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Transportation_Systems
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See Also Real_Trolleys_and_Subs_and_Trains
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Trolley Circa late 40s LA (Pacific Electric)
This is closer to what the Trolleys would look like in Rapture (they could still keep some of the stylized attempt to look like a Bathysphere).
Same Pacific Electric Trolley (old LA system) except is a carricature (real cars were twice as long as that).
Diagrams :
The trains - Atlantic Express - the backbone of Rapture, and the Trolley system - the arteries:
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Blueprint_extraction - Freight Loco/boxcar -
Trains to Planes :
Prentis Mill was being forced to sell out his Atlantic Express passenger service because the Metro Transit (Austen and other companies had outcompeted him with the more flexible/extensive Trolley and Bathysphere systems). The Freight system continued ( a reason why parts of it was still working 8 years later to be used in BS2 ...) but the cost of passenger operations made them unprofitable (insufficient passengers, inflexible destinations, maintaining all the extra equipment/facilities required for Rush Hour crowds - all real world issues). The same things happened to US passenger train operations in the 50s (replaced by bus, planes and automobiles) and commuter lines have NEVER been profitable anywhere - always subsidized (which was a no-no in Rapture. And STILL the only reason the Trolleys are profitable is because of a combined freight/express delivery service). The Bathysphere system was more a 'prestige' operation and was supported by the charges for Private Submarines accessing the same facilities.
Atlantic Express did keep running:
- A removed Public Service Announcement from BS2 game directed civilians to use the Atlantic Express due to Ryan's genetic lockdown of Bathyspheres throughout the city. "Rapture Metro regrets to inform you all bathysphere travel is currently restricted. Please use The Atlantic Express until further notice." This would demonstrate the AE train system is still functional, despite its 'buyout' or abandonment.
- Note - that says 'Bathyspheres' instead of Trolleys (I would strongly argue those Trolleys we saw in BS2 went far further than the 300 feet paths portrayed in-game).
- The Atlantic Express was heavily used for freight traffic and when the Metro took over much of the passenger service the profitable freight part of the AE operation remained (again like US railroads).
- Unfortunately, lack of maintenance on the AE system after Ryan's demise started to take its toll and eventually many routes no longer functioned.
Trolley in place of Trucks :
- There was no equivalent in Rapture to trucks (or even wagons) that make most real cities work (movement of bulk quantities of goods to specific locations).
- A logical alternative was using the extensive Trolley system for local freight deliveries of all kinds (including transfers from The Atlantic Express system). Add freight docks at all the Plaza hubs or even in individual building complexes (include forklifts and conveyor belt systems).
- Alot of this 'freight' is not any kind of curb-to-curb service (as we can have), but much better than the Bathyspheres -- which are near as limited as the AE system was (requiring hand carrying from the Metro stations(up and down steps, etc) - I suppose there could also be some 'freight' Bathysphere docks, but that whole system is still too inflexible/limited for this use, and the shear volume of freight the city required).
- Freight-only Trolley cars run almost as frequently as the passenger version (and more frequently at night when passenger traffic is lighter).. Freight cars (pulled by Trolley engines) get parked at spur (siding) tracks at destinations for loading/unloading. Raptures 20000+ citizens required a continuous flow of consumables and other merchandise, which requires daily distribution (moving that all that thru those Bathysphere Metro stations is laughably ludicrous when you consider it).
Different Atlantic Express lines :
- The scene ouside of Paupers Drop and AE Depot belongs to a much larger system than that small/limited Map seen in BS2. So that represents only a fraction of the entire AE system. The map really highlighted only that one route (as many 'local maps' do).
- The "Short Line" (AE Depot to The Abyss) seen in BS2 used the smaller Mk-1 cars/track built in the earliest days to facilitate the City's construction. - Mk-1 equipment was superseded by the larger capacity Mk-2 cars, running thru expanded population and industrial centers of the City. Even the extensive Mk-2 system was not sufficiently flexible for passenger traffic needs and was replaced with the Metro Trolley Lines.
- Mk-1s built in the early days had been relegated-to/remained-for minor 'low traffic' lines going thru 'lesser' destinations -- like the one we rode going thru Ryan Amusements, Paupers Drop, Dionysus Park (which had been something else before conversion to Lamb's hoity-toity art establishment...), Fontaine Futuristics, and terminating at the Abyss Lookout.
- The Mk-2 track support girder system was designed after it was found that the concrete structures used for much of the Mk-1 lines could not stand up to increasing freight loads. The new MK-2 girder system could be repaired piecemeal quickly and were stronger and responded much more flexibly to vibrarions and stress. The more heavily traveled routes had their track supports switched to the new system as were all further track extensions. Some Mk-1 equipment was sold for use to a few of the later built satellite communities.
