Back to the Future III, A steam engine?

[Vanyel]

I was watch BTTF3 a few days ago and a question came to me. After Marty returns to 1985 he had left Doc Brown in the old west of 1885.

Doc Brown then returns with a new time machine made from a train engine. He tells Marty that it runs on steam. Now since the train can fly, we can assume that before visiting Marty in 1985 he jumped ahead to around 2015 and had the train converted to a "hover train".

We also know that the Flux Capacitor needs 1.21 gigawatts of energy to run.

I know that once the new time machine visited the future it could have gotten a Mr. Fusion, but Doc does say it ran on steam, not fusion.

So can a steam engine provide 1.21 gigawatts of power needed to operate the flux capacitor?

 

[Hermiod]

^Depends what you mean by "steam engine". One in an ordinary train in 1885 ? No way. However, even nuclear power plants today are still steam powered after a fashion.

 

[IJD GAF]

While it's a bit preposterous, you have to keep in mind it's only barely the most preposterous idea in a trilogy full of preposterous ideas.

 

[Praetor_08]

So can a steam engine provide 1.21 gigawatts of power needed to operate the flux capacitor?

No, but from my understanding, it doesnt need too. Look at the Delorean, It used normal gas to opporate and propel itself to 88 miles per hour, and then used plutonium/ lighting/ later the Mr. Fusion, to provide the 1.21 gigawatts to power the flux capacitor.

The same can be said of the train probably, the train used standard steam to opporate and run, and plutonium or a mr. fusion to power the capacitor, maybe even the hover generator.

 

[Hermiod]

^That's correct, the train was only initially needed to push the DeLorean up to 88mph because of the lack of available petrol in 1885. The time circuits were powered by Mr. Fusion since petrol might have been in short supply but garbage wasn't.

 

[Vanyel]

So can a steam engine provide 1.21 gigawatts of power needed to operate the flux capacitor?

No, but from my understanding, it doesnt need too. Look at the Delorean, It used normal gas to opporate and propel itself to 88 miles per hour, and then used plutonium/ lighting/ later the Mr. Fusion, to provide the 1.21 gigawatts to power the flux capacitor.

The same can be said of the train probably, the train used standard steam to opporate and run, and plutonium or a mr. fusion to power the capacitor, maybe even the hover generator.

^That's correct, the train was only initially needed to push the DeLorean up to 88mph because of the lack of available petrol in 1885. The time circuits were powered by Mr. Fusion since petrol might have been in short supply but garbage wasn't.

However Marty took the Delorean with him, Mr. Fusion and all. So Doc had to generate the 1.21 gigawatts without a Mr. Fusion.

Lightening would not have been an option because it is not predictable and the train would need to be going 88mph when the lightening struck it to power the flux capacitor.

In 1885 Doc wouldn't have the safety equipment to get uranium or plutonium. Nor would he have the means to create the safety equipment, much less a nuclear reactor. So the only viable source to generate power in 1885 was steam.

 

[Hermiod]

^Hey, all DeLoreans ever built ran on unleaded petrol too, but Brown was still able to run the car on petrol from 1955.

 

[A Clockwork Lim]

I see what his point is now.

He's asking how Doc was ever able to get the steam engine into the future to outfit it with a Mr. Fusion to begin with. When he first built it, all he had was a steam engine and no means of powering the flux capacitor. So how did he power it for that first jump out of ~1885?

The answer is implied by Doc himself: He had a breakthrough that greatly reduced the amount of energy needed to power it. He didn't have to worry about plutonium or nuclear reactions; he could now power it completely off steam, thus avoiding all the problems they had with the DeLorean. Well, unless they ended up in the middle of a desert or something, I guess. The implication came from his tone of voice and the look he gave Marty when he said that it ran off steam.

 

[Brent]

Everyone forgets about the hover board Marty left with Doc ridding off on! What about ITS power source, we don't really know what it ran on, but well, it did power a hover board that could hold a person up, I dunno, maybe Doc was able to use its power source (plus steam) to make that initial jump.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Here's the thing you are all forgetting. it's a joke scene. I think the writers are playing the 4th wall game here deliberately. If you are a BTTF fan you probably know that they never intended for there to be any sequels, because they never would have put the girl in the car at the end of the first movie, and that the end of the first film was a joke. However they have since built the trilogy from that moment (as a means of keeping another producer's hands off the project) so the "joke" was made into a story element. So at the end of the third movie, they decided to incorporate pretty much the same joke, while slightly stepping outside the films to say that no there will not be any BTTF films, even to followup this new time macbhine. They ensured this by making the train preposterous and impossible to begin with, but by that point the films are over. In other words, Doc probably couldn't have channelled or generated the correct gigawatts into the train to begin with, but by the time the viewer tries to contemplate this plot hole, the curtain is closed and the film is over, just as it should have been in the first film.

