TOS in the 29th century...

[Warped9]

Using a built-in SketchUp tool I was able to calculate the total deck area or usable square footage of the ship: in excess of 1.297 million sq. ft. This includes all twenty-eight decks, the sensor array service platform (above the Bridge) as well as the Hangar area and hangar observation level.

Interesting.

 

[Warped9]

I'm in the midst of laying out the turbolift system throughout the ship. I'm finding this a bit challenging in planning this out in a believable and effective manner.

I'm trying to use a rough guideline of having a turbolift port within a reasonable distance from any point on a deck. The lifts must also be able to go from one side of the ship to the other as well as up-and-down and fore-and-aft. This means there must be paths for the lifts to cross over from port to starboard as well as being able to go between some decks without having to go back to the main shafts near the centreline of the ship. I think this between deck passage will apply particularly to Decks 5, 6 and 7 as well as one or two spots in the dorsal and similarly in the secondary hull.

What we saw throughout the series and films was rather simplistic. They simply directed the turbolift to Deck 5 (or whatever) and then left it at that. The only more specific direction was requesting the Bridge, which in TOS was the only destination on Deck 1.

Going forward from that you could be more specific in regard to your desired destination. If you ask for the Bridge then the system will deliver you directly there. If you ask for Deck 1 then you'll find yourself exiting onto the Deck 1 corridor. It really doesn't matter (in this case) if you don't request the port or starboard side because the Deck 1 turbolift access ports are so close together that it really makes little difference. But because Deck 2 is significantly larger than Deck 1 if you simply request Deck 2 then the system will deliver you to the nearest available access port on that deck. You could be a bit more specific and request "Deck 2 Starboard" and the system lets you off on the starboard side of the deck. If there are more than two access ports on a given level then you could be even more specific and request the more specific access port you want (assuming you know it) to arrive closest to your desired destination.

The final alternative is simply to request the area or locale you want to reach and then the system will let you off at the closest access port to that locale. So if you're down in the secondary hull and need to get to Stellar Cartography on Deck 2 (or wherever) than you just ask for that and the turbolift will take you to the nearest access port to Stellar Cartography. This would work for the Flight Deck, Shuttlecraft Service Bay, Main Engineering, Sickbay, specific labs of specific person's cabin, any particular crew lounge or whatever.

One thing we didn't see on Trek but I did see on Babylon 5 was the clear marking of the decks. To that end it would make sense to use colour as well as numbers and labels to mark the decks to facilitate you finding your way. Whenever I saw signage in Trek it tended to be of a very lowkey nature to the point of near uselessness given how all the decks looked exactly the same (which we know was a necessary cost savings measure). But realistically a lot more could and should be done.

 

[Albertese]

Well, in TMP, they did use color coded walls for the different decks in the saucer. And the signage in at least the first three films was (I thought) pretty informative. Your mileage may vary.

Turbolift routing is an interesting problem by itself. Whenever I occasionally dust off my own TOS deckplans project, I try to route the lifts so that they can get everywhere, without blocking access to anywhere. I'm using internal pressure compartments inspired by the bridge diagram that was featured in "Day of the Dove."

My strategy is that every space must be accessible by "foot" as it were, be it by corridor, ladderway or staircase (in a few places; ramps). But also, since I am using pressure compartments, I want each individual compartment to have as few passageways through it as possible. Most of the saucer compartments (in my own drawings, mind you) have from two to twelve corridor passthroughs (six per deck most places, but not all--and nearly all the compartments are two decks high), and anywhere from one to four turbolift passthroughs. The compartments in the core of the saucer also have those triangle ladderways, which would add one or two more passthroughs (one on top and one on bottom.)

Also, we have to establish a definition of "turbolift port within a reasonable distance," which for me is at most 200 feet. I figure the crew should be capable of walking to places and, honestly, the exercise won't hurt them. And in practice, real life building and wet-navy ships don't have lifts all over the place. Also, if trying to put turbolifts closer than that, I have found they tend to get in the way of other means of access and you find yourself devoting a lot of square footage to just turbolifts.

Again, your mileage may vary.

--Alex

 

[Warped9]

^^ Well reasoned. Too many access ports and you simply start taking up too much space. Too few and you start losing advantage of why you have the lifts. Your approach to ladders and companionways has also given me something more to think about. Thanks.