- "Line 47 - South East Branch" (sign seen in the AE station at Fontaine Futuristics in BS2) :
- The Line indicated on the AE Map is not actually to Persephone (which is adjacent to Fontaine Futuristics), instead it runs down to a site that processed the unusual materials brought up from the Abysss (using a water elevator system to access the great depths) and also served as a Tourist destination.
- Grand Central Station is at the Atlantic Express Depot (was called 'Grand Central' on Passenger Schedules and maps before the takeover). The trains out of Rapture to all the support communities and industrial sites (Ryanville, Progresston, Prosperity, etc..) originated here. The largely unused state we saw in BS2 (you can see a closed-off portal "To All Tracks") was years after the Metro took over and the Atlantic Express in-city passenger service was first shutdown. Later with the Bathysphere lockdown, some passenger routes were reactivated (many the ones the Trolleys did not service). A majority of routes eventually fell into disrepair, even though Factions outside of Lamb's reach tried to maintain them
Blueprint of the 'Atlantic Express' units (seen in the workshops of the AE Depot) :
- These are of something NOT the AE traincars you use in BS2 - does not match the type Delta uses - has no window looking out the front, has different headlights (Looks like the unit shown on one of the AE advertisements ----
http://www.game-archivist.com/rapture ...test_Way_1.jpg ).
- The blueprint shows the unit's engine being where the operator's cabin is in the game. The arrangement looks like some kind of freight 'locomotive' type, which would be used to pull freightcars on the AE track system (or maybe long distance trains of multiple passenger cars).
- The Unit would be loaded with batteries (for extended operating range) in the midsection with a operator cab in the middle or rear end.
Issue of 'charging batteries' :
- Powering the AE 'trains' by burning fuel might be used (compressed oxygen as well a liquid fuel), though venting the exhaust gas to the Ocean at 280+psi would be a significant technical problem. Burning hydrolysis generated hydrogen (burns and byproduct is water vapor which can be condensed into liquid) could work but hydrogen fuel is bulky and doesnt have alot of BTUs for the gases volume.
- Any kind of compressed/liquid gas (using gas expansion and 'air-motors') would face the same venting into sea pressure inefficiencies. Really big, really high pressure tanks are needed to overcome the exhaust problem - tanks need filling which with high pressures means hazards and extra maintenance (...expenses).
- Battery Power - Large banks of batteries (under the floor for the passenger cars and making up much of the volume of a 'locomotive') could work (particularly since the mass of the vehicle has to be over its displacement). Charging them constantly would have to be done (automatic charging pads/rails on the station track, so as not to require manual and constant 'plugging-in' of charging cables). Keeping that mechanism dry and clean and handling the constant submerging in salt water would have to be made to work. 'Pick-up' shoes that engage in-station charging rails might be simplest (ie - practical third rail systems in the real world which work in rain, etc...).
- Rejected ideas :
- Atomic power units - we'll save those for the "Bioshock 5 - On the Moon" game.
- Wound up Giant Rubber bands -- who does the winding ? Actually using ultra-high RPM gyroscopic energy storage was proposed like 15-20 years ago (Popular Mechanics) for things like buses, but those things are like bombs (kinetic energy) and are not quite 'bus mechanic' friendly even today.
- ADAM enhanced Hamsters in those little spinning treadmills... lots of them (who will feed them and clean out the cages???).
Automatic running :
- Trolleys had to avoid running over people, automatic stations stops and waiting for traffic ahead is much simpler.
- Bathyspheres run point to point on cables, so could run without an operator if the on-off cable switch operation could be done consistantly -- nothing the AI brain of a Security Bot couldn't handle.
- Those systems broke down fairly quickly when Civil War curtailed maintenance.
- The trains would always have drivers to handle other contingencies, if not automatic train operation.
- For the MMORPG, there will be drivers/operators for the various transportation vehicles. The City (New Rapture) is getting some of the automatics to work again, but so far is limited to only a few of the main routes. Some of the City Jobs offered (Missions) is to be an operator of the various transit vehicles.
Station Controls:
It is interesting looking at the fake control pannels in the AE stations (missing are the track situation/status boards that railroads usually have, with indicators for track switch positions and track occupation (showing where trains are on the tracks). Still, those are nice Asset bits there that could be used for various 'working' machinery in the MMORPG (as-well-as AE system controls). A Central Dispatcher and Traffic Control would be used for Rapture's trains, and the stations controls are a redundant local set (and since by the MMORPG time the Central System (The Thinker?) is down and any functional AE trackage/trains will be under local 'Tower' Control). Mini-game playing 'Train Dispatcher' would be expected to be included in the 'role playing' activities that demonstrate New Rapture's functioning infrastructure.
