Railway campaign

[.45cultist]

Originally Posted by Targan

One great thing about rail lines is that so much of the material involved is reusable. Track ballast, sleepers and rails on rail lines not in use can all be ripped up and used to repair and maintain more critical rail lines.

Like any other venture, that could be an adventure in itself.

[unkated]

Sitting available in Warsaw (unless the Polish government pulled it out of the museum and put it back in the field somewhere in 1996/7)...

Panzertriebwagen 16 (PzTrW 16)

Uncle Ted

[LT. Ox]

this week. fifty plus locos stored here in Grand Junction Colorado.
Hump yard in operation and a check on goggle for "rail trucks" will show just a small percentage of vehicles that are both road and rail cap.
laugh also a lot of the rail stuff is adaptable to military equipment. Not that it would be used but it could be used.
Seems like a fun idea to work up for any of the time lines.
say you are a small group and in need of employment? perhaps someone wants a line cleared between a and b.
guard the workers etc.
I am a railnut and modler so I like the idea a lot.
Had a lot of fun doing the goggle earth of my Grandfathers section of track From Arkansas to Ruston La. It is shut down now but still owned and somewhat intact.

[rcaf_777]

Originally Posted by unkated

Sitting available in Warsaw (unless the Polish government pulled it out of the museum and put it back in the field somewhere in 1996/7)Ted

Here what the train looks like IRL couldn't see how much track is around the site, which of course would love limited its movement

[Legbreaker]

For some reason this made me think of this thread.
https://media.giphy.com/media/xTka04...ivDO/giphy.gif

[unkated]

Originally Posted by rcaf_777

Here what the train looks like IRL couldn't see how much track is around the site, which of course would love limited its movement

Hmmm. Looking at the Warsaw railway Museum, it's some 800 m east of Warszawa Zachodnia (Warsaw West) station, which is described as one of the major rail stations in Warsaw. Tracks for the commuter rail run alongside the museum (heading east), as well as a number of spur tracks leading to it (the museum dates to 1931).

Update after looking at Synopsis of Ruins of Warsaw: It is also about as far west of the Palace of Culture and Sciences - Baron Czarny's HQ. If that building is intact enough, there is some hope for the train...

Warszawa Zachodnia station seems a fairly major junction, but 2400 m west of it is what looks like a large marshalling yard.

This should show the Museum; the blue box near the center of the screen (west of the museum) is Warszawa Zachodnia station (click on it). Reduce the scale and look further west to see the marshalling yard.

Now, I wish I was home and could dig out one of the Warsaw modules to see how this relates to those maps.

I would guess that ...

The marshalling yard would have been, either by a small nuke or by a conventional strike. Odds are good that there would have been a strike at the rail junction west of the station, too (unless the marshalling yard had been hit by a small nuke, which would have probably done for the junction.

Update after looking at Synopsis of Ruins of Warsaw: Warsaw was nuked and pretty hard according to canon. I'd need to look out the modules to see if they mention where the strikes were, but I'd say the marshalling yard is a good target.

Possibility 1: The armored train was put back in service shortly after hostilities in Poland started, and was not in Warsaw by the time airstrikes started. (Players could find it in a rail yard in some secondary city in Poland, abandoned without fuel; or it could be in active use, and stealing or hijacking it could be its own adventure).

Possibility 2: The armored train is ignored in the museum. The players could come across it in the aftermath of one of the Warsaw adventures. If the strike against the rails were conventional, it is possible that...

a. Locals fixed enough track to get one line through the tangle of rail at the junction and/or the marshalling yard (a fun problem could be handing them a map of the rail lines and figure out how to get where they need to go; just don't mark broken sections of track.....)

This could be done at the order of Baron Czarny, and not be a particular choice of the locals... "The faster you work, the faster you get out of the hot zone..."

b. The PCs get/force a crew of locals to make enough repairs to get the train out.

c. Despite the strikes, it is possible to find a rail path through to take the train out. It would take an amount of time surveying the tracks close to some of the (nuke) strikes...

of course, there is the issue of time and effort required to turn the train from museum piece back to working, armed Panzertriebwagen.

If you add stealing the train just as Baron Czarny gets it operational to Ruins of Warsaw...

But if you gt it running and out of the station, you can use Last Train to Clarksville played by tuba and trombone with bass drum and tympanies as a soundtrack...

But the train may glow a bit at night....