Sunday, October 2, 2016

X is for X-Boat Station

"Excitement was plentiful during my two years' service as a Pony Express rider." - Buffalo Bill

Description from the Traveller Wiki:
At each system served by the xboat network, an express boat station is maintained to handle the message traffic and to manage incoming and outgoing xboats. Usually located near the edge of a star system, the station picks up messages beamed to it by incoming xboats and relays the data to the local world for delivery. Messages destined for worlds farther down the line are transmitted to a waiting xboat which then jumps for the next world in the network. The xboat station contains receiving and retransmission equipment; refueling and support facilities for the local staff and waiting crew are also provided. The xboat station maintains a local office on the system's major world for the acceptance of xboat messages, as well as to handle delivery of the messages to addresses on the world.

Station Layout
This 400 ton station was designed to support four xboats simultaneously, although most systems will not require this level of accommodation. The bridge handles standard ship functions as well as the transfer of data from xboat to the main system. The top of the station contains a wide variety of communication and transmission equipment.

There are two habitation decks, one for the station crew and administration, the other for xboat crews.  Staterooms and other accessory rooms encircle a large, open communal space housing the main galley, dining, and recreation space. The standard station contains a flexible space which can be reconfigured based on the demands of the local system. It may be used for cargo, training, gunners stations, or miscellaneous storage.

The lower half of the station contains a large fuel tank with capacity to run the station and refuel four xboats. A 50 ton modular cutter outfitted for fuel storage makes fuel runs to the local gas giant where available.  The station shown is unarmed, but has two hardpoints for future turrets, should they be deemed necessary.
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EDIT 10-21-2018
Prior to this edit the X-boat station was incorrectly shown as 200 tons, when it is in fact 400 tons. The image here and the PDF in the link have been updated.
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The xboat model is a slightly modified version of the one created by Cyberia23 at the SketchUp warehouse.
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For a higher resolution PDF, click this link: (Traveller X-Boat Station Deck Plan). The deckplan was created to be printed out on 30"x42". Scale is 1" = 5'-0" so it can be used with 25mm miniatures. Enjoy!
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 Not really the source of inspiration - just for fun. ;)

3 comments:

  1. Love it. Absolutely love it just as I have this "A-to-Z" journey and all your deckplans. I've often thought the classic x-boat tender with it's huge hangar bay and short-legged 1 parsec jump drive was "too much ship" for the job. This is a perfect replacement for that pricey tender.

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  2. I'm trying to understand how you calculate the size at only 200 tons? 170 tons of fuel and 72 tons for staterooms (18 of them) not counting the extra room used for meeting rooms or the bridge. This station should be 300 ton if not larger.

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    1. Well that's embarrassing. You're absolutely right. It is incorrectly called out as 200 tons when it should be 400 tons. I've corrected the image and text above and reprinted the PDF and updated the link. Thanks for keeping me honest. :)

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