I should pull out my old FJ plans just for the sake of curiosity and reference. I agree the crew shouldn't be afraid of some exercise. Note that in my buildup of the hangar area the only way to get from one level to the next is by companionway.

I see the main advantage of the turbolift is to get from one distant point aboard ship to another. Simply, it would take distinctly longer to walk and climb the decks from the hangar deck to the bridge than to take a turbolift. If you're going up or down only one deck then it might simply be faster to use a companionway.

 

[T'Girl]

Also, if trying to put turbolifts closer than that, I have found they tend to get in the way of other means of access and you find yourself devoting a lot of square footage to just turbolifts.

You might consider having places where there are two or more turbolift openings side by side. High traffic destinations like the rec deck in TMP, or important destinations like sickbay. You wouldn't want to have to wait for an opening if the car was carrying a injured crewman, and the one opening nearest sickbay was tied up for some reason.

 

[Warped9]

The way I understood the turbolifts to work was that every access port has a car and when it departs it's replaced by another car. So you shouldn't have to wait long for the next car. It won't be immediately, but it won't be long either. This would necessitate having a few extra cars to help pick up the slack.

It also means there also have to be alternate routes for the cars to take. Obviously this is all run by computer which can run the cars in the most effective routes all simultaneously.

 

[Warped9]

Here's a peek at how this is evolving. I still have to add the turbolift system for decks 2-6, but the rest are in place. I also still have to add a couple more cross-over points where the lifts can transition from one side of the ship to the other. I'm envisioning some of these being within that long run from the centre of Deck 7 aft to the dorsal as well as within the saucer's main turbolift shafts.

At every level except the Bridge or the bottom most level of the saucer every turbolift access port is actually just off the shafts. This way a car can be parked at an access port and other cars can still bypass it without obstruction.

I also have to modify one of the secondary hull decks because none of them allign with the floor of the shuttlecraft flight deck. So you would have to either walk down or walk up to the flight deck to reach it. I've decided I'll modify a deck where you will have to walk down to reach the flight deck. The shuttlecraft observation level will be accessible from the secondary hull deck above that. Turbolift shafts extend aft to end near where this split level will be to allow for the fastest access to the flight deck area.



One idea I'm considering at the bottom of the secondary hull is a turbolift service bay. This is where individual cars could be taken out of the system for periodic service and repair.

 

[Warped9]

Here’s a look at the Deck 5 layout for the turbo lift system. The Deck 6 layout beneath is exactly the same. The Deck 7 layout is similar as well but nut much smaller because the Deck 7 is distinctly smaller in radius. Deck 7 also has shafts running aft to go down through the dorsal. The central hub area is the same and only the length of the horizontal shafts differ. Each nub visible in an access port. So from this view you can see that Deck 5 (as well as Deck 6) has 12 access ports. The saucer decks above and below Decks 5 and 6 lose the access ports in the middle of the horizontal shafts because they are much smaller areas.

The hollowed out space at the aft end of the saucer is where the impulse drive is housed.



It’s impossible for me to think of every detail and contingency, but I think it’s good enough for fictional purposes. Also I have to be careful not to make two many shafts—horizontal and vertical—or else it starts taking up too much deck space. I’m trying to have an access port within about 200 ft. of any place on the ship. This in conjunction with a system of companionways between decks should facilitate ship wide access.

At some point what I could do is a series of cross-sections deck-by-deck that would allow you to see how things are integrated with each other. This could be somewhat similar to FJ’s individual deck layouts in plan view only mine could be in 3D. The most visible vertical shafts are the main ones running down from the Bridge as well as the two running down through the dorsal into the secondary hull. But in the saucer I am planning four much shorter shafts running between Decks 4, 5 and 6. I think this would help take some traffic out of the main shafts.

In the saucer, except for Decks 1, 2, 9 and 10 the horizontal shafts are laid out in a basic X pattern radiating out from the centre. They are laid out above each other so that it’s easy to add connecting vertical shafts between them.

