Pilot Train

This article is about the Pilot Train from the Snowpiercer (TV Series)' Pilot Episode.. You may be looking for the Pirate Train from Season 3.

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The Snowpiercer, known by the fandom as the Pilot Train, is the perpetually moving ark train in the pilot episode of the Snowpiercer TV Series, All That Remains run by Wilford Industries & Transport. Just like the TV Series train, it circles the globe carrying remains of human civilization following the global freezing extinction event seven years prior.

The train appears a-lot different than the TV Series train, appearing to be something that was designed and built as a specifically designed ark instead of a retro-fitted luxury train. The train also has 4 classes excluding the tail, compared to the TV and comic train's 3-class and the movie train's 2-class system. It also has a subtrain like that of the TV Series train, however it's a monorail that runs on a track on the bottom of the sub-train floor rather than one that runs on a track on the ceiling.

History

Background

The train is built for the freeze sometime before CW-7's launch into the atmosphere. The train is in a forest with a compound in it as workers in dark uniforms unloading cargo boxes from CAT-type snow vehicles. The tail cargo loading compound is soon stormed by a mob of angry people that would later become the "prisoners." Security come out from inside the train to hold them back, but a portion of it makes onboard anyway, just as the train departs.

4 years after departure, Pixi is drawered to serve her 3 full-turns for Manslaughter with a Mitigation of Self-Defense.

And after seven years...All that remains is the cold. And the train.

7 years after departure, the train continues it's route, plowing through snow and ice. Aboard the train, everything is going on as usual. However, after serving 3 years for her crimes, Pixi is pulled out of the drawers with assistance from brakemen Till and Osweiller. She returns to the front of the train after a three-year sentence in the prison car and struggles to acclimate to her old life, even with Val and Audrey's help. The next day, Val, a worker in the Night car, as well as Eduardo, is found dead, locked up in the meat locker with their blood smeared onto meat. Melanie Cavill and a few others investigate on their own at first. Lead brakemen Roche, knowing well almost nobody on the train has ever dealt with a murder, sends brakemen Till and Osweiller to investigate residents of car 37, who are "family" members to Eduardo. They meet Avi, Turner, Kadima, Bo and Cleo, whom are questioned for anything that could help solve the murder. Despite all the troubles in the "family," they come together to spit out what they were doing yesterday and last night. Everything lines up: They went to the movies and Eduardo went off to practice his violin afterwards while they came back to their car. The strain in the relationship only grows and grows. The two brakemen go off to call the higher-ups, who then decide to pull a stowaway out of the tail. Former homicide detective Layton Well. He is escorted uptrain to the first class dining car first, where he meets her ex-wife Cleo again. However, this doesn't exactly end well, and he is to be escorted back, but on the way, Till takes them on a detour to the cattle car, questioning Layton and making him investigate the bodies as well as the meat. All hell breaks loose however, as the train hits another ice slide, which causes a Silva, a 4th class worker's bolt gun to end up smashing a hole in the window. After hitting yet another ice slide, the window completely breaks, giving way to the -140 degree air, freezing everything in it's path. Soon afterwards, 10 Breach soldiers arrive, rescuing as much cows as they need, but completely leaving Jack, Bolger and Silva to die. The cows stampede onto a 4th class car, destroying the living pods in it. Osweiller wraps his head and hand in plastic wrap before running into the cattle car, trying to get the breach soldiers' attention. He fails however, and when he tries to return back, Jack, who is about to die, grabs him by the foot and begs him to rescue him. Osweiller has no choice but to unwrap one of his hands, grab Silva's bolt gun and use it on Jack's hand, obliterating it and his foot. He runs back into the butcher's car and shuts the door, rolling on the ground, blackened by frostbite, what’s left of his pulverized foot dangling ugly behind him, sobbing on frozen lungs. Till returns Layton to the tail for the night. The next day, some fourth class passengers including Lilah Anderson are temporarily moved to the tail because of yesterday's incident while LJ is moved to the Nightcar, and some changes are made to 2nd and 3rd class' menu for the week. The bloodied meat is given to the tail to eat. Melanie meets up with Lilah later in the beauty salon, where she does her nails as usual. However, this time Melanie gives Lilah Jack's wedding ring. She says it doesn't matter how she got it, and that she can help her out with anything, but she has to believe in Melanie. She later returns to the engine, the prow of the train, watching as it eats up tracks, miles and time.

Technology

It is unknown about technologies of the train, as it was not focused on as much in the episode, and nor was the pilot continued as the basis of the series.

It seems it is implied that the locomotive runs on a perpetual motion engine, like the one from the film. The prow (control room) is littered with beautiful computer screens, quietly measuring and controlling every possible circuit, fluid, and force. It's described as "Somewhere between The Enterprise, a yacht, and well, the most advanced train in the world." The front of the train has a giant rotary snowplow to clear snow off the track, with a coupler sticking out. There's a giant piston behind the snowplow, with what seems to be pipes stretching across at least half the length of the engine. If the engine doesn't use perpetual motion, we could presume this is where hydrogen is pumped to power the train. It can be presumed the engine (or another car in the train) also convers the collected snow into water.

There are telephones hidden behind Wilford Industries logos like in the film, however they require a key to turn them.

Like the train from the final show, it has a breach detection system across the entire train.

Before the tail cars, there is a bio security car with an enormous shower head at the top. Judging by all the piping and other details, we could theorize this is where water is also treated, like the water treatment section from the film.

