[gurps] [VEHICLE] of the week 629 – Armored Train Cars

[Onno Meyer]

  This is a weekly posting with GURPS vehicles (and the like) to the 
GURPSnet mailing list. I grant the permission for all non-commercial 
redistribution of my work, but I would like to know if you put it on 
a website or the like. With a slight delay, old vehicles appear
at   http://omeyer.gmxhome.de/GURPSnet_files/summary.html
  Onno Meyer, 2006-11-13

Armored Train Cars v1.0 (TL6)
  Copyright 2006 by Onno Meyer

  Last week, I presented the carriages for a fictional Armored Express 
Train. The two carriages in this installment bring the train closer to 
historical precedents. An armored train might consist of an expendable 
flatcar, a machine gun car, a howitzer car, the engine and coal tender, 
a howitzer car, a machine gun car and another expendable flatcar. This 
train would have a crew of 69 officers and men, with room for about a 
company of dismounting infantry.   

HOWITZER CAR:
  The howitzer car has two 155mm howitzers in cylindrical turrets. Each 
turret is crewed by a gun captain, a gunner and two loaders, with eight 
additional crewmen down in the connecting hull to feed shells into the 
turrets and to provide close-in security. With 70 degrees of elevation 
and almost 300 degrees of traverse, the mounts allow both indirect and 
direct fire. With better armor, weaponry and speed than a contemporary 
tank but without off-road mobility, a direct-fire duel between a train 
and a tank may prove interesting. 
  A full load of ammunition is $26,400.

Subassemblies: Body +5, two full-rotation Turrets +3, eight Railway 
  Wheels +2. 
Powertrain: 4,000-kWs lead-acid battery. 
Occ: 8 NCS [half in Turrets], 8 RSR

Armor           F      RL     B      T      U
Body:          4/60   4/60   4/60   4/50   4/10
Turrets:       4/60   4/60   4/60   4/40
Wheelguards:   4/60   4/60   4/60   4/60
Wheels:        3/10   3/10   3/10   3/10   3/10 

Weaponry
155mm Howitzer [Tur1:F] (60 rounds) +0.
155mm Howitzer [Tur2:B] (60 rounds) +0.

Equipment:
  Body: 16-man environmental controls. Turrets: Universal mounts for 
155mm howitzers; 1-man intercom. External: Hitch; pin; 8 gun ports.

Statistics
Size: 48'x10'x14'   Payload: 10 tons   Lwt.: 80 tons
Volume: 4,300 cf    Maint.: 40 hours   Price: $244,745

HT: 11.   HPs: 4,500 Body, 750 each Turret, 450 each Wheel.

Design Notes
  Body is 3,000 cf. Turrets are 250 cf. Wheels are 800 cf (increased 
volume). Structure is heavy, cheap. Armor is standard metal. 2,175.8 
cf of empty space in the body and 13 cf of empty space in each turret. 
Empty weight is 140,000 lbs. 120 rounds of 155mm HE are stowed in the 
body.

FLATCAR:
  Under ordinary circumstances, the flatcar would carry up to 40 tons of 
cargo. In the armored train configuration, it is loaded with some 5 tons 
of track repair material. The secondary role of the flatcar is to act as 
an expendable mine detector. While the flatcar would not protect a train 
at high speed, the armored cars might escape damage if the train moves 
along carefully.

Subassemblies: Body +5, four Railway Wheels +2. 
Cargo: 4,000 cf open

Armor      F      RL     B      T      U
Body:     3/15   3/15   3/15   3/15   3/15
Wheels:   3/10   3/10   3/10   3/10   3/10 

Equipment:
  External: Hitch; pin.

Statistics
Size: 30'x10'x10'   Payload: 40 tons    Lwt.: 55 tons
Volume: 2,400 cf    Maint.: 132 hours   Price: $22,850

HT: 10.   HPs: 3,000 Body, 600 each Wheel.

Design Notes
  Body is 2,000 cf. Wheels are 400 cf. Structure is heavy, cheap. Body 
armor is open-frame, standard metal and wheel armor is standard metal. 
Empty weight is 30,000 lbs.

Weapon         Weight Volume Cost    Power WPS VPS CPS  TL
155mm Howitzer 5,200  104    $27,000   -   140 1.4 $220 6

Weapon         Ammo  Malf. Type Damage     SS Acc 1/2D  Max   IFR    RoF 
155mm Howitzer HE    crit. exp. 6d*29[10d] 30 14  1,400 5,900 14,750 1/8

  The TL6 vehicles use the design rules from Vehicles [second edition, 
third printing, Dec 2004 errata], VXi and VXii with the text format from 
Vehicles Lite. Following a precedent from W:MP, they ignore the rules on 
maximum tow weight (which do not work properly for trains).


Next Week: A mixed-TL schooner for Traveller.