Scenario, A life on the rails.

ScumLord

If you could learn how to drive a train do you think it would make a viable HQ? It's mobile, it does provide a certain level of security as you need a platform to walk straight on. Toilet facilities on board so sanitation shouldn't be an issue unless your stopped for a long time. Unstoppable by Zombie hordes but maybe vulnerable to raiders.

You would need to stock up on a vast amount of diesel which should be possible if your quick, you don't need to push the train so could run it as economical as possible. You'd have loads of storage and living space which could easily be extended as high speed structural integrity wouldn't be an issue any more.

Requiring diesel is going to mean it's not going to last forever but maybe a good intermediary HQ?

Kess73

Trains are quite easy to derail, so it would hardly be unstoppable against a large number of Zs.

Plus where you go to whilst you have fuel is severely limited, due to being forced to follow whatever set of tracks the train is on when the outbreak takes hold.

Plus once out of fuel you would become food in a tin if surrounded by a horde.

There is also the risk of some other group having the train idea and the chance of a train on train crash.

Not to mention the risk of human raiders and the like.

Probably good for short term shelter and safety, but in most cases not a great medium to long term option.

The only medium term option I can see with a train is if you have one that is on tracks that go to an isolated rural area. Go there with the train and use it as a medium term base of operations, but this would only work if you had a good team and plenty of supplies and firearms.

ScumLord

Kess73 wrote: »

Trains are quite easy to derail, so it would hardly be unstoppable against a large number of Zs.

Really? Rotting corpses could derail a train?

Plus where you go to whilst you have fuel is severely limited, due to being forced to follow whatever set of tracks the train is on when the outbreak takes hold.

I'm sure Iarnród Éireann have a huge stock of diesel in stock the plan would have to include driving into there fuel yard and hooking up a few giant tankers which I'm sure there are so they can move fuel to different stations. This could give you fuel for a long time it's not like you'll be over exerting the engine all that often. You could move very slowly when you are moving to save fuel.

Not to mention the risk of human raiders and the like.[/QUOTE] These are always the danger but as I said there's no easy way onto a train when it's not at a station with a bit of A-Team work you could armour up the carriages and you've got a mobile home with space for large amounts of supplies..

Ginja Ninja

long term it could be viable but not as a life on the rails,I for one would use railways as my roads after the zombocolypse,traffic is a moot point and due to the nature of railways visibility along the tracks is excellent.

trains go between major cities typically,I'd imagine them to be crammed full of refugees once the sh!t hits the fan,so probable zombie hotspots.

but as a store parked up near a country village they are a well made stronghold,that and access to that much high grade steel would be a huge bonus[yes,I'm a scavenger at heart]

Boats people, boats!!!!!!

But yeah, I'd be very wary of getting on a train. Zombies will grab hold of that train whether there's a station or not, find a way in, and just work their way up the carriages. You'd get trapped in whichever carriage was on the opposite end from where they get on, and in a long linear shaped space like a train, the zombies will advance faster than you can kill them off (unless you have a rocket launcher and don't mind seriously damaging your train in the process, which would still make life on the rails a no-no).

A few other things I'd feel uncomfortable about:

1)Life on the rails has few viable exit strategies.
2)Trains are loud: you'd be a beacon for the Zs.
3)Trains can't really perform fast getaways. You will eventually have to stop for supplies or fuel or something, zombies all around will hear you, find the train, and when you get back to it, it will either be swarming with them, or if you by miracle managed to defend it from every side, you still wouldn't be able to get on and get away without pretty much every zombie that's there having enough time to jump on. You would either be derailed or eventually they would break through and feast on your train-loving self. Game over.

Kess73

Really? Rotting corpses could derail a train?



Yep, quite easily, much in the same manner that hitting a cow can derail an engine. Put 60 or 70 Zs in the path of a moving train and there would be a good chance of it derailing. Put a bigger bunch there and that train is going nowhere. Not to mention the risk of tracks being blocked at junctions due to car piles ups and the like.



I'm sure Iarnród Éireann have a huge stock of diesel in stock the plan would have to include driving into there fuel yard and hooking up a few giant tankers which I'm sure there are so they can move fuel to different stations. This could give you fuel for a long time it's not like you'll be over exerting the engine all that often. You could move very slowly when you are moving to save fuel.




Plausible, as long as you know a way how to hook the transport tankers to the engine to fuel it with diesel. The tankers are not designed to pump fuel into an engine, so you would need a way to get around that.

You will also need to find some way to get the fuel pumped into the engine. It is a powered process normally from a stationary pump linked to a stationary fuel tank. Once the power gfrid goes down, you have no way of getting enough diesel into the engine.


You would also need to have some way to stop that diesel from gelling if you intend to have it in tankers being pulled behind the engine. A winter like the one we just had, and your diesel fuelled engine and your tankers of diesel behind it run the strong risk of gelling. Plus you would need a supply of kerosene to mix with the diesel if you wish to avoid waxing in the cold



Not to mention the risk of human raiders and the like.These are always the danger but as I said there's no easy way onto a train when it's not at a station with a bit of A-Team work you could armour up the carriages and you've got a mobile home with space for large amounts of supplies


Knock a tree onto the track in front of the engine. The engine has to stop. Roll some rocks or another tree behind it. Now you are trapped in your train. Once it gets dark, then raiders can go at you, or simply burn you out.

