Having played Metro: Exodus recently a good thing was when the party started out with just the engine and tender itself rather than the whole train and then added cars they found elsewhere.
Now, you can't actually do it like in the game as trains nearly never have a big enough platform for the operators and any meaningful load, it would be less than the inside of a humvee. However if you gave them say just the engine/tender combination and a flatcar they could start off with perhaps a box formwork and sandbags and then you can let them add carriages as they go. This actually makes sense as rolling stock is immensely valuable and usually salvaged within an inch of its life if damaged so it should be very rare.
Now add cars. The first car would probably be a boxcar or a passenger carriage. As they don't have the workcar yet they can't do fancy armour but don't forget a flat car can carry about 80 tonnes (80,000kg) when pulled by a steam train and Poland is very flat, so the problem here isn't going to be weight but rather width of armour and internal area. As one of our posters pointed out some time ago it takes a three sandbag thickness wall to be reasonably safe from rifle calibre (7.62mm) rounds, that leaves very little room inside.
Casting about there's an obvious answer; concrete. Concrete only needs 75mm/3" to stop 7.62 x 51mm rounds and if the concrete has a high density of aggregate reinforcement this will break up the rounds and be even more effective (this system was used in WW2 "plastic armour" for merchant ships and was bitumen containing heavy amounts of dolorite road base chips, all held against the superstructure with plywood formboards. It not only stopped the rounds but also snapped off the tips of AP rounds). Remember that automatic weapons attack cover like a jackhammer, they smash the wall until they chew away the protection so embrasures should eventually have metal reinforcement. While simple letter box slits can be made (these are what give pillboxes, a contraction of the term "pillar box", its name) but the firing ports from early IFVs can be chopped out and installed as well. The BMP 3 has them for PKMs!
After the players have built this, tasks involving civil/combat engineering, carpentry and metalworking skills, let them find the work car. This should be the culmination of a hard adventure involving detective work, diplomacy and serious fighting. Once they have this prize they can do some serious armouring and chopping up MBTs and APC/IFVs for armour, mounting turrets and other rail-based battleship stuff is within their reach.
An artillery car usually had two guns in rotating turrets if possible, however one gun and a local defence station was common as well. These guns are run like a battery and need a battery command car (which can replace a local defence station) for targeting and so on. Similarly a mortar car, probably more useful than a howitzer car as the ammo is more abundant, is possible and once again the mighty 2B9M Vasilek screams to be used here but the French Brandt 60mm gun/mortar would be good as well if the GM feels the 2B9M is too powerful. Nearly all these cars, like all cars, also had LMG embrasures and rifle embrasures. Yugoslav trains had twin aero rocket pods in open mounts for serious area saturation (if you've never seen these Soviet monsters been fired check out one of the many youtube videos. They're more like a shotgun)
Twilight 2000 being what it is a medical bay will be needed. If clearly marked all main force enemies will try and refrain from targeting this car but marauders or stragglers should be handled on a case by case basis. It needs wide doors to get stretcher cases in and should also have the living quarters for the medical staff. Of all cars this and the engine should be gasproofed first.
The command car can be part of the passenger car. Here the train is "conned", targets are identified and threats assessed. This is where an officer NPC should be as they fight their battle and update the tactical specialists to the shifting battle conditions and keep them on-mission. This individual makes the call when the train is moved.
Those flatbeds that can carry 80,000kg? Yes, there's no MBT that weighs that much. An MBT can be dragged along at the rear of the train and with the right ramp gear can detrain itself although usually an unloading team and ground guides are needed. Even if they don't have the fuel to manouevre they can be unloaded and driven to an overwatch position with an accompanying security team of infantry. This is one of the few ways you can keep your Abrams in play. Of course if you have the length you can drag all sorts of vehicles along to extend the reach of the characters, but having never unloaded a train I'll leave the process to some of the wise people here.
A flat car of rail ties and timbers gets added at some point.
A horse box gives the players a cavalry contingent that is sheltered from splinters and small arms fire.
Finally, you must have a scout vehicle(s).
Due to the nature of the vehicles they should have originally been four wheeled vehicles, 6x6 or 8x8 don't really work and tracks require making an entirely new lower chassis, and should ideally be former APCs or IFVs. These can also drag rail trailers of up to 10 tonnes (10,000kg) load and use a tiny amount of fuel. Nazi Germany would have two to four of these little things that worked in teams, a scout team and a support team of which two would have turrets. These check out the tracks ahead, go down side rails to see what's there and also which line of track is the least dangerous or damaged. Stations, always a danger spot, should be carefully checked out and a foot sweep is almost mandatory.
Back to Metro: Exodus.
While I like the game you can't really lounge against the side of the engine, that thing is full of pipes of boiling steam and even spaced armour will get absurdly hot.
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