Hey chummers, here's the layout:

My Runners are going to be in the employ of a large corporation dealing with incredibly tightly controlled industrial chemicals. I also want them to do some traveling, and I want an excuse to get them out of Seattle and get them to Detroit, where I have another plot run for them. Instead of telling them to simply hop on a jet to Detroit, I came up with a better idea... escort a chemical shipment to Detroit... by TRAIN.

This would ideally be a run that could be completed relatively short, and one that doesn't necessarily involve a lot of firepower. I'm thinking more of a train mystery. A competing corporation is trying to hijack the train and steal the chemicals. I don't want it to be as obvious as "Helicopter shows up, drops off rival Shadowrunners who try to hack into the engine". I could use some additional ideas. Here's some of the things I've been thinking:

* This is a shipping train, and generally a shipping train isn't going to have many "passengers" on it for the Runners to interact with. I'm trying to think of ways around this. Part of the adventure should deal with NPCs on the train. One definite fun part of the adventure would be if a passenger or crew member was actually a "mole" assisting in the hijack, who the Runners could expose.

* During a stop, have the Runners encounter the dead body of one of the crew or a railway worker at the stop. This would lead to them knowing that something is fishy, and give them an additional mystery to solve... why was this guy killed, and by whom? (I don't know the answer to either of these questions but it's a fun idea!)

* Have an Agent that has been installed as a virus in advance onto one of the train car's nodes. The Agent is programmed to de-couple some of the train cars at a precise time, likely right after the train has passed a portion of track where a drone could come and steal the cargo from the cars, or hijack the cars themselves and take them to another track.

Any ideas on what sort of things I can do to spice this up? I also want to do something to emphasize that this is train travel in the 2070s, and not the 1970s.

Thanks in advance!

Your cast of NPCs could just be low-rung employees of Corporation X (whoever runs the train) that are forced to utilize "non-essential, budget-efficient, means of cross-continental transportation" -- getting hauled cross-country on a train full of chemicals and other freight.

And, if absolutely nothing else, you really need to have a street sammie or an adept get in a fight on top of some train cars. Because you just do, that's why. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Those are both really awesome ideas. I can't decide what would be cooler, a Street Sam with augmented legs jumping across train cars, or an Adept doing basically the same thing. Either way that's epic.

Dead guy surprised a saboteur, got killed for his diligence. Saboteur tries to make it look like an accident in order to still complete his job.
Maybe the saboteur is supposed to implant a virus in the closed train system?
Helicopters are cheap, agreed, but they could drop in reinforcements on top of the train, after saboteur calls for help when the runners find him out.
Other than that: Fight on top of cars. It's a must, basically.

Some ideas.

If you want a more 2070 feel, have it be a high speed mega freight train, so lots of cars but it's approaching speeds of the TGV. The unloading at each stop should be done in a matter of minutes with fully automated tracking of each box and robotic container movement. Additionally, it should be electric not diesel. Cars may even be arranged so that they can detach as your agent is going to make them do, but time so that the rear cars detach and begin to break so that they arrive at a station while the main train continues on. Additional cars could be brought up to speed and coupled while in motion with a grid guide type control. With enough computerized control you could even combine passenger and freight without too much time lost, but make the passenger cars sparsely populated and long distance. I think I would leave out casual passengers. If you need to stall the train in one location, make it pull onto a side track to let another train pass. Could always go with the cliche military transport.

For more people, the line is owned and operated by an independent company and putting in new rail lines is too expensive, so that megas have to work with them or find other cross continent freight capabilities. So each of the mega corps with cargo has a representative or two (and maybe some drones as well) to oversee their cargo and make sure that none of the others mess with it and that nothing "falls" off the car at one of the stops. Then you've got a cast of potential suspects/victims of any train job. Each is probably a rigger/face combo actively jumping in to check the status of their cars. They might be housed in a "passenger compartment" and their may be a few train company reps/hosts to take care of anything these overseers need. So you've got train crew of 2 or 3 (probably riggers), some drone security, 10-12 corp representatives from 6-9 corps, 2 or 3 hospitality staff, maybe a security director for the train and a baggage overseer. That puts you around 15 or so people, that would be what I would want for a mystery.

