The Engine also known as The Eternal Engine is the propulsion method of Snowpiercer. The Engine is a perpetual motion machine that propels the train forward with the use of hydrogen gained from the snow outside the train and without any obvious need for maintenance.
The secondary function of the Eternal Engine is that of a powerplant for car bogie-motors[1] and on-board batteries. As such, the speed of the train is directly tied to its power supply.
History[]
Little is known about the history of The Engine or its perpetual motion technology. Before developing this class of Engines, there was at least one prototype built,[2] the prototype was later used with the supply train known as Big Alice.
While Wilford created the technology, Melanie was the one who built The Eternal Engine, which Wilford took credit for.
In The Time of Two Engines, Melanie states that she drained Snowpiercer's batteries too much trying to escape from Wilford. As a result, the train can not restart moving on its own without moving to generate new electricity. While traveling through Neckbreaker, Snowpiercer had to shut down power to First and Second and put the passengers into muster stations in order to deal with the power loss of traveling at a much slower speed even with the boost from Big Alice as well as transfer the power needed to make the journey to Big Alice.
After receiving supplies from Big Alice, the Engine appears to have been at least partially repaired, although it is not back to full running capacity. As a result, Snowpiercer is capable of moving on its own again somewhat with Alex noticing when the train is forced to slow down due to damage to the water intakes on the Engine. This suggests that Big Alice recharged or replaced some or all of Snowpiercer's batteries at some point after the two trains connected.
After Wilford takes full control of both trains, Andre Layton, Bess Till, Josie Wellstead, Bennett Knox and Alexandra Cavill steal the Engine and the following nine cars of Snowpiercer, creating a ten car Pirate Train powered by the Engine Eternal. Without the Engine's power, the train left behind is powered solely by Big Alice's Engine, leaving the train with freezing conditions and low power while the Pirate Train runs hot due to the Engine still having to power ten cars while standing stationary, waiting for the return of Ben and Josie, unable to vent. The Eternal Engine had to do cooling runs, moving back and forth to prevent overheating. During a game of cat and mouse between the Pirate Train and Big Alice in a rail yard, the Engine's power made the short 10-cars long Pirate Train faster and more nimble than Wilford's train, at one point knocking Big Alice backwards down the track after the other train is "tapped out" during Wilford's attempt to escape. Following Wilford's defeat and Layton reclaiming both trains, the Engine is reconnected to Big Alice and Snowpiercer, restoring full power to both trains.
Later, Big Alice with some of Ag-Sec, separates from Snowpiercer and heads for New Eden. Leaving the Engine, to power Snowpiercer by itself again, but this time with improved energy distribution and solid numbers, from loss of weight, thanks to parts supplied by Big Alice's supply train.
Technology[]
As mentioned previously, the Engine is using a hydrogen perpetual motion technology with energy siphoned to provide electricity, waste heat is also distributed throughout the train. A series of ports, intakes snow to be converted to hydrogen, it's offshoot water supplies water for the train. The average speed of the train appears to be around 170km/h or 106mph. While perpetual in motion, the maximum speed of the train is 200km/h[1]. While moving through the mountainous Yukon Territory, the Engine was using all of its power to move the train, and little to no energy was left to provide the electricity, as such, the train had to use its onboard batteries.
Mr. Wilford's signature on the blueprint.
When Javier De La Torre suggested slowing down, as such at its current speed Snowpiercer was causing numerous avalanches, Melanie Cavill notes that she cannot allow that, as it would cause blackouts. After the train was hit by Class 3 avalanche, Snowpiercer slowed by 12%, which caused numerous blackouts as the batteries were already nearly depleted. The train also has a "dead-minimum speed" at which it can run; but if the engine slows down any further, its possible the perpetual motion Engine would cut off as it cannot produce sufficient electricity at very low speeds. From on-screen evidence, this appears to be around 40km/h.
As later revealed by Melanie and Miles, the train's speed becomes a tiny bit slower with each revolution (after 8 years, it is 22 hours off from average in These Are His Revolutions) and it is on the Engineers to reverse that "because if Snowpiercer stops, we all die." Also according to Bennett Knox, while the engine is perpetual its parts are not, they will eventually wear out and require replacing.
