I've thought about the locomotive last night and risen some questions and observations:
I've distributed the locomotive's sections into 5 parts:
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/3151/k8xe.pngA - Nose: It's is either bulbous or water drop shaped probably for aero dynamic issues as it could travel 300-450Km/h. It could also help get through few meter large snow blockades. Still it is bigger then the locomotives other parts!
A/1.: Snow Prowler: Very logical and makes the locomotive even more aero dynamical apart from it's use to help clear snow from the rails
A/2.: Buffer: Nothing out of the ordinary except it's size which is bigger than a normal train's, also the front lacks and couplings but that could have been behind the nose to reduce air drag, like on the Japanese Shinkanzen and Bullet Train locomotives.
A/3.: Bulbous Nose and the "Red Eye": Why is it this big? What is behind it? And the "Red Eye"? Could there been a secondary boiler in the front of the locomotive to post heat the steam? That could solve the eye's purpose showing if the boiler is working or not, yet how does it feed? Via some sort of conveyors maybe? It looks logical that way so the large and long locomotive's steam would not lose it's heat and thus pressure.
Of course there could be another explanation that the front of the locomotive is actually the Boiler Room. This could explain the weird boiler room screen arrangement where the firemen and the "commander" not facing the same way!
Both explanation have it's merit yet there is one more thing:
- The two tank looking things on the sides which ends in the smaller funnels could be actually the locomotive's water supply. They are very big and have a small circular shaped door like things on them which could serve for the water to be replenished. Big enough to provide enough water for the locomotive to travel far and saves precious space for the coal in the Tender. Or:
- These are actually the coal storage of the locomotive and the tender is the water source. This explanation could only hold on if the front is used as a boiler room, as on the artistic drawings like on the intro screen and ingame the Tender sure carries coal. Or:
- It just carries partially the coal or water for the travel while the tender carries the rest. Or:
- As they each have it's own funnel they could be actually steam tanks where the locomotive stores it's excess steam which then will be used to run the pistons, and this makes sense for the front have a boiler to keep this steam hot enough.
Either way it is the most puzzling part of the locomotive!
A/4.: Primary "Big" Funnel: While it sure gives the Transarctica an impressive look the size of it actually more of a problem then a benefit. It causes air drag and thus it slows the train down even if it's aero dynamical, not to mention it requires large tunnels and stations for it to enter and rest. Maybe at those times the funnel become smaller, as it looks like it could not be bent on the back of the locomotive maybe it is telescopic and shrinks when entering tunnel or railway station. Still such tall funnel is not necessary except for intimidation.
A/5.: Secondary "Small" Funnels: These are again another weirdness on this locomotive! If they are truly funnels then why need 3 of them? Maybe they are helping removing the excess and used Steam as they are both located on the side and on the Tank like objects. Yet they could be giant whistles so the train's sound could be heard far away telling the people a train is coming
B - Middle SectionEverything looks normal except the lack of sand and steam domes and the size of the boiler.
B/1.: Missing Objects: The lack of steam domes could mean nothing as they could have been hidden beneath the spine on top of the boiler, while the sand domes could be those box like object on top of the 2nd big wheel. Even an 1000ton vehicle too needs sand to give extra adhesion for the wheels especially in an snowy and icy environment. On the other hand the cylinder tank like object could be the oil storage for the use for the moving mechanical parts.
B/2.: Boiler Room: The aft boiler room looks normal too and it provides size chart for the entire locomotive if we took that the door is 2meters in height. But on the battle-screen this part of the locomotive seems to be missing or wrongly drawn.
C - WheelsWell what is obvious is the number of wheels and their size.
C/1.: Wheel Number: It is weird that on this drawing the Transarctica only have 5 pair of wheels (4-4-2-0) while on the battle-screen more then twice as much (4-6-12-0 or 4-6-6-4-4-0). This could mean that the either the drawings made earlier and they forgot to change the battle screen unit picture or on the other way around meaning the drawings made later. The longer locomotive in the battle-screen looks more in the zone of 1000tons then this "smaller" one not to mention less wheels means more weight on each wheel. This is quite puzzling!
C/2.: Wheel Size: This is the other obvious thing. It corresponds well with the battle-screen version and also logical that a larger locomotive to gain more power could use more wheels or bigger wheels or both. The large wheels, if we take account the boiler room's door size of 2meters, are around 5-6 meters in diameter while the smaller leading ones are around 2-3 meters. In real life the average wheel size of driven wheels are around 1.5-2 meters, of course there were large driven wheeled ones but those only had 1-2 pairs of them.
D - TenderNothing really out of the ordinary, though it's shape is different than from the ingame versions having more box like appearance like those of the 4-8-8-4 Big Boys and don't have empty space between them and the locomotive which could create vortexes or swirls of air when the train moves at high speeds. They are even protecting the crew and have a safer way to get from the Locomotive to the other wagons of the train. They also have 2-2 axes of wheels rather 3-3 axes.
From all of this projections and the other screens of the game, the temperature of this frozen Earth is very low probably below -10 Degrees Celsius, maybe even to the Syberian colds of -50-70 Degrees Celsius!
Also I really love the human brain in this aspect that based on previous knowledge and the ability to create projections together with a logical sense about them on unknown things is really something!