Enough that you can get to know a people. Identify motives, rule out some people have a red herring or two, and even have a few people there to help. The security director for the train might even come to the runner team since he doesn't trust his staff or the corp reps or doesn't want to admit there's a problem if he can fix it fast.

I would have several encounters prepared ahead of time that you can use depending on the PCs actions.

Things that come to mind immediately.

A) I like the employees and maintenance personnel being transported. I can see the train company using an old passenger car that has seen better days. It's sound enough to carry the employees but has seen enough abuse over the years that it is no longer in any shape for paying passengers. Torn and ratty seats that the padding is shot, weird rattles and noises abound, exotic and interesting stains and smells. Place it near the front so anyone can access the engine and controls for added intrigue.

B)Place the chemicals back a few cars on a train with dozens of cars between. This would require the PC's to have to climb across different car types to get to the chemicals forcing the epic train top battle. Add random tunnel heights for crazy effect rolling a d6 or more to determine the number of turns between combat and ducking for your life as the tunnel roof passes by inches overhead.

C)The virus or wiring sabotage could release cars at set intervals as the train travels along the rails with the controls locking everyone out. Plot twist: A mechanic on board has also sabotage the safety breaks on your chemical containers meaning they will roll free at high speeds into some soft target like a small town of innocents. Making the run preventing a terrorist attack and not a heist. (Have to give credit to a movie for the seed of this one. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477080/ )

If I am a CEO of a 2070's railway co, I'm not going to place ALL my faith in automation (though I will a lot). Because there is simply so mich freight at stake I'm always going to want at least one union guy on board as a conductor to think like a human when there is a maiden in distress strapped to the tracks and a split second decision needs to be made. BUT I'm not going to pay him well... not when the computer is doing all the REAL work. I'm sure thats gonna create some "employee morale" issues from time to time. Dot dot dot

Employers who fail to realize that when they put someone in a situation like that, they're not actually paying the guy to work, but to be there in case he needs to do work... Well, they're going to run into problems. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I've some misgivings here. Freight trains are much heavier than passenger trains, so they'd need a ridiculously long braking distance, which would make accelerating to top speed rather useless in the first place. And fuel/energy costs would be much, much higher, too.
Also I don't think the geographical conditions on the route given by the OP are very conducive to any high speed rail traffic. I'll assume that the train would mostly run along the former Northern Pacific line, going through Washington State, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota etc... That's a line that's far longer than any current European HST line and it's running through a markedly harsher climate which would make track upkeep ridiculously expensive. And any decent blizzard would probably wreak havoc on the overhead wiring.
Long story short, I believe TGV-speed freight transport to be at least uneconomical, if not outright unfeasible both now and in SR's 2070. So IMO if you have your AR turned off, 2070s train traffic in the region would still look very much like 1970s traffic.
Whether the OP should care about that probably depends on his group and their preferred playing style. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Overhead wiring would not be a necessity, though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
And perpetually warm trackbeds can compensate for the Snows... Doable, I would think. High Speed Delivery of goods/material is a good thing. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Third rail power transmission? IANARE* , but I've been under the impression that there are reasons besides safety which make that less suited to long-distance lines than overhead wiring, like voltage issues and IIRC they're harder to integrate with railroad switches.
Or am I missing another power source besides diesel and overhead electricity?
Anyway there's still the weight/braking issue.

*"I am not a railroad engineer"

Sometimes you don't need to have every detail right (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
It's not a reality sim, it's an RPG. Just sayin' ^^

Exactly...

And Grid Guide works How?
Use the Grid Guide Principle on Rail Lines, and boom, Problem Solved. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I would throw in an open-plains gang encounter like a cross between a Western train robbery and Mad Max. A middle-America go-gang could swing up in a dune buggy, blasting a high-rating jammer to prevent calls for help, and then the gangers could throw grapple lines onto the train and board it. Or drop in from an autogyro.

Ooooh. Love it. That would also explain the additional runner security. "Gang violence has become bad lately. We need you folks to bolster our sec."

