Infinity Train (vehicle)

**Overview**
Gallery

## Infinity Train

* Series
* Pilot

The **Infinity Train** is the main setting of the eponymous series.

## Description

### In Wastelands

While it appears as a regular train on the outside, it is actually of seemingly infinite length. Inside of its many boxcars, practically anything conceivable can be found, whether it be puzzles, creatures, or even entire worlds. According to Owen Dennis, it is around 5 stories tall. Passengers picked up by the train are processed through the Tape Car, where their memories are recorded on a video tape. They are then given a number engraved onto their right palm to track their progress through the train before being sent in a special pod to one of the cars. They are unable to leave the train until their number reaches zero, upon which a door leading them home will open.

According to Owen Dennis, time on the train runs parallel to the real world, with passengers picked up from the train disappearing in the real world for the amount of time they remain on the train. In-show, this is confirmed by Nate frantically reuniting with Jesse, and alluding to the latter's disappearance.

For presumably maintenance purposes, cars are able to climb on top of and travel very quickly over the train. "Shifters", as named by Grace, move in the following order:

1. The bridges that span across cars retract (presumably while the car decouples from its neighbors)
	* The railings fold into the bridge's floor
	* The floor splits at the middle of two cars
	* The segmented floor folds onto itself (the outer segment folds down and onto the inner segment and disappears)
	* The last floor segment gets pulled into a slot below the car door is
2. The front and back wheels pivot so that the gears adjacent to each train wheel extend forward and engage with the teeth running down the front and back of its neighboring cars which help by closing in and pushing against the shifter
3. The car climbs on top of one of its former neighbors
4. The two neighboring cars close the gap and presumably couple to each other
5. The shifter stops so that the front and back wheels (which were spinning in opposite directions to climb up) can choose the same direction to roll in

For one reason or another, the coupling and decoupling mechanisms are never shown in action. Shifters seem to move incredibly quickly.

### On Earth

The Train itself can change its appearance when offering a new passenger to board, seemingly adapting to the personality, desires, and situation of the passenger in an attempt to lure them. Only four designs have been seen in the show. Three of those designs appeared in memory tapes.

* In Tulip's case, the Train manifested itself as a fairly normal train, luring Tulip onboard by suggesting that the Train was traveling to Oshkosh. The design suits Tulip's logical mindset.
* In Amelia's case, the Train manifested itself as a sleek, shorter futuristic car, appealing to her passion for engineering and technology. It is also an armored train, offering her protection in the aftermath of Alrick's death.
* For Grace, the train manifested itself as a white/gold, lavish train with a long red carpet that led Grace inside. The design fits Grace's home life and dancing background while also appealing her desire to be acknowledged by others.
* For Ryan and Min-Gi, the train appears orange and polished, the door has a blue and yellow zaggy pattern. Fit for their longing to become rockstars. Only the side of the train can be seen since it's only visible through the doors of the Amtrak Horizon railcar the boys get onto.

## History

Very little information is provided on the train's origin and history, although a stray comment by The Cat in "Le Chat Chalet Car" suggests it is at least centuries old, possibly existing prior to when railway locomotives were invented. According to series creator Owen Dennis and supervising director Madeline Queripel, the train appears to passengers when they are at a crossroads in their life, where they could go down one path or another.

Tulip first encountered the train after she ran away from home to try to get to the game design camp in Oshkosh on her own. Upon trying to board, the train sucked her into the Snow Car.

## Design

The Wheels are the sets of 10 separate wheels beneath every train car. They guide the Infinity Train along the tracks, as well as shift individual train cars forward and backwards along the train. The wheels have also been used as "weapons", and a disposal system, primarily by The Apex.

There are two separate types of wheels. "Outer Wheels" are smoother, rounder, and thinner than inner wheels, and guide the train along the tracks. "Inner Wheels" are wider and more "gear"-shaped, They help propel the train forward. The outer wheels can be pivoted to run up the sides of train cars, and run on top of the train cars during "Shifting".

Besides transportation, the primary function of the wheels throughout the series is to be a method of disposing unwanted objects. "Wheeling", a term coined by the The Apex, is the act of kicking or throwing an object, denizen, or passenger to the wheels as a means of getting rid of them. "Wheeling" has only been done a few times throughout the show.

### Train Cars

These are the cars that are attached to the train and have been shown/mentioned in the show.

It's worth noting that no car has an official name, all cars are colloquial. Therefore all the names used below are either borrowed from episode titles or were named by the characters in the narrative.

#### Possible/Unknown Cars

These are the cars that were not shown to be real, but instead were suggested in the show. Should the Infinity Train be truly infinite, the existence of these cars is guaranteed:

 Pizzeria Car  | Unseen
 Horribly Dangerous Car full of Acid Slime | Unseen

## Trivia

* The Infinity Train is neither infinitely long nor has infinite universes. Alex Horab, a staff writer for the show and a professed math nerd, states that an object reaching infinity is impossible because infinity is a concept and not quantifiable. Instead the Infinity Train gets its name because of its goal to trend *towards* infinity: constantly making more train cars with wacky pocket universes in an attempt to maximize the chances of solving people's problems. Horab expressed a desire to explain this concept further in the cancelled movie.
* During development on the pilot, background designer Clarke Snyder drew a potential logo for the train, with the idea that it would be stamped on every car. The symbol was an Ouroboros fashioned into the infinity symbol with a waning gibbous moon above it (the moon is red and the shadow on it is black; inversely, it could also be a waxing crescent). Although Owen Dennis liked the idea, he felt it did not fit in canon as no one in the show ever refers to the train as the "Infinity Train".
	+ The infinity symbol is a mathematical symbol used to show the concept of infinity. The Ouroboros (a snake/serpent eating its own tail; usually drawn as a circle) is an ancient symbol used to depict continuity, cycles, and infinity.
* According to Amelia, the train cars reset after a while, never rendering the puzzles in cars obsolete. This is seen with "The Hey Ho Whoa Car", when the rock-denizens in said car vanish and begin to refill after Amelia first passed through the car.
* In the pilot design of the train, the engine appears to have a valve gear, a typical gear that a steam locomotive has. But the train doesn't have a piston, so it is unknown if the train is designed after a Steam or a Diesel locomotive.
* According to Owen Dennis, the train is considered an internet myth in the outside world, though former passengers have been able to get in touch to talk about their experiences.

## Gallery

*Click here to view this page's gallery.*

## References

1. ↑ Why doesn't tulip just jump off The train before going through a door?
2. ↑ "Time on the #InfinityTrain passes normally. Tulip was on the train for 5 months, Jesse a little over a month, Grace and Simon +/- 8 years, Amelia for a little over 30 years. Change takes time, so we didn't want to negate their experiences by having no time pass in the real world."
3. ↑ Book 1 DVD Commentary: "The Past Car"
4. ↑ "The cars don't have proper names, only colloquial. I've generally referred to that first car as the 'puzzle car' or 'balance car' when talking about it." -Owen Dennis
5. ↑ From Marie Lum's Twitch stream "Pen Pals Forever Draw Request Stream!" (April 5th, 2023) with guest Alex Horab explaining how the Infinity Train got it's name. (Timestamp: 5:41:53)
6. ↑ Owen Dennis Reddit post: I thought it was a good idea, but it didn't fit in the universe exactly. No one on the train ever calls the train the "Infinity Train", it's just called the train. So I opted not to go with this symbol because it didn't fit the world we were building."

 Train Cars