Big Alice (Engine)

	Big Alice
	Derailed for New Eden colony
	BA-C0001
	The Engine
	Alice, Allie, Old Alice (by Alex)
	~70.8 meters
	~18.1 meters
	~10.6 meters
	BA-C0002 - Headwoods' Lab
	Melanie Cavill Joseph Wilford
	pre - March 16, 2014
	Wilford Industries
	Motive Power, Energy Generation

The Engine also known as Big Alice was the propulsion method of Big Alice. Big Alice was a propulsion method of a secondary supply train of the same name. The Engine was a perpetual motion machine that propelled the train forward with the use of hydrogen gained from the snow outside and without any obvious need for maintenance. The secondary function of the Engine was that of a powerplant for car bogie-motors and on-board batteries. As such, the speed of the train was directly tied to it's power supply.

History

Big Alice was a prototype. It served as a testbed for the "Perpetual Motion Engine" used by the Wilford Industries Global Express, later Snowpiercer. Before The Freeze, it was connected to a 43-car long supply train, that was intended to carry out supply runs to Snowpiercer should it need them along its journey. However, because it was a prototype, the Engine was not operational by the time the train departed, and because they didn't have time to fix it, the Big Alice engine, along with its supply carriages, was abandoned. It was, however, later fixed, presumably by Mr. Wilford and his engineers, because Big Alice later met up with Snowpiercer and as such, it became operational by then. It is also told that they have been enroute for at least 4 years at that point.

The story of Big Alice begins after Snowpiercer has departed. When Melanie Cavill carried out her coup against Wilford, she abandoned him at boarding. Snowpiercer left the station without Wilford, leaving Wilford no other alternative than retrofitting Big Alice to survive. Wilford also appears to have gathered enough Wilford Industries staff to fully crew Big Alice. Alexandra Cavill was with her grandparents and was meant to arrive at Snowpiercer at boarding, but did not arrive in time, she then somehow found her way to Big Alice and survived.

Wilford got Big Alice to low idle and managed to hunker down in a shed for a couple of months. By the time Snowpiercer was on the other side of the world, out of satellite view, Big Alice was repaired, fully outfitted to be operational. According to Alex, Big Alice started with 200 passengers but Wilford culled half of them in order to save resources In the first year after the Freeze, Big Alice had departed with 43 cars, however, 3 cars (one of which was a Lemon) were disconnected on a secondary track in Southeast Asia, near Thailand, when Wilford had made the decision to lose weight, cut down on resource usage and culled half of Big Alice's population at night, when the passengers were sleeping. The ones he saved he deemed The Essentials. The event was called The First Year Cull of Big Alice.

Big Alice then followed Snowpiercer on the mainline (and secondary line shortcuts) for almost seven years, before taking a shortcut over the old Rocky Mountain Test Track, nicknamed Neckbreaker, to get to Snowpiercer.

Snowpiercer was then chased down by Big Alice, which connected through a 'Jack' system, and brought Snowpiercer to a stop. Melanie then cut the uplink, planted a bomb, and got Snowpiercer moving again.

Snowpiercer later invaded Big Alice and captured Kevin, in an attempt to free Melanie from Wilford, but was stopped by Icy Bob. Wilford then stopped the trains again and attempted to disconnect from Snowpiercer, leave the passengers to die, and then return to retrieve the train afterward. However, the bomb that Melanie had planted earlier, destroyed Big Alice's connecting mechanism, as Wilford had overbuilt it, something that Melanie had warned him about before. As a result, Snowpiercer and Big Alice were left permanently connected. With no other choice, Wilford reluctantly started the trains moving again.

Big Alice later helped Snowpiercer get over Neckbreaker, by using its booster, to get Melanie to the Breslauer Weather Station.

Wilford then had Icy Bob walk atop Big Alice and Snowpiercer, to sabotage the Engine, by jamming a giant spike in one of the Engines port intakes (as part of his plan). However, the plan went south, when Wilford could not fix the Engine, because of Melanie's hack. Big Alice was then forced to push Snowpiercer powered down, in order to restart the boogie motors.

When Wilford learned that Snowpiercer was trying to rescue Melanie, he used Big Alice's torque and the momentum to push Snowpiercer over the crest of Neckbreaker, preventing them from rescuing her and presumably killing her.