Stopping the train for short periods appears to be possible as the train was halted by Big Alice twice (in 994 Cars Long & The Time of Two Engines). Also Alexandra Cavill told Snowpiercer, they have 13 minutes to surrender before the cold overcomes and they all freeze to death. When stopped, the train remains powered on its on-board batteries. But with less cars connected, this time appears to be much longer. When the Eternal Engine was only powering the 10-car Pirate Train, they have stopped for at least half an hour, waiting for Ben and Josie to return. (We know that because Ben and Josie had 30 minutes of power in their suits, meaning they had to return after that. Actually they have stopped for more than 30 minutes because Josie went outside to rescue Ben.). The engine could provide some degree of power to the cars even while being stationary, although it heated up severely due to the lack of ability to vent excess heat, and had to do venting runs.
The Engine server room contains two levels, accessible with a ladder and two doors at either end of the lower level. The Wilford Industries Digital Automation System (The Engine's brain), is capable of sending and receiving thousands of messages per second and contains a Self Regulating Harmonic Module (The God Module). The God Module is responsible for hydrogen production which powers the Engine. It was damaged by Icy Bob on the order of Wilford in The Eternal Engineer resulting in severe flooding and Snowpiercer venting water after a railroad spike was jammed into the vent. Both jamming the vent open, and damaging the component of The God Module connected to the vent. This would lead to Wilford taking control of Snowpiercer, as he was the only person who knew how to fix the problem.
After being disconnected from the main train to power the much smaller Pirate Train, the Engine began running hot and was referred to by Bennett Knox as now being a 'Ferrari', by Alexandra Cavill as a jet engine strapped to a toy wagon' and by Sykes as a bullet train sauna'. In addition, it is capable of coming to a full stop and then moving again with the issue being how much energy it could store before it was vented and running the risk of meltdown, forcing the Engine to depart and return at a later time, which they called a venting run. The full length Snowpiercer on the other hand had the opposite problem, it could only stop for a few minutes before the electrical drain of sustaining heating throughout the train meant there wasn't enough power to regain power to start moving again. While powering the Pirate Train, the Engine is capable of pushing the train in reverse, something never seen previously with the much-larger Snowpiercer.
Big Alice is stated to have more torque than Snowpiercer's engine, and it also has short-time turbo-boosting capabilities which the eternal engine lacks, meaning it would win in a tug of war and if it applied its brakes then Snowpiercer would be unable to overcome the resistance and move, however while Big Alice was capable of pushing Snowpiercer on its own it was unable to achieve the same top speed or to keep all the carriages powered meaning first class had to be temporarily decommissioned and the temperatures in most of the rest of the trains carriages were below freezing. During a game of cat and mouse with the low power Big Alice, Snowpiercer's Engine was able to send the other train, all 1,023 cars of it, rolling back down the track simply by bumping it when the Engine had the high ground and Big Alice was "tapped out."
Interior[]
Snowpiercer's Control Room.
The Engine has two levels. On the first level is a corridor (with a alarm) on the left side of the car with a series of doors, two at the front, one at the back (presumably for train systems), leading to a secure door behind which is a set of stairs leading to the second level and a bio-locked[3] compartment, most likely containing the Engine. The Engine can be entered but how is unknown, as it does not use RFID Access Chip technology as other security measures aboard the train.
Directly above the Engine is the second level (with small windows on the top left wall), containing a door at the rear (the Engine server room, the Weather balloons and flares), living quarters (in clockwise motion: a wired phone on a desk, a closet, a ladder to a service hatch, 4 bunks with tv’s, lights and windows on upper bunks and a bathroom with a sink, shower and a composting toilet) and the Control room (with a service hatch in the floor). While the train has automatic controls[4], the Control room is usually occupied by one pilot and one engineer during the day and a single pilot during the night.
