Razor Train



A Razor Train is a train used by the Combine for transporting freight and prisoners between cities and outposts.

As with much of Combine technology, the Razor Train is large, mostly featureless and imposing. Custom-built to work on human rail networks transporting standard, secret cargo, human prisoners and stalkers. One particular function they serve is to transport human prisoners to Nova Prospekt, the Combine-controlled prison/laboratory, and transport completed Stalkers and Overwatch Soldiers to the Citadel. Their ramlike, sliver-thin appearance and all-black finish add to the threatening look of the fast-moving vehicle. Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of the Razor Train is its horn: a distinctive, discordant bellow that announces the Train's arrival and sounds more like a wounded animal than an air horn. This is by no means always the case, though, as several times during the third, seven, ninth, and tenth chapters of Half-Life 2, they emit low air horn bellows instead. It is unknown whether they are manned or automated, but they have ladders leading up to a compartment where the driver's compartment should be, supporting the idea that there is a crew. They are very fast and, in being trains, are completely unyeilding to objects that may cross its tracks, including large vehcile wrecks and friendly Combine units.

Razor trains are unarmed and, as such, have no combat roles. They do sometimes serve as an environmental hazard, however, specifically during the chapters Route Kanal and Highway 17.

In Half-Life 2: Episode One, chapter Direct Intervention, Alyx and Gordon must ride a Razor Train to escape the collapsing citadel.