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Transit Systems

Drawing by Graham Bleathman from the Agents’ Technical Manual. Green: TB2 pilot entry chute. Pale green: TB2 passenger lift chute. Orange: TB3 pilot entry tunnel. Yellow: Inspection monorail tunnel.

The following information regarding the transit systems on Tracy Island comes from the Sam Denham International Rescue Thunderbirds Agents’ Technical Manual (2012) ISBN 978 0 85733 117 5.

  • There’s a complex network of launch bays, laboratories, power plants and service tunnels to provide storage and maintenance facilities.
  • A flat bed car carries the launch couch to Thunderbird 3 (once it has lowered from the Lounge to the floor far below).
  • Tracy Island’s main underground facilities are all connected to their internal Inspection Monorail system.
  • There are multiple sealed laboratory areas where experiments can be carried out (such as Scott’s and Virgil’s testing of Brains’ oxyhydnite gas in the episode ‘City of Fire’).
  • Access to Thunderbird 2 is via a high velocity chute system that ferries Virgil from the painting of his father’s rocket ship (that he took to the Moon) in the Lounge all the way into Thunderbird 2’s pilot chair.
  • From the lounge, the three main hangars (Thunderbirds 1, 2 and 3) can be reached by dedicated crew access systems (e.g. Scott’s turntable wall and gantry, Virgil’s chute or the couch that lowers through the floor) or via interlinked tunnels (such as the one that takes Thunderbird 1 from her hangar to her launch bay beneath the pool) and elevators (you see Gordon and Lady Penelope riding in Thunderbird 2’s passenger elevator, for example, in ‘The Mighty Atom’).
  • A recently installed spur link allows the family to use their monorail to travel from Tracy Island to Mateo Island.
  • Additional transportation of materials and supplies is provided by a fleet of service vehicles powered by rechargeable atomic batteries.
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