Mexican

Mexican and S American roads had some armored cars back in the late 1800's early 1900's. 

A bit early in period

That’s a bit early in time period, my railway runs from its founding in 2017 to about 2022 currently.  I will, however, do some research on these Armored trains you mentioned, since certain car designs could still be useful for certain scenarios 

Modern Era armored trains

Here is a list of all the modern era armored trains:

Wespe models in Romania

https://www.wespemodels.com/military_models/military_models_scale_1_87/scale_1_87_rail

I saw their display at the 2010 NTS in Milwaukee and it was pretty darn impressive. I think you could take hints from their product line as well as getting their products - and note, there is more than one page there. 

Book on Amazon

Armoured Trains: An Illustrated Encyclopedia 1825-2016

https://www.amazon.com/Armoured-Trains-Illustrated-Encyclopedia-1825-2016/dp/1591146070/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=armored+trains&qid=1612930889&s=books&sr=1-3

Some Suggestions

HI Greenstar,

Well, you did ask... If you are after post WW2 - try searching for Rhodesian Railways (now Zimbabwe) armoured trains. These ran on 3'6" gauge. You should be able to find photos on the web. 

There is also an exhibition model featuring some of this equipment in New Zealand. To give you a feel for some of this equipment, have a look at  http://www.freerails.com/view_topic.php?id=8179&forum_id=17  

My own On30 armoured train version can be seen at  https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/most-ridiculous-kitbashed-engine-or-rolling-stock-12209484 with a "protected Porter" and Maxi-Boom and Multi-Boom radar-controlled fire support. 

Personally, I always thought something like a beefed-up WW2 bomber rear turret with .50 calibre quad-mounts upgraded to 7.62mm Mini-Vulcan Gatling guns ought to do the trick for close-in fire support. You'd probably need a boxcar under the turret to carry enough ammo for a "rough mission". It could also be used as a highly expensive "brush-cutter"  

Also a search for "fahrpanzer" should turn up some other rail-mounted armoured units that could give further inspiration for modern-day equivalents. 

That ought to keep you busy,     

Thank you, there’s some cool stuff

Thank you

there’s a couple cool armoured train designs on the link you sent with your project.  The Hellraiser one almost reminds me of how I’m going to build my personal engine, Eternal Night.  Now, as for what time period stuff we use, I have been looking at modernized versions of historic designs, so pretty much everything so far has been a big help.  I’m going to do a search for the train types you suggested as well, since I have a feeling I know where the  Zimbabwe armoured trains could be used on my lines 

If I were going anti-aircraft/anti-missile....

I'd mount a Phalanx turret to each end of an 86' boxcar. Or use the Army version, the CRAM (Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar), which is mounted on a semi-trailer, on flatbed cars scattered through the train. Others would have radars. Probably add a few Avenger truck-mounted Stinger systems too. 

https://asc.army.mil/web/portfolio-item/ms-c-ram_lpws/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN/TWQ-1_Avenger

I have some concept ideas now

I’m starting to form some concept ideas from some of these articles.  I also have a small railway gun to finish at some point as my first artillery piece I’ve built.  It sounds like I will have to save up to get some larger railway cars and whatnot to work with as well

Yeah, they ARE out there

Armored trains had their high water mark in WW2, where the Germans and Russians learned painful lessons on how easy a target they can be from partisans and aerial attacks.

NATO countries do have armed vehicles that can take to the rails, but you don't read about them much (and a few are classified). I don't know the model but I saw one in the Netherlands several years ago.

Though it's not an armored train in the classical sense, Russia recently decided to build a new missile train to replace the old RT-23s, named "Barguzin." It's a train-mounted ICBM, housing a YS-24 "Yars" missile (NATO designation SS-29). Each missile carries several re-entry vehicles with a yield of a few hundred kilotons. The Russians make the same claim the USAF made when planning the (stillborn) Peacekeeper Rail garrison program; that a missile train would look like an ordinary passenger/freight train that nobody would notice.

I'm sure there are train buffs in Russia as there are in any nation with trains. Foamerskis would notice them the moment they took to the main lines. Though the locomotives for these Russian trains would of course be armored and the crews armed to the teeth, they might not look so to the layman (much in the way the trucks that haul nuclear weapons and fuel rods around the highway network in the US look normal unless you know trucks and start to take a good look).

Interesting

So armoured cars are still used outside of Soviet missile trains.  I may have to try with some more digging then, as you never know what may turn up on the internet when you look hard enough.  I know of at least one more recent armoured train called the Kajina Express or something along those lines that I looked into

Since you're in the realm of

Since you're in the realm of fantasy trains anyway, you could use the Galaxy Express/Galaxy Railway Animé as inspiration... would be a great excuse to run a Big Boy, too.

Funny you mention the series

I happen to be a fan of that series.  I’m debating doing turret cars based off of the ones on some of the trains as well as those would look pretty good on a modern beast of steel.  As for the Big Boy, I’ve got some larger beasts I would have to build, including four 4-6-6-4+4-8-4 armoured Garrett engines for pulling our Massive Peacekeeper class railway guns I’m planning.  While still sticking to the United States side of things, my catenary wires on the Columbus Corridor are tall enough to support Double Stack trains running under them, so the Two track wide Peacekeepers would have to fit those limits while still being powerful. 

You should take a look at the

You should take a look at the WWII Nazi "supertrain" (proposed, but never built) Designed with a 4m Gauge, later reduced to 3m (still about 2x Standard gauge)

https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2019/11/17/nazi-super-trains/

https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2019/03/19/the-breitspurbahn-of-the-third-reich/

Yes, those train cars are two stories. One article I've read had illustrations of armed railcars that were to be part of the train.

That’s a fun one

The ironic thing is, I have some paw drawn art I’ve done of concept trains for other fictional worlds, although considering the open expanses of Africa, I may be able to implement one such system in said location

Armoured Trains

Great concept. I have seen some neat kits online for armoured trains. Airfix? I think they are 1/76 or 1/72. Quite big to mix with HO 1/87. Also it appears they aren't really track ready when assembled . Some bashing requirements like better wheel sets,couplers and motor chassis. Sounds like you will have your Rolling Iron Fury off to a great start General.

Wow that Red Nazi train looks

Wow that Red Nazi train looks like SnowPiercer in Signal Red.

Snowpiercer

yeah, I’ve been discussing the Breitspurbahn with someone else and how it’s design may have inspired the Snowpiercer 

Its a pretty neat thought

Here ya go

Railway gun started