62.4 lb/cubic foot (cubic yard = 1684.8 lb) - weight for water displacement (cubic foot of water is heavy...) :
One of the things to consider about all these undersea vehicles is that if they have internal empty volume (ie- the passenger cabin on the AE train cars) they have to have some massive weights somewhere in their structure to prevent them from floating away (need to have less than a neutral buoyancy to stay on the track).
- A heavy steel hull can easily weigh more by just making it thicker (the 600+ft depth works with a steel hull about 1 inch thick (40lb/foot^2) with a more than adequate safety margin. (still not enough though)
- The Trains would be battery powered and those would weight quite alot (heavier than water) and take up much of the space below the passenger cabin deck. The mass of the traincars will be substantial, requiring the tracks to be built able to take the vibrations and acceleration forces used on such masses (if not the real weight).
- The 'empty weight' of the Train cars would have to be heavier than their neutral buoyancy weight to keep them hanging from the track, but unlike the Bathyspheres they need nothing complicated to maintain the neutral buoyancy since all the weight (including added cargo) now is supported by the track.
- The boxcar shown in the diagram could easily carry more than 30 tons of cargo.
Balloon trains :
An alternate design from a downward hanging monorail type (which the Rapture vehicles use - because they come inside, out-of-the-water) -- instead have them hang like a balloon ABOVE a rail (or a slot between 2 rails to restrain their 'floating away'). But it could not come 'inside' (out of the water) or would have to float in a pool of water and people would have to climb up out of the top of it like a modern submarines deck hatch, or it would have to 'dock' outside -- maybe only good for a freight-only system... Maybe have some system like this at one of the mining sites.
Consider that spacecraft or space stations or the vacuum of the moon ( a possible future true 'Bioshock' setting ) only need to contend with a 14.7psi pressure differential (vacuum to 1 atm) and their structure need only be built strong enough to deal with that (vs 280+ psi surface pressure for Rapture at a depth of 600 feet). The Apollo LEMs hull was little more than thick foil (to save weight). Of course you would want to build a real space station with a 600% engineering safety margin (as you would things in Rapture as well) and built with massive shielding for radiation, puncture-proofing and such.
"Millville" one of the City's 'Plazas' (named after Prentis Mill who designed and built the Atlantic Express system ). Lots more locations in Rapture than those shown on the BS1 and BS2 maps (Austen Bathysphere Co and that tiny AE map). Many names are yet to be added for the MMORPG, which would encompass the entire city and outlying sites.
Weird looking Rapture Trolleys :
- That rather odd look of the Trolley (trams) cars (seen near the Olympus Heights/Apollo Square levels in BS1) was probably that way because they (Devs) wanted the style to look to simulate that of the Bathyspheres --- with that odd round door and the spotlight clusters and the brass decorations.
- Those Bizarre short length of those double trolley tracks running to the 'residential areas' (the longest is only ~300 feet long) which is way too short to be useful. The real system would extend through the Plaza/Squares (likely on a lower 'track' level) to continue on to the next Plaza/Square along the 'streets'. Line endpoints would usually have a loop or a switch so the trolley could reverse direction back along the same path on the opposite track. The street Trolley lines would interconnect (criss-cross) most of the City to serve the majority of Raptures 20000 people.
- The station platforms should be match with the Trolley car's door level. The end opening with those weird steps is just wrong (putting the passenger down on the track - trolleys just about always have passengers enter/exit from sides).
- Add Trolley pole for power from overhead wire (batteries never really worked for Trolley systems)... Trolley wire technology was already a well proven 70 years old when Rapture was built. So add the wires also.
AE Station and track layouts on the diagram :
- We usually only saw one 'door' the train went thru in BS2 when going into the ocean. But there would need to be a second door to make a working airlock (to transition back out into the ocean pressure) and even a third door set to make it a safer double airlock. Some train lines could traverse an 'air' tunnel between stations, which would not require any expensive airlocks (though would probably have safety bulkhead doors that would only close in emergencies.
- The AE stations are not small (and the Mk-2 even bigger because of the much larger/longer Mk-2 railcars). They would be located below the Plaza structures (much like some modern train stations), usually in proximity to the seabed which they would usually run along.
- The track structures - piers, switches, wide curves, double tracks, flyovers, station bypasses are all typical railroad arrangements. No rollercoaster tight curves or steep grades.
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End of : *** Transportation Systems ***
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