The pilot has an unrestricted view and access to numerous control systems ranging from speed control and diagnostic panels that alert the pilot to potential issues ahead.
The Control room also serves as an information hub for the entire train[5]. If the train detects a breach or mechanical malfunction, it will alert the Control room operators. There is a pneumatic tube system which allows messages to be sent back and forth between the Hospitality Car and the 1st Class Dining Car.
There are a set of armored doors that can lockdown the Control room in cases of emergency and a button in the Hospitality Car that triggers an alarm to lockdown the Engine. There is also a radio to communicate with Cavill in other Cars during emergencies when the Engine is in lockdown, which has a 80 kilometer range max. During lockdown (with direct access to water, some food and waste storage) the Engineers can stay in the Control room for a long time.
One of the systems that can be controlled from the Engine is separating sections of the train. However, this is a complicated step and requires two safety switches (J-Links) to be disabled, one on either side of the separation while the Engine has two switches (Junction Decoupling, Manual Station: A, and B) as well that require two operators to work. The switches must have keys turned in them simultaneously to be activated and then the switches themselves must be flipped at the same time to initiate separation of each end of the disconnected section of the train.
There is also a handle for the whistle overhead, which is first seen used at the end of A New Life when Layton and Zarah's baby is born
Exterior[]
Snowpiercer's plow.
If Snowpiercer encounters extreme obstacles or heavy snow, the Engine can deploy a retractable Plow[6]. Both the Eternal Engine and Big Alice have this capability. When closed, the plow seamlessly retracts into the Engine's hull and does not disturb its aerodynamic design. While deployed, the pilot can change the configuration of the plow to best serve the rough terrain ahead. On top of the Engine is a large spotlight directly above the cockpit. There is also a Wilford Industries logo on the front of the Engine. There is also a Weather balloon deployment system, called sound balloons, installed in the roof, beneath retractable panels and a forward and aft flare system. There are a series of hydrogen port intakes, on the upper sides, toward the rear of the Engine.
Appearances[]
| Appearance | EP1 | EP2 | EP3 | EP4 | EP5 | EP6 | EP7 | EP8 | EP9 | EP10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Season 2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | F | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Season 3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Dream | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Season 4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| ✔ = Appeared | Did Not Appear | F = Flashback | ||||||||
| Note: Appearances for the interior of the car only. | ||||||||||
Trivia[]
- Despite the Engine requiring perpetual motion to work, the Engine went on a test run with Cavill and Wilford after it was built, the train was stationary at boarding with no issues[2] and was brought to a stop twice by Big Alice.
- It's suggested that the problem may be a lack of power to start moving again due to various issues such as failing parts and damage from the revolution which put at least 37 Battery Cars offline.
- Despite being called The Eternal Engine, on the blueprint it is called Engine Eternal.
- Based off of the 2D diagram, the Engine appears to have a 0-10-10-0 wheel arrangement (0 leading wheels, 2 sets of 10 driving wheels, and 0 trailing wheels)
- As seen in the comicbook version in, The Time of Two Engines, it also appears to have Connecting rods, which show that it has cylinders. There are two Connecting rods on the front and back of each wheel set (the back rods are hidden by the Engine's body).
- According to news clippings on the Wilford memorial in the Tea Room, advertisement posters in the Hospitality Car and a flashback from Many Miles From Snowpiercer, the Eternal Engine was built for the Wilford Industries Global Express.
- The Engine appears to resemble that of a Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 4000, a Pioneer Zephyr, or a NYC Commodore Vanderbilt.
- Both Engines were built with a comms panel for communication (the panel in the Snowpiercer Engine is located underneath the controls at the front), but there was a flaw in Big Alice (the panel in Big Alice is a red box on the wall, in the secondary control room) that was fixed in 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 public address system (with or without the tone) can be used at the controls at the front of the Engine, or a panel in the Engine server room.
- Melanie retrofitted the bogie motor circuitry, during the fifth revolution to override automation. Because of Melanie's hack, Wilford's God Module couldn't override the system. Because removing Melanie's hack would shutdown the bogie motors and they didn't have the energy reserves to restart them, they were forced to manually disengage the bogie motors, so Big Alice could push with less resistance. They also had to shutdown the Engine, rewire the circuitry and jump-start her, while they still had enough speed.
