Icebreaker

...

The Icebreaker (aka Snowpiercer 2) is a high-tech luxury train built to resist extreme weather conditions, and was the second of the ten trains to be built in the Graphic Novels. It is also the primary train used in three of the volumes, The Explorers, The Crossing, and Terminus.

The exact size and length of the train is unknown, however it was shown in The Explorers that it is much larger than the original Snowpiercer.

The train appears to contain very few windows, with only a front-facing window on both engines, and a single observation car with a large glass roof. This has caused a small group of conspiracy theorists onboard the train to believe they were not on a train, but were instead on a space-ship, which they dubbed as 'Spacepiercer', this did not last long however, as the leader of the theory was later attacked by guards for unrelated reasons.

Technology

The icebreaker contains two nearly-identical engines, one at each end of the train. Each engine is equipped with a set of three giant snow-plows, which allow the train to break through snow and ice with ease. The front-facing window on the engines have a shutter on them, allowing them to be covered up if the windows were to be damaged. Each bogie on the train appears to have 14 wheels total (7 on each side). Each car appears to have at least one door leading outside, which is placed halfway up the side, these doors are shown to have railings on the walls next to them, which allow for the Explorer team to hook on and lower themselves down, as there are no ladders shown.

The front engine is equipped with a set of two cranes, with a retractable hatch on the top of the engine that allows the engine to pick up and store large objects, however it's unclear if the rear-engine also contains these cranes. The rear-engine contains what appears to be a machine gun on the top, which was used in The Explorers in an attempt to shoot down Puig while he was flying one of the train's aircrafts. The use of two engines appears to allow for extra power to the train, allowing the Icebreaker to slow down, or even stop entirely. It is shown that the engines have a radio system to allow communication between each engine, which is also capable of picking up signals from great distances.

Inside the train, there is a variety of entertainment technologies around, including a TV service, virtual holidays, and a salon. The TV service has a host called Ethan Overmars, however it is later revealed that this is actually a puppet, and is a secret known by only first class. The virtual holidays seem to place you inside a glass dome, with what appears to be video footage playing all around you, making it similar to a 360 cinema. These virtual holidays are often given away in raffles. The Icebreaker also appears to have its own form of the drawers, however unlike the Movie or TV Show, they don't appear to put the user into suspension, as Puig is shown to wake from them without any outside influence.

The Icebreaker has a team of 'Explorers' which is a specialised team equipped with cold suits. The train would occasionally stop at notable locations and send out the team, where they would search for any special artifacts to bring back, such as old paintings. The explorers also had some other tools at their disposal, including weapons, an aircraft, ropes, and deployable lasers. It was mentioned that most of the aircraft was lost, making them much more valuable.

During The Crossing, the train was revealed to have 'tyre chains' in the first 25 cars, which would allow them to leave the rails once deployed, however this required cutting off the rest of the train, and significantly reduces their speed down to just 24mph. While crossing over the frozen ocean, it was also shown that the engine has a pair of lasers integrated in the front, which they used to blow up a chunk of ice.

Known cars

• Coach 4 is shown to be an observation car, and is the only known car available to passengers containing a window.
• Coach 27 is confirmed to contain Drawers

Trivia

• While the size of the train is never mentioned, it appears to run on similar tracks to the trains from the TV Show (~6M wide)
• The train has no visible headlights, making it unclear how they see the tracks at night.
• Using the limited info given by the books, you can estimate the train to be somewhere around 140-150 cars long.
  • When the train was split in half, the connection between coach 68 and 69 was cut, which gives a good estimate to the length of the train.
• The design for the icebreaker often changes between pages, it's unclear why this is.
  • The engine has occasionally been shown with three bogies, despite it usually having only two.
• The Icebreaker has sustained the most damage out of all the trains in the franchise. The known incidents are as follows:
  • Head-on collision with another train
  • Small grenade explosion
  • Large grenade, destroying at least 3 cars and causing the train to split in half
  • Impact from automatic warship cannon, causing the train to split into just 10 cars
  • Gunshot to front-engine window
  • Multiple impacts from tipping over
  • Direct collision with ~5M thick ice, permanently disabling the train.
• While the crew were aware of the first Snowpiercer, they didn't seem to be aware of the other engines.

Gallery

• 

  A front-view of the engine

• 

  Closeup of the front-engine

• 

  Side-view

• 

  The rear-engine, showing the mounted gun

• 

  Closeup of one of the coaches

• 
• 

  The engine tipping over during the crossing

• 

  An exposed coach, after being blown up

• 

  The Icebreaker salvaging the empty Snowpiercer