After Josie Wellstead destroyed The Aquarium and the Pirate Train was created to rescue Melanie, Big Alice was forced to push and pull Snowpiercer without the support of its Engine, until the Pirate Train returned. The train was hobbled and slow as a result. According to Bojan Boscovic, "Big Alice has enough juice for systems to survive...", which meant it was powering Snowpiercer. Big Alice then switched to reverse, headed south bypassing Neckbreaker and began chasing the Pirate Train for 6 months (first by heading south on the Main line, on the east coast, to the tip of South America and then turning north).

After the train's separated, Wilford followed their trail trying to guess intentions, near term destinations versus long term trajectory. Wilford knew he couldn’t catch them and had to intercept.

About 3 months in, Wilford thought he caught a break, a track switch signal near Marseille, Big Alice followed it there but found no sign of the Pirate Train (it was later revealed to be Melanie).

At the start of Season 3, it was shown that the engine of Big Alice alone powered the remaining 1,023 cars. However, without Snowpiercer's engine output, the energy it provided was only enough to run essential systems on the train. As a result, it was minus degrees inside the train and all resources were rationed. First Class on Snowpiercer was even decommissioned by Wilford to save energy.

After detecting an EMP from Big Alice, the Pirate Train returned and engaged in a game of cat and mouse in a rail yard (located in north-east China) where the much smaller and more nimble Pirate Train had the advantage. The Pirate Train attempted to use debris on the track to slow down Big Alice, after passing Big Alice at speed, but it got through. Despite having the upper hand at first due to damaging the other train with a harpoon, resulting in the loss of 4 cars from the Pirate Train, Big Alice's lack of power proved to be a major weakness for Wilford as the train lacked the power to escape on its own, literally crawling up a hill and coming to a stop mere feet away from the parked Pirate Train. Simply bumping Big Alice with Snowpiercer's Engine sent the other train rolling back down the tracks until Wilford applied the brakes and powered down in order to force the Pirate Train to reconnect.

After defeating Wilford and the reconnection of the Pirate Train, Big Alice fell under Andre Layton's control along with Snowpiercer. Wilford himself was imprisoned in a cell in the Engine of Big Alice, while a Brakeman stood guard.

Snowpiercer later came across the 3 abandoned cars disconnected as part of Wilford's cull and dropped off Bennett and Alex to release the clamps, while the train reversed, came back and pushed the cars out of the way. At the same time, Brakemen Michael was guarding Wilford, when Lead Brakemen Sam Roche relived him, attempting to kill Wilford in revenge for the death of his wife, who died in the Drawers. As he recovered, Wilford was transferred to the First Class Library Car on Snowpiercer where he remained imprisoned even after his recovery rather than being returned to Big Alice.

After Layton's takeover of both trains, Mrs. Headwood continued to work in her lab aboard the train, secretly treating Bojan Boscovic for his injuries from the destruction of the Aquarium. During this time, there was also no longer an Engineer manning the Engine, Bennett, Javi and Alex instead working solely on Snowpiercer. When Pike attempted to assassinate him, Layton retreated to Big Alice's Engine with Zarah and their newborn baby girl Liana as it was the safest place on the train. Following Pike's death, Layton and his family moved back into their carriage in First Class.

Following Melanie's return and her betrayal, Layton once again retreated to Big Alice's Engine which he used as his headquarters as he prepared to go to war against Melanie who was working from Snowpiercer's Engine and Wilford who took over the Night Car. Bennett Knox took up driving Big Alice, deliberately slowing the train down to buy them some time as the turn for the Horn of Africa approached.

After the decision was made to separate the trains at Ag-Sec, Big Alice took those who wanted to go to New Eden while Snowpiercer took those who wanted to stay on the train. The bad track to the Horn of Africa derailed Big Alice, but only slightly, with the Engine coming to rest at a walkable tilt and the other visible cars remaining more or less upright. However, the journey also wrecked the old trestle bridge that Big Alice had crossed before derailing. The train and passengers survived and find New Eden to be habitable, emerging safely from Big Alice's halted cars to enjoy the outside world for the first time in years.

Technology

The Engine has a Booster, capable of increasing it's speed in bursts.

The Engine is equip with airlocks on the both sides. Although we only see the left side used, these doors allow personnel such as breachmen, engineers, and passengers to board/exit the train.

