Train Wagons

Wagons turn a locomotive into a home, workplace, hospital, workshop, or mobile base. The catalogue below describes shared wagon types for the setting. It is not a requirement that every train carry every module: trains vary according to wealth, faction, route, mission, and available space.

The locomotive’s Perpetual Ember Core already provides baseline propulsion, power, heating, snow-to-water processing, and basic communications. Those functions do not require separate basic power, water, or communications wagons. See Trains and the Perpetual Ember Core for details.

Core modules

These seven wagons form the starting roster for a well-equipped, privately funded train. They are a baseline, not a mandatory configuration for every train in the world.

Wagon	Purpose and considerations
Living Wagon	Provides basic accommodation and practical shelter for ordinary crew members and passengers. Basic sanitation is integrated into living arrangements for now rather than requiring a dedicated sanitation wagon.
Elite Housing Wagon	Provides private rooms, greater comfort, privacy, and better accommodation for wealthy owners or privileged guests. Many privately funded trains are founded by elites who expect comfort aboard.
Dining Wagon	Houses food preparation and shared meals. Social hierarchy may result in separate dining arrangements or different levels of service for elites and workers.
Greenhouse Wagon	Grows vegetables and other suitable crops, reducing reliance on external food supplies. It consumes heat, water, labour, and maintenance, so it does not make a train food-independent.
Cargo Wagon	Stores and transports Food, Soft Materials, Hard Materials, Parts, trade goods, and recovered resources. Cargo capacity is a key constraint on long journeys and trade operations.
Medical Wagon	Treats injuries, illness, frostbite, and expedition casualties. Its effectiveness depends on staff, supplies, and equipment.
Workshop Wagon	Holds tools and parts and supports repairs, fabrication of basic items, and construction or maintenance work. It does not replace the more specialized production capacity of a Factory Wagon.

General unlockable wagons

These wagons extend a train’s capabilities and are available in principle to groups that can obtain the required knowledge, materials, and expertise. They are not tied to a single faction.

Wagon	Purpose and considerations
Improved Water Recycling Wagon	Recycles and purifies used water, reducing dependence on snow intake. It supplements rather than replaces the locomotive’s snow-to-water system.
Recovery Wagon	Carries cranes, winches, and heavy recovery equipment for extracting wrecks and machinery, and potentially recovering damaged wagons.
Factory Wagon	Manufactures selected components or equipment from raw materials and recovered scrap. It reduces dependence on settlements for some goods but still needs inputs, energy, skilled operators, and maintenance.
Advanced Communications Wagon	Extends the locomotive’s basic radio capabilities, supporting longer-distance communications and signal analysis.
Research Wagon	Provides dedicated space and equipment for experiments involving embers, old technology, the environment, and the Great Forge.
Armoury Wagon	Stores and maintains weapons, ammunition, armour, and protective equipment for soldiers. It is distinct from a Military Wagon, which is focused on personnel, command, and operations.
Specialist Wagon	Provides insulated equipment storage, suit maintenance, a preparation area, and expedition supplies for Specialists working outside the train in lethal cold. It supports field teams but does not itself provide the team’s skills.
Exploration Wagon	Carries and maintains a compact self-propelled rail scout cart that can be deployed with one person or a small team to travel independently along compatible tracks for short scouting missions. It can inspect routes ahead, identify hazards and points of interest, and report information back within limited communication range. Its power, range, protection, and cargo capacity are limited; it cannot travel off-track, haul full-sized wagons, or replace a Recovery Wagon.
Ember Station Wagon	Carries a deployable standalone heating unit. The unit can be unloaded beside the tracks to provide a temporary source of heat around which survivors can establish a small camp or settlement. Crafting the unit consumes an Ember and requires Hard Materials for its housing and support equipment. Its heat output, operating duration, radius, and recovery requirements remain undecided.

The Exploration Wagon supports short-range reconnaissance without exposing the whole train. Its scout cart runs on existing compatible rails and has limited independent power and communications. Weather, terrain, track damage, and distance can prevent a safe return. Exact range, crew capacity, costs, and unlock conditions remain undecided.

The Ember Station Wagon lets a train establish a temporary heat source without remaining parked beside the camp indefinitely. The deployable unit consumes an Ember during crafting and uses Hard Materials for its construction. It can support a small temporary settlement, but warmth alone does not provide food, water, shelter, or long-term self-sufficiency. Whether the unit can be retrieved and reused, and how long it can operate, remain open design questions.

Faction-associated wagon types

Four additional types are currently in the catalogue. They are associated with factions whose needs make them especially relevant, but a wagon type can be shared or adapted by other groups. These are not exclusive faction technologies.

Wagon	Primary associations	Purpose and considerations
Church Wagon	Church of the Last Flame	A mobile sanctuary for worship, religious instruction, sacred objects, and shelter for accepted followers. It extends the Church’s presence along the railway.
Military Wagon	American Continuity and other military powers	A fortified carriage for military personnel, command equipment, and tactical coordination. Its layout varies with the operator. It is distinct from an Armoury Wagon, which stores and maintains equipment.
Salvage Processing Wagon	Craterborn; possible Iron Compact variants	Processes recovered wreckage, separates valuable components, and prepares materials for reuse. It complements rather than replaces a Recovery Wagon, which is designed to retrieve wrecks and heavy machinery.
Boarding Wagon	White Wolves and other raiding or assault groups	Carries boarding parties and equipment used to transfer between trains during hostile encounters. Other military forces could use more disciplined variants.

Locomotive upgrades, not wagons

Some capabilities belong to the locomotive rather than requiring another carriage. In particular, snow clearing is a front-mounted locomotive upgrade, not a separate wagon. The locomotive can also receive improvements to power distribution, capacity, snow-to-water output, and communications support.

The Core’s ordinary functions remain part of the locomotive. An Improved Water Recycling Wagon improves water reuse; an Advanced Communications Wagon extends communications; neither is required for the basic train to have water processing or radio communication.

How wagons are acquired

Three acquisition paths are part of the current design framework:

Research and build: research establishes the knowledge or design needed, but construction still requires materials, suitable facilities, and skilled labour.
Purchase: a settlement or faction may sell a wagon or provide a commissioned build, in exchange for resources or other value.
Salvage and restore: a train may recover an abandoned or damaged wagon, then repair it and replace missing systems. Rare technology may be found this way, but restoration is not guaranteed to be easy.

These paths are broad world and game-design principles. Progression tiers, prices, research requirements, and exact unlock conditions remain undecided and should not be inferred from this catalogue.