- The Control Room of the Engine and the Engine itself, can survive exposure to The Freeze from a breach. As Wilford told Josie to kill Bennett, after he found out they were trying to rescue Melanie.
- The Engine has a directional antenna.
- The Engine has a whistle, first heard in A New Life. While a whistle is heard blowing departing Chicago in First, the Weather Changed, a flashback of the same scene in Many Miles From Snowpiercer, depicts no whistle.
- After becoming a ten car Pirate Train in Into the White, the Engine was brought to a dead stop during the mission to recover Melanie. The temperature inside was noticeably hotter and Bennett told Bess Till that the entire Engine was going to run hotter and was now a Ferrari without the rest of the train. So much so that steam could be visible when the Pirate Train stopped.
- Despite requiring two to operate the car separation switches, Bennett himself flips the switches, twice, when separating 4 derailed cars from the Pirate Train and when separating Big Alice for New Eden. Probably a Two-man rule protocol.
- One possible explanation for the Perpetual Motion Engine is that it is a hyper efficient hydrogen fuel cell design (impossible to achieve in the real world). Air moisture (rain, before the Freeze) and snow are forced into the intakes under pressure, a catalyst is used to split the water molecules passing through the intakes into hydrogen and oxygen atoms, some of the hydrogen is consumed by fuel cells to generate electricity while the rest is burned to produce heat and drive a closed loop steam turbine. The burned hydrogen combines with oxygen to become water again which is distributed to the passengers.
- Alternately the Engine may be a self sustaining fusion reactor where the split hydrogen is fed into a fusion reactor and combined into helium atoms as happens in the Sun, if the supply of hydrogen stopped then the fusion reaction would end and there likely would not be enough energy to restart the process from cold.
- When the Engine was in lockdown, after Melanie was discovered to be acting as Mr. Wilford, Javi lied to Commander Grey that there was no way into the Control room. In the living quarters, up a ladder, a service hatch led to a crawl space to a hatch in the floor of the Control room. Till used this route to get to the living quarters and back to the Control room after Audrey tried to get the Pirate Train back to Wilford.
- The 3 chairs in the Engine can be moved, including the pilot chair (Bennett and Josie were sitting side by side at the controls, in the pilot chair and another chair, in A New Life).
- There were once 2 Whiteboards in the Control Room, (the one on the right was destroyed, in the fight between Bennett and Sykes, in Into the White).
- The appearance of the door to the engine, by the entrance, changes from Season 1 to Season 3.
- Only 19 people so far have been seen in the Engine: Melanie Cavill, Joseph Wilford, Bennett Knox, Javier De La Torre, Jinju Seong, Miles, LJ Folger, Nolan Grey, Ruth Wardell, Andre Layton, Miss Audrey, Zarah Ferami, Sam Roche, Bojan Boscovic, Sykes, Bess Till, Josie Wellstead, Alexandra Cavill and Martin Colvin.
- Of this group, Jinju, LJ, Grey, Ruth, Layton, Miss Audrey, Zarah, Roche, Boki, Sykes and Martin have not been seen piloting the train. However, Layton fires a flare while sitting in the driver's seat in The Eternal Engineer.
- In The Tortoise and the Hare, a nervous Till is enlisted by Alex to drive for a brief period of time while she conducts repairs, suggesting that the Pirate Train's crew underwent at least some basic training in driving the train just in case Alex or Bennett aren't available.
- While Miss Audrey never actually drives, she throws the train into full speed in The Tortoise and the Hare while trying to get Alex to go back to Wilford.
- Josie drives in A New Life and it's suggested that Bennett had been training her during the six months on the Pirate Train.
- Few people have traveled the entire length of the train. Miles was first, then Layton, Ruth, Cavill, Zarah, Miss Audrey, Wilford, Roche, Sykes, Till, Josie and Alex.
Gallery[]
