The X-Rail is a underground railway system used by the United States for transporting supplies.
History[]
Area 7[]
At some point after the Cold War, an X-rail system was established between the Air Force bases Area 7 and Area 8, as well as a loading dock situated at Lake Powell. It would be used to frequently bring in supplies to both bases.
During Caesar's coup d'état against the President at Area 7, his 7th Squadron's Delta unit waited in ambush on the X-rail platform, where they had already wiped out the President's Secret Service advance team, and managed to cut down Francis Cutler and a few others when they emerged onto the platform.
When Gunther Botha let the Reccondos in to Area 7 via the emergency exit vent, they emerged onto the X-rail platform and quietly took down the Delta unit. Once they had retrieved Kevin and the Sinovirus vaccine, they used one of the X-rail carriages to escape to Lake Powell.
Soon afterwards, Shane Schofield led the President and the rest of their group to the X-rail in the hopes of escaping Area 7 and attempt to catch Botha. However as they were preparing a set of carriages, they came under fire from Bravo unit. A set of grenades forced most the of the group from the carriage, and Schofield reluctantly decided to continue after Botha while Gant led the others to safety.
Later, Echo unit would use the X-rail to reach Area 8 as they made their attempt to abscond with the boy. Schofield, the President, Mother and Tate soon began pursuing them on another railcar.
Once Area 7 was set to self-destruct, Schofield and Gant decided to use the X-rail to escape the blast, since they would not otherwise be able to escape the blast radius in time. Using the X-rail's maintenance vehicle, as it was the only X-railcar left, and the faster vehicle was narrowly able to reach the destruction, taking the two Marines to Lake Powell.
Attributes[]
Based partly on Japanese bullet trains, the X-rails are comprised of one or two carriages, pulled by a single engine, connected via an accordion-like passage. The X-rail's railcars can easily reach speeds of 200 miles per hour. The maintenance vehicle, meanwhile, is one-third of the size of the standard X-rail engines, and is capable of reaching greater speeds as a result.
Because they run faster than any standard subway car, the X-rail engines and railcars are mounted on four rails; two on the ceiling and two on the ground, to maintain stability. It is the appearance of the x-shaped mountings to the rails that gives the X-rail its name.
Trivia[]
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