Once the turbo lift system is in place then I can plan where other things can go and what size and shape they can be. Of course I’m not laying out the whole ship room-by-room, but it will be a helpful guide for the sections I do plan out. If this model was for an actual series (and assuming this was worked out ahead of time) then any future ship interior sets could be planned out more believably in terms of shape, size and location. With that in view it just so happens that two turbo lift access ports come out right near where I’m planning to put Main Engineering. I think this is neat because then anyone (particularly Scotty) could get to Main Engineering in a hurry...when necessary. (-:

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Someone at the edge of the saucer directly bow, starboard, or port certainly has a long way to run to get to a turbolift, if they want to get someplace in a hurry.

 

[Warped9]

This is a problematical system because a horizontal shaft effectively bisects an entire area. You can't walk through a turboshaft to get to the other side. You have to go around it or over it or under it.

I can, of course, add a few extra horizontal shafts, but it's impossible to cover every area perfectly and not take up a lot of deck space.

It must be said that Decks 5 and 6 are the most problematic simply because they are largest decks and about 580 ft. In diameter.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Why not add some branches off the main trunks? Turbo-cars should move very fast, so minimizing the distance that cars have to travel through the turbo-shafts needn't be the absolutely highest priority. It should be possible to design a system so that turbo-elevator doors are always nearby, while maintaining the property that all parts of the ship can be accessed outside the turbo-lift system, including that you don't have to do strange things like climbing up a deck to go around a long horizontal shaft. The horizontal turbo-shafts could have sprints that alternate between two decks instead of just one, so that there aren't long horizontal shafts that cut across one deck like that.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Hmmm, you've got me thinking about this in a way that hadn't occurred to me before.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

We already assume that inertial dampeners have to be operating, else the crew would be paste on the bulkheads during routine maneuvers like just going to warp. So, I wouldn't expect taking advantage of them to have fast turbo-cars to increase the risk to the crew at all.

 

[Albertese]

Yeah, I agree that the current set-up, here, makes foot access between these "quadrants" of the hull problematic. Let me show you my take on this problem. Here's deck 5 on my own deckplans project:



(Note: my intent with this project is to gently re-imagine the Enterprise we saw on TOS, not to slavishly document the ship we saw on the show.)

Anyway, you can see the blue "fluxcapacitor" shape... this is the horizontal turbolift run. The deck below has the missing part of the Y and a ring around the whole saucer, adjacent to the undercut, so there's no corridors to be blocked by a continuous turboshaft.

Now, in this concept, the ship is built out of pressure compartment "blocks" whose purpose is that if one compartment is breeched and the pressure is compromised, it can be sealed off, allowing the adjacent compartments to enjoy their own life support. Since there are no areas where two shafts run over-under each other, there is no "turboshaft isolation." Even in a power-outage scenario where the turbolifts are not working, you could, by means of corridors and companionways, access any part of a given pressure compartment by going over or under an intervening turboshaft that would bisect a given deck.... given that the deck above or below is in your same pressure compartment.

This arrangement also reduces the square footage required for turbolifting people about.

Also, to reply to CorporalCaptain's concern about having a long way to go to get to a turbolift, If indeed there are ports no farther than 200 feet away, that's not really so far. Keep in mind that a football field is only 300 feet long. How long should it take someone to fast-walk TNG-style or flat out run JJ-Trek-style just 2/3 the length of a football field?

--Alex

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The deck below has the missing part of the Y and a ring around the whole saucer, adjacent to the undercut, so there's no corridors to be blocked by a continuous turboshaft.

This was exactly the sort of arrangement I was suggesting here (though I'm certain I've been influenced by designs I've seen around the board that I can't specifically recall now):

The horizontal turbo-shafts could have sprints that alternate between two decks instead of just one, so that there aren't long horizontal shafts that cut across one deck like that.

Also, to reply to CorporalCaptain's concern about having a long way to go to get to a turbolift, If indeed there are ports no farther than 200 feet away, that's not really so far. Keep in mind that a football field is only 300 feet long. How long should it take someone to fast-walk TNG-style or flat out run JJ-Trek-style just 2/3 the length of a football field?

At speeds that are multiples of the speed of light, things can happen fast.

 

[Warped9]

I'm already in the process of making changes.

 

[B.J.]

Another suggestion (for anyone, not necessarily just this project) would be to route the long horizontal runs through the upper deck of a 2+ tall cargo deck.

For example:

=============================
|             |{}|          |
|             ====          |
|                           |
=============================

^Here we have two cargo bays separated by a 1-deck high pass through underneath the turbo-lift run.