Non-magical fantasy subways

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How would you make subways work without enslaved elementals or other overt magic? Looking to create a ruined subway system, but I want it to make at least as much sense as steampunk does (i.e. don't let the engineers in the group think too much about it, or that's all you'll hear about for the rest of the session).

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Chain boats on a subterranean waterway.

 

[Umbran]

How would you make subways work without enslaved elementals or other overt magic? Looking to create a ruined subway system, but I want it to make at least as much sense as steampunk does (i.e. don't let the engineers in the group think too much about it, or that's all you'll hear about for the rest of the session).

In what time period? Because if you don't use magic, then you need something of steam engine power levels.

Some of the first subways were railcars drawn by cables using stationary team engines running the winches at the ends of lines.

 

[J.Quondam]

Something potentialy still functional? How handwavy?
Maybe something that combines a clockwork elevator and cog train? A huge weight in a shaft at one end lowers and raises a train car along a cog rail on an incline; and/or huge weights in shafts at either end pull a train back and forth along a level cog rail. Where these rails intersect are the 'stations'. Riders take smaller similar elevators up to/down from the surface. Maybe somehow power the whole mess with mountain lake high above that drains water via huge pipes onto paddle wheels.

 

[Aldarc]

How would you make subways work without enslaved elementals or other overt magic? Looking to create a ruined subway system, but I want it to make at least as much sense as steampunk does (i.e. don't let the engineers in the group think too much about it, or that's all you'll hear about for the rest of the session).

Giant rats.

 

[sevenbastard]

In what time period? Because if you don't use magic, then you need something of steam engine power levels.

Some of the first subways were railcars drawn by cables using stationary team engines running the winches at the ends of lines.

San Francisco Cable Cars still run on cables.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In what time period?

A D&D-style fantasy world, but not an industrialized world (except for ruins from a fallen former era).

Some of the first subways were railcars drawn by cables using stationary team engines running the winches at the ends of lines.

That would definitely work, and would mean great rooms full of mysterious engines to encounter.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Chain boats on a subterranean waterway.

Disneyland!

 

[aco175]

vacuum tubes that work on tides or moon gravity or such.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Could be as simple as donkeys/mules pulling carts. Lots of street car systems were drawn by horses at different point.

If you go the chain/cable drive system, there are several options. You could have horse or ox-pulled capstans power the system. Alternately, you could use some kind of waterfall. It's something people could do if they lived in a place that had an unreasonably conveniently situated waterfall.