On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 2:48 AM, Onno Meyer <[email protected]> wrote: > Summarized: > > As Johannes pointed out, it is a bad idea to tow a train of contragrav-only > carriages by a single contragrav-and-thrust engine in front.
Why? Point it the direction you're going, and go. Don't get in its way, or bad things happen. Suits a train pretty well! Would be suited for empty worlds where there's bulk cargo to move long distances. You can get > away with one cockpit for the entire train in the first unit, but each unit > needs thrusters. That kills my idea to have cheap and interchangeable > carriages behind a more expensive engine. > > My reply was that in this case you could have identical grav trucks. > Johannes said that you could still save personnel with several follower > trucks slaved to one crewed leader. > http://www.popsci.com/article/cars/robot-truck-convoy-tested-nevada > > Craig and Evyn had some ideas how Grav Trains could be made to run tracks. I > like the idea of drawing power from the track best, especially at TL9 or > lower. If Grav Trains cannot maneuver, central traffic control becomes more > important. That is simplified if Grav Carriages are combined into trains. > > A completely different approach would be to have long, articulated grav > flyers and to call them "Grav Trains". No flexibility of swapping carriages, > but there could be reasons why you want a articulated vehicle. Perhaps they > enter subway tunnels when they reach urban areas? That could be combined > with the contact power option. > > Regards, > Onno > > _______________________________________________ > GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> > http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l -- David Scheidt [email protected] _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