 

[Hermiod]

^It didn't end there, though, did it ? The Train continued to appear regularly in the animated series.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

It ended as far as the films go, and as far as Gale and Zemeckis were concerned. I truely think they were poking fun at the audience and the studio with this ending, that at the end of part one needed a sequel.

 

[Trekker4747]

^Hey, all DeLoreans ever built ran on unleaded petrol too, but Brown was still able to run the car on petrol from 1955.

Can a car that runs on unleaded gasoline not operate on leaded gasoline?

 

[John Picard]

^Hey, all DeLoreans ever built ran on unleaded petrol too, but Brown was still able to run the car on petrol from 1955.

Leaded petrol from 1955 wouldn't hurt the DeLorean's engine, only clog the catalytic converter over prolonged usage.

 

[Tom]

Many seem to forget that not only was the doctor brilliant in his own time ( 1985 ) but he also had knowledge of future technology as well (from going to 2015 and possibly beyond!), heck in 2015 they had fusion science seemingly simplified (MR. fusion ) so trapped in 1885 he may have known stuff we don't about how to harness that much electricty with what he had. If the doc had alot more time in part 3 he probably would have came up with a better method of getting the Delorian up to 88 mph, but they could not wait that long so the train had to do.

 

[Brent]

Many seem to forget that not only was the doctor brilliant in his own time ( 1985 ) but he also had knowledge of future technology as well (from going to 2015 and possibly beyond!), heck in 2015 they had fusion science seemingly simplified (MR. fusion ) so trapped in 1885 he may have known stuff we don't about how to harness that much electricty with what he had. If the doc had alot more time in part 3 he probably would have came up with a better method of getting the Delorian up to 88 mph, but they could not wait that long so the train had to do.

plus, he had the hoverboard to get parts from, you know Doc had to take that thing apart to find out what makes it tick

 

[Gojirob]

One story I've heard is that Doc gambled everything he had with him tech-wise on one jump that would get him to 2015 alone, then quickly got together everything he needed to make the method more workable and get back to his family, where the train came into play, since steam in any era would be easier to find or make than petrol.

 

[the Dagman]

Many seem to forget that not only was the doctor brilliant in his own time ( 1985 ) but he also had knowledge of future technology as well (from going to 2015 and possibly beyond!), heck in 2015 they had fusion science seemingly simplified (MR. fusion ) so trapped in 1885 he may have known stuff we don't about how to harness that much electricty with what he had. If the doc had alot more time in part 3 he probably would have came up with a better method of getting the Delorian up to 88 mph, but they could not wait that long so the train had to do.

plus, he had the hoverboard to get parts from, you know Doc had to take that thing apart to find out what makes it tick

Plus he also had the DeLorean.

What? How could that be?

Sure. He had it. It was all wrapped up in that cave his 1955 self and Marty found it in waiting for the time circuits to be repaired. But who is to say how much of that damage happened from the lightning bolt at the end of BTTF2? After all, the car had been hit by lightning before with no ill effects in BTTF. (Although they did route it directly to where the car was able to take the surge)

After being stranded with the hover board and realizing that both he and Clara did not belong there, Doc Brown likely decided to make a new time machine. Being without modern manufactured parts and tools, he may have been forced to take a few of the "time circuits" from the DeLorean in the cave (likely, the time computer's motherboard) and altered his instructions to his younger self so that he could replace what he had taken in 1955. In fact, he may have known exactly what was safe to take from examining the DeLorean that Marty brought with him from 1955. He also could have disassembled and copied a good portion of the Mr. Fusion technology as well. Just making sure not to damage the original so he could reassemble it and put it back onto the DeLorean in the cave.

There was so much he could have done with the car in 1885 to help him build his locomotive. And all he needed to do to stitch the knot in time was to leave the needed repair instructions for his 1955 self and Marty, who had all the time they needed to repair it. (They never really stated how long 1955 Doc Brown took to fix up the car from when they found it)

 

[Silvercrest]

A) He borrowed the flux capacitor from the Delorean in the cave, just for one trip to 2015 to get more parts. After that, he returned to 1885 and put it back.

or B) After we saw the train at the end of this movie, he traveled with it to 2015. There he built "another" train (actually the same train at a different point in time), and delivered it back to himself in 1885. Don't think about that one too hard, or your head will explode.

Edit: Sorry, posted simultaneously with the Dagman. His idea and my Option A are basically the same.

 

[Trekker4747]

A) He borrowed the flux capacitor from the Delorean in the cave, just for one trip to 2015 to get more parts. After that, he returned to 1885 and put it back.

Doc would never do that. It would put his perfectly working plan to get the DeLorean to Marty for his use into jepoardy.