Exterior Appearance

The exterior of the train bears an intimidating and terrifying look, like something that was built for the freeze. As mentioned before, there is a giant red rotary snowplow to clear snow off the track, and there's a coupler sticking out. It is unknown if the rotary snowplow actually still operates after 7 years and multiple ice impacts. Above the snowplow is the 3 headlights, the control room and just behind the plow are massive cylinders with what seems to be pipes coming out of it towards the back, presumably where the hydrogen is pumped to power the train. Most of the engine appears to be black or dark gray. Continuing towards the back of the engine, we see some thin windows up top, as well as 3 black domes and some misc greeble. The train overall appears to have a different bogie/wheel set-up/design from the TV-series train. Judging by the concept art (as well as a leaked snippet).

The cars are a different story as they all seem different in concept art. The cars behind the engine seem to match the engine's overall design more (perhaps 1st class?) while in departure concept art they are a different colors and designs. Even the tail cargo cars are different than each other. Although we may never know how they actually look like in the actual episode.

Known cars

• Car 37 is a residence car with 5 residents (6 people before Eduardo's murder) that is about the size of a luxury RV (smaller than an industrial car) and is (according to the script) "3 adjacent sleeping cabins without interior walls." It has a "multi-tiered bed" (a bed with different levels but different to a bunk bed). It is home to a "family" of adults in a polyamorous relationship.
• Car 54 is confirmed to be the meat freezer car.
• Car 55 is confirmed to be the butcher's car.
• Car 56 is a cattle car containing cows (breached).
• Car 57 is confirmed to be at least one of the agricultural cars, which has a large spigot (faucet) that releases "thick black goop," which seems to be their food for cows.
• Beauty Salon Car.
• First class dining Car.
• Aquarium & Sushi Bar Car.
• A movie theater car is hinted at or mentioned multiple times.
• Two swimming pools are mentioned, which hints at there at least being one swimming pool car.
• Night Car (with individual waiting room, sleeping quarters such as 12-N and a corridor around it).
• Prison car (containing drawers, very similar to the one from the movie.)
• A 2-story Brakemen garrison car.
• 4th class quarters.
• There are "transitional/industrial" cars, with one of them being unoccupied and filled with machinery and piping. These could be the original versions of the battery cars from the finalized train.
• Bio security car.
• Tail cars (former animal kennels.)

Known Passengers

• Melanie Caville (First Class)
• Jinju (First Class)
• Sayori (Hospitality member)
• Sam Roche (Lead Brakeman)
• Bess Till (Brakemen)
• Osweiller (Brakemen)
• Eduardo Raggio (4th class?) (Dead)
• Turner (4th class?)
• Avi (4th class?)
• Kadima (4th class?)
• Bo (4th class?)
• Cleo (4th class?)
• Pixi Aairak (2nd/3rd class?/Night car worker)
• Valerie "Val" Childress (2nd/3rd class?/Night car worker) (Dead)
• Bolger (2nd/3rd class? Butcher)
• LJ Anderson (4th class beauty salon worker)
• Jack Anderson (4th class)
• Lilah Anderson (4th class)
• Bolger (4th class)
• Silva (4th class)
• Baptiste (Head chef, 4th class?)
• Dr. Alfredsson
• Magistrate Maki
• *Prison warden (4th class?)
• Layton (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail)
• Josie (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail)
• Fergus (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail)
• Ian (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail)
• Asher (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail)
• Dov (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail)
• Ellie/Harper Girl (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail)
• Damon (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, Layton's brother)
• Mrs. Wu. (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Mr. Davidson. (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Hannah. (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Simon. (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Eli (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Marta (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Eli and Marta's 2 infants (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Rosa. (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Max. (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• John the Welder (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• John Who Smiles. (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Christiana, (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Paolo. (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)
• Gemma. (Prisoner/freeloader in the tail, mentioned by Layton)

*=Name unknown.

Gallery

Images

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  Exterior Concept Art

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  Concept Art

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  Concept Art

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  Leaked screenshot from the episode

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  Cockpit

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  Cockpit Set Blueprints

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  Car 56 (Cattle)

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  Car 56 (Cattle)

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  Car 56 (Cattle) Breached

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  Melanie's Quarters

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  Melanie's Quarters

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  Melanie's Quarters

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  Engine Interior, Looking into Melanie's Quarters

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  Engine Hallway

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  Drawers & Prison

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  Bio Security

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  Agriculture Car

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  Agriculture Car

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  Sub-train

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  Sub-train

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  Beauty Salon

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  1st Class Dining Car

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  Tail

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  Tail

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  Meat Locker

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  Sushi Bar

Videos

File:Pilot.mov

Trivia

• The sub-train carts is "something akin to a series of linked industrialized roller coaster cars," according to the script.
• The layout of the train is very confusing and different from Snowpiercer in the final show. For instance, an agricultural car, a cattle car, butcher's car and a meat locker car are in the first 60 cars, but it's implied first class live in the front. It doesn't make sense for these cars to be this uptrain.
  • However, if the pilot wasn't ditched and continued on to become the first episode of the entire series, we could have gotten a reasoning for why this is.
• The train is implied to complete one revolution every year like the movie train.
• 11 security members were killed during departure.
• The Brakemen (cops of the train) wear maroon uniforms instead of the blue in the finalized train in the TV Series.
• In the leaked content we have of the pilot, it seems the train is referred to as The Snowpiercer, which could potentially mean if the show continued onwards using the pilot, there wouldn't be another train like Big Alice. However, this is up for debate.
• The train is confirmed to have no lab.
• The aquarium car is similar to the one from the movie according to the script, except for the sushi bar that seems more leaning towards the finalized version in the TV series.
• The train has "thick black goop" to feed the cows.
• As mentioned by Maki, they trained a small military after departure after 11 of their security were murdered by "prisoners" who stormed the train without a ticket.
  • While we know absolutely nothing about this military, it could be assumed they're a more or less developed form of Jackboots from the final show.