behold... the Stardust Express!

(The guy who built it is named Dave, and I launch my rockets at the same site that he does, so we know each other pretty well. I haven't seen this thing fly yet though.)

Here's a picture of the monstrosity on Dave's couch (complete with classy '30s art deco styling):

[EDIT: I should mention for the technical-minded that this thing has three Estes black-powder F motors canted near the bottom of the 'locomotive,' which propel it upwards with several pounds of force.]

...Here's the "rocket" being cautiously loaded onto its fat ol' launch rod (and sticking a little):

...and here's the launch, which went incredibly well, all things considered.

So, after some little repairs, this thing should fly again soon. Hopefully I'll be there next time.

...

GregroxMun, you can stop drooling now.

Gregrox?

Edited January 5, 2015 by UpsilonAerospace

[cantab]

There have been many trains to carry the name "Orient Express", but only one that ran in space.

[zekes]

[andrew123]

I did start a flame war with this train on another forum.

The RT-23 Molodets. A symbol of Soviet cold war nuclear power, which was slowly phased out by START.

[megatiger78]

I did start a flame war with this train on another forum.

how did you do that?

The RT-23 Molodets. A symbol of Soviet cold war nuclear power, which was slowly phased out by START.

wait a nuclear train?

[andrew123]

how did you do that?

wait a nuclear train?

I'm not beholden to divulge the details...

I mean it's armed with a nuclear missile with a loadout of 10 mirvs.

Edited January 6, 2015 by andrew123

[jmiki8]

Missile trains are going to be deployed across Russia again (TASS).

Edited January 6, 2015 by jmiki8

[andrew123]

Missile trains are going to be deployed across Russia again (TASS).

I posted that piece of news on a forum filled with International Military servicemen.

Suffice to say, the reactions were entertaining, especially with russians.

[Nibb31]

French Aerotrain jet-powered air-cushion monorail from the 60's. 30 kilometers of test tracks were built and it managed to reach 400 km/h.

And the old TGV. Orange was super-trendy in the 80s.

Those TGV trains are 35 years old now (older than the Space Shuttle!) but they are still going strong.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Nibb31

[cantab]

You know maglev trains? Those things that were supposed to be the super-fast trains of the future. Yeah...wasn't always quite like that

Travelled the 600 metres from the regular rail station to the airport, at a top speed of Not Very Fast.

[Nibb31]

That's not a maglev, it's an automatic light railway. It looks a like the VAL that is used in my city:

[jmiki8]

One more from me:

The 80 cm Schwerer Gustav (also known as Dora, cause 2 were built), produced in WWII Germany. It used 2 parallel train tracks for movement (it had 40 axles). It had a 30+ metre-long barrel which fired 7-ton shells. Although it was a masterpiece of engineering, it's practical use was questionable. It took ~3000 men to lay tracks, set up, fire and defend it from enemy air attacks. Bombers were more effective and accurate.

Here is the gun:

And its projectile, which could weigh up to 7,1 tons.

There was a third "supergun" in production, a 52 cm cannon equipped with a 43 m barrel (thus having a range of 190 km!), which would fire 680 kg shells, but the factory in Essen was destroyed by a RAF air raid.

Edited January 7, 2015 by jmiki8

[Blue]

well, its not very weird, but its BIG - Union Pacific Big Boy:

http://i.imgur.com/kU5tMpw.jpg

S.Berliner III's Bigger Boy

The Soviet AA20-1

[cantab]

That's not a maglev

Yes it was. It ran from 84 to 95. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev#Birmingham.2C_United_Kingdom.2C_1984.E2.80.9395

It's been replaced now by a cable-hauled system (how boring), but the old one was "the maglev" and locally known as such.

[Kinglet]

Yes it was. It ran from 84 to 95. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev#Birmingham.2C_United_Kingdom.2C_1984.E2.80.9395

It's been replaced now by a cable-hauled system (how boring), but the old one was "the maglev" and locally known as such.

London heathrow airport has the most epic transport system of the future.

[Whirligig Girl]

Early streamlined locomotives are good for steampunk rocket design. http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/bec/bec.htm

They thought of streamlining as windsplitting. You cut through the air. I guess the first attempts at modern streamlining using cones could be thought of as windstabbing.

They did eventually get better, when they found how effective blunt cones are. Do these not look like Ariane 5 SRB nosecones?

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And here's a Steam-Diesel Hybrid, built to be cheaper than both for a mixed traffic operation. http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/kitson/kitsonst.htm

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/shay/shay.htm

A Shay Locomotive, which my mother once rode on for her birthday, is a geared locomotive, a really weird one. Some of them were designed to RUN ON LOGS INSTEAD OF RAILS.

Here's a Climax loco (similar design) running on LOGRAILS.

(I'm just glad these weren't the rails in Thomas and Friend's "Misty Island Rescue" Special)

Also, what the heck even IS this?

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I'm sure you're all aware of the Union Pacific "Big Boy" locomotive? The LARGEST Steam locomotive of all time! It was an articulated locomotive, which meant the two sets of driving wheels were detached from the main frames, so they could spin. Here's a concept work of a HEXAPLEX engine! WHAT THE KRAKEN?

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/hex/hex.htm

"These locomotives would be suitable for moving the earth's axis, or similiar heavy freight duties."

If I steampunkify this engine better, it will be suitable for moving the steampunk mobile launchpad for a steampunk Nova Rocket.

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If you think of Thomas the Tank Engine as being real instead of a sort of mythology, the engines of the Island of Sodor are even weirder. The first locomotives on the island were brought in around 1840 or so, and at this time electricity was in it's infancy. This means that trains on Sodor are some kind of genetically engineered life form perhaps, attached to the front of a steam engine or coach or something and with nerves wired up to various points on the engine, so it can feel. Perhaps the steampunk mad scientists working there thought this would somehow make engineering easier, because if the engine can yell in pain that something is wrong, the driver and fireman can attempt to fix the problem before a catastrophic failure.

Of course, none of this actually makes sense, because the Railway Series is just a sort of mythology, the stories start out as describing why engines seem to have personalities. "I can do it" "I can't do it" Two engines might seem to say.

Wow, did I really analyze Thomas the Tank Engine that deeply?

Edited January 9, 2015 by GregroxMun

[megatiger78]

Wow, did I really analyze Thomas the Tank Engine that deeply?

you did. you just did.

[Matuchkin]

This is the real hype train. Argument over. Somebody lock this thread. 

Edited March 5, 2016 by Matuchkin

[StrandedonEarth]

It must be on the Railway to Hell...