Dear GURPSnet,
on the sidelines of my last Traveller game, another player asked if
"Grav Trains" make any sense, and especially armored trains. Someone
else mentioned The Train Job from Firefly.
Do Grav Trains make any sense?
A grav train would be a grav vehicle consisting of an engine and
several/many carriages, with a flexible connection. In GURPS, the
contragrav unit for lift, the thrusters/propulsion, and the power plant
are separate. It might make sense to have a "tug vehicle" with power and
propulsion and a variable number of "trailers" just with a contragrav
unit, drawing power from the "tug". That way you can use the same "tug
vehicle" with different sets of passenger and cargo "trailers" and make
best use of the investment in an expensive power plant. The rules as
written in 3E have some problems where it comes to tow hitches and pins
for trains, but published precedent is to ignore those problems (e.g.
the armored train in W:MP).
Wouldn't it make more sense to have unpowered containers on a big grav
flyer?
Probably. One advantage of the train is that an express with just one or
two carriages is faster than a slow train with several dozen, a big
flyer couldn't scale that way.
What is an Armored Train and why?
Armored trains had their brief days of glory when/where the state of
roads and automobile technology hampered armored cars or tanks, e.g. the
Russian Civil War or the Chinese warlord era. An armored train combined
massive firepower (dozens of MMGs, often tank-level guns and medium or
heavy artillery with plenty of ammo), a company-sized raiding force, and
higher speed than contemporary cars or tanks. They were vulnerable to
attacks on the tracks e.g. by aircraft, so they're pretty much dead
these days.
For a grav AFV with that role, flexible components would more likely use
the articulated body from VXi4. The reason why it is a "grav snake"
rather than a "grav brick" is that the Armored Grav Train is designed to
work in cities with infrastructure for Grav Trains -- that way they can
hide in subway tunnels, etc. The Armored Grav Train would not be a
tank-style direct fire vehicle, it would be armored
command/control/medical/resupply for counterinsurgency.
Any thoughts?
Regards,
Onno
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