Interior

Cockpit

There are two control rooms, the main one at the front and a secondary one at the back. The main control room has an armored door, with the rear has a curtain which separates the secondary control room from Wilford's bedroom.

In a clockwise motion the interior consists of a couch, a kitchen with a bar surrounded by shelves with statues, the door to the Engine, a bookcase and a dining room table with a chandelier in the secondary control room alongside a closet and display case with swords built into the bottom of a fold out bed, a desk with a microphone to the intercom alongside a red phone and a record player in a drawer, a bathroom with a bathtub, a shelve, two chairs and a table in-between with a dimmer switch.

The interior also has a dimmer and is filled with various panting's, artworks, statues, masks and other items.

Exterior

Big Alice is large and boxy similar to a modern diesel locomotive. It is also somewhat larger in comparison to its cars. At the front, the vehicle has a tunnel-like viewing port which connects to the main control room. Just below: the W of Wilford industries along its nose. The front of the engine has 2 large shunting arms which push against the rear of the forward cars. Toward the middle, the engine has railings along its side as well as windows to the inside. On both sides are ground-level airlocks for entering/exiting the train. Atop the vehicle is a main headlight, with two smaller ones along its sides. At the rear of the engine is Wilfords dining room (auxiliary control room). The engine is capable of reversing, traveling bi-directionally. Although the front of the engine has a plow, the rear only is equip with a small frame for impact.

Appearances

Season One

• 994 Cars Long

Season Two

• The Time of Two Engines
• Smolder to Life
• A Great Odyssey
• A Single Trade
• Keep Hope Alive
• Many Miles From Snowpiercer
• Our Answer for Everything
• The Eternal Engineer
• The Show Must Go On
• Into the White

Trivia

• Big Alice was a push-pull type engine with the ability to go forward and backwards at apparently the same speed. This is contrary to the Snowpiercer Engine which is a pull-type engine with the primary ability of pulling it's cars behind it.
• Big Alice was powerful enough to push the entire train of Snowpiercer completely powered down for a short time and push the entire train of Snowpiercer with it's brakes on, because it had more torque (and when it had the momentum) and power Snowpiercer without the Engine.
• In the front cockpit, Alexandra Cavill overhauled a panel and upgraded the interface on the second revolution.
• The front cockpit has 2 whiteboards.
• Both Engines were built with a comms panel for communication (the panel in Big Alice is a red box on the wall, in the secondary control room), but there was a flaw in Big Alice that was fixed on Snowpiercer: if two wires were swapped, Wilford wouldn't know if his comms were on or not. However, Miss Audrey failed her mission and defected.
• The Engine has a brig. There's also a phone near it.
• There is a secret way into the Engine by a hatch, in the floor, in Wilford's closet.
• A whistle can be heard blowing in the beginning of, The Time of Two Engines.
• The public address system was connected to Snowpiercer's at some point, presumably after Wilford took control.
• Wilford hosted book club meetings in the Engine. Which he used to find the original thinkers (among the ones he saved in his cull).
• Among Wilford's paintings are Caesar 1875 by Adolphe Yvon and Napoleon Crossing the Alps. Both were famous conquerors.
• The front cockpit windshield, was cracked by Josie Wellstead with a Pneumatic breach pike.
• Following the defeat of Wilford, Big Alice's Engine appears to be left abandoned for the most part with the Engineers working solely from Snowpiercer rather than on both trains. Which means the systems of both trains, were connected at some point.
• In Born to Bleed, Andre Layton and Zarah Ferami move into the Big Alice Engine for protection after Pike tried to kill Layton. After Pike's death, they move back to their carriage on Snowpiercer.
• In A Beacon for Us All, Layton, Bennett, Zarah, Liana, Till and Josie flee to Big Alice's Engine after Melanie Cavill seizes Snowpiercer's Engine.

Gallery

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  Big Alice at the end of season 1

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  Big Alice departing Chicago

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  Outside

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  Outside

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  Outside

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  Passing by the Forbidden City

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  Big Alice hunting the Pirate train

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  Approaching the old trestle bridge

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  Big Alice derailing

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  Cockpit Interior

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  Behind the scenes Cockpit Interior

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  Secondary Cockpit

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  Big Alice CGI

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  Cockpit Blueprint

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