Aaand .. on a huge train .. who is to say you are the only security ? 15 carriages up is a Nuclear waste container with a shed load of other runners.. what do they do when the bullets start flying ?

I love the idea someone posted about the carriages automatically undocking from the others,
keep them on their toes in a fight on top of the fourth from last .. then the back three depart and suddenly THEY are on the Last carriage .. and another load of cars are approaching to latch on ... filled with civilians or cargo... or SNAKES !
SNAKES on a TRAIN MotherFragger !

I don't think the physics of it really matter (afterall, you can set a kilo of dynamite off in your hand and have zero chance of dying as a result, have laser weapons, and the collision rules etc.). Yeah, high speed uses more energy because of higher drag, which should be improved with better aerodynamics and other "future tech". With regenerative braking you can get a lot of power back on start and stop so braking/acceleration power isn't the issue. Not to mention that braking distances shouldn't matter on this far longer route going from seattle to detroit with really only a few reasonable stop locations along the way, unless you're in the 50s of miles of stopping distance. Also, I was expecting that the grid guide controls for separating cargo and better sensors/controls would eliminate a lot of the dangers. They have control systems that let semi's make snake patterns on ice at high speed now, so similar controls on a track should be feasible in 60 years. As for the power source, it wasn't specified, it could be rail delivered or internal or solar powered or all of the above for all that it really matters, unless someone's going to try to cut the power.

Also, does it really matter? The train speed won't really effect the game play much, except maybe the options of raiders or how dead you are if you get thrown off the train. OP said he wanted a more 2070 feel. Higher speed automated trains to me say future tech.

Also, don't forget the magic. The train probably has a spirit or two as entourage. Or possibly the train corp decided to put in some haven lilies to keep out spirit troubles or has mana sealed/biofidered/warded cars for special high priority cargo. So it's a roving background count or slow moving (in the astral) ward battering ram. That alone might be enough to encourage some dual natured retaliation or suspicion of the train.

I'd say unless it looks like somebody's trying to make a go for the waste container they won't get that involved - nuclear waste containers a though enough that it would take serious antivehcle hardware to breach, and heavy enough that unles you bring along a serious crane and heavy-duty semi-trailer (or equivalent alternatives such as a cargo blimp) it's no going to go anywhere.

Well, the first step to making a good railroad adventure is deciding exactly what you want the PCs to do every step of the way...

How about a maglev?

It will reduce friction, be quieter, be faster. And if the power is cut, the entire thing comes to a crashing screeching hult, or it'll have wheels and come to a normal boring stop...

As for adding some interesting flavor to the event. Maybe the maglev's pilot program emerges and becomes self aware, the actual engineer is a part time anarchist and the pilot program reads some of his literature and becomes very upset about finding how he's a tool in the system so accelerates to dangerous speeds in an attempt to kill itself. Now the runners have to either do battle with the newly emergent AI or talk him out of suicide.

Blaine the Mono ?

paracritters.

no need for anything fancy- the train simply passes through wilderness, and the critters there may land on the train... and then chew on the circuitry or something. or perhaps a spirit gets annoyed, and a landslide blocks the tracks- keep those workers safe until we can get this clear and move the train!

really, mother nature is very dangerous in the 6th world. any shenanigans people come up with could be a side-plot to this.

This is a pretty cool idea.

Might be worth mapping out the route on a 6th World Map; figure out which political entities the train would have to pass through, try and think of the logistics of the thing. Border stops, customs officers, slower sections of track in disrepair, driver changes over different "company lines". Plenty of opportunity for encounters there.

Also, how long would it take? Is the train solely composed of cars/cargo belonging to a single corp? If not, each corp would presumably provide its own security.

What about Matrix coverage? Background count? When there's a signal drop, what happens to all the corp monitoring equipment that's there to keep an eye on employees on the train? Dark patches like this might be a good time for bandits/hijackings/etc to happen (you can decide if the train staff are in on it or not). Don't comms generally run over the matrix in the 2070s? Are your characters packing radios?

Chances are they'll soon forget whether they're on a maglev or a steam train, and the situations will become the focus. Remind them their mobility is severely limited and their schedule now set by the train company. Chances are the people they piss off on the train will be around for the entire journey...