British Rail Spacecraft - Concept Art

Concept art mockup showing what a possible British Rail spaceflight project might have looked like, had it come to fruition in the 1970s. The concept is rooted in fact, BR did in fact submit a patent for a nuclear powered spacecraft in 1970, although it obviously never happened. This design is based on an extrapolation of the original concept, and was inspired by British Rail's forward thinking design aesthetic and the technological ambition that led to projects such as the Advanced Passenger train and HST, as well as unconventional public transport services such as the SeaSpeed hovercraft. The map is a bit of fun; High Down refers to the rocket testing area on the Isle of Wight, I imagined Polaris and Waypoints as orbital hubs for space travel, and L1 as a refueling station at the L1 LaGrange point in between the two.