Plus the A Team approach only works if you already have the skills, materials, and most importantly, the time to do that.


If a vehicle had to be used as a base, a boat is a much better option. Smaller boats with either oars or a small outboard could be used by people with little or no boating experience. Finding somewhere to sleep would simply be a case of anchoring in fairly deep water if inland.

More experienced folk would be looking a larger river/lake boats, or sea worthy boats that could be moored in estuaries.

ScumLord

If the train is rolling not at any big speed even just 5 or 10 miles an hour I don't think it could be easily derailed but I'm open to correction. I can understand the train being derailed if it's at speed but just trundling around it'll just shove things out of the way rather than run over them. It'll also make getting onto the train awkward, while not impossible it'll give those on board time to attack boarders as they struggle to get on.

Even if they do get on the carriage is one massive chock point making it easy to defend.

GavRedKing

Decent idea Scumlord, I think if you have one Engine pulling one Carriage you should be ok, anymore then that and your asking for trouble. That and the fact I wouldnt want to be carrying a 10 + carriages and trying defend all of them, if one person on a large train gets infected its effectively game over.

Fuel and any large objects on the line, like trees, cars, lorries anything like that could be a disaster,unless as you said you planned on running the engine at low speeds.

Also the signal switches could cause a huge problem, afaik they are electronic, well most of them are so when the grid goes down, switching points would be near inpossible.

ScumLord

gavredking wrote: »

Decent idea Scumlord, I think if you have one Engine pulling one Carriage you should be ok, anymore then that and your asking for trouble. That and the fact I wouldnt want to be carrying a 10 + carriages and trying defend all of them, if one person on a large train gets infected its effectively game over.

Fuel and any large objects on the line, like trees, cars, lorries anything like that could be a disaster,unless as you said you planned on running the engine at low speeds.

Also the signal switches could cause a huge problem, afaik they are electronic, well most of them are so when the grid goes down, switching points would be near inpossible.

Hadn't thought of that. Could be a real problem.

On the amount of carriages I'd go for way more than one. You'd need one for storage. A sleeping and living carriage near the engine, you wouldn't get many people in on one carriage so I think there should be separate sleeping and living cartridges.

The layout of the train will make it easy to defend with modifications to the carriages. If someone gets on board at the end of a carriage the defending party are at a distinct advantage. If the intruder gets on somewhere in the middle they're at an even bigger disadvantage because your surrounded with no where to move other than off the train.

GavRedKing

ScumLord wrote: »

Hadn't thought of that. Could be a real problem.

On the amount of carriages I'd go for way more than one. You'd need one for storage. A sleeping and living carriage near the engine, you wouldn't get many people in on one carriage so I think there should be separate sleeping and living cartridges.

The layout of the train will make it easy to defend with modifications to the carriages. If someone gets on board at the end of a carriage the defending party are at a distinct advantage. If the intruder gets on somewhere in the middle they're at an even bigger disadvantage because your surrounded with no where to move other than off the train.

good idea with the carriages, i should have stated me idea would have been for a short term option on the rails, 1 carriage and 1 engine.

But I see where you are coming from with your idea,the hardest place to defend for me would be the engine car, a Z would never be able to get at the driver, whos door is easily at least at head height if not more off the ground, but if the train is slow running a raider could easily climb aboard and take him out.

If you could restrict thew amount to carriages to just enough to mange all your supplies and maybe a tanker full of fuel and a sleeping quarters/passenger area you should have a very good mobile fortress.

ScumLord

gavredking wrote: »

good idea with the carriages, i should have stated me idea would have been for a short term option on the rails, 1 carriage and 1 engine.

But I see where you are coming from with your idea,the hardest place to defend for me would be the engine car, a Z would never be able to get at the driver, whos door is easily at least at head height if not more off the ground, but if the train is slow running a raider could easily climb aboard and take him out.

If you could restrict thew amount to carriages to just enough to mange all your supplies and maybe a tanker full of fuel and a sleeping quarters/passenger area you should have a very good mobile fortress.

Oh yeah the engine car. I was thinking so much about defending the carriages I didn't think about how open the engine was. I'm sure you could make it impenetrable but of course then the driver could end up stranded in the engine. But the option is there for them to move the train away from any other bandits and then remove any bandits on the engine.

Cianos

A train would be a great resource for the rebuilding of civilisation, much in the same way that they played a big role in the industrial revolution. They're fast, can carry massive loads, and a railway is much easier to lay than a good road. So rebuilding the rail line between two growing settlements would be great for assisting trade and transportation.

But in the early days I think it'd be futile to depend on a train mainly because of fuel and navigational restrictions.

Micky Dolenz

I like this idea. There are plenty of remote area's where tracks run. I would be up for using it nearly as a stationary HQ, ensure 10 miles or so of track are clear and you can move along it if needed.

It would be hard for a zed to climb on a train and the roof allows a great vantage point to take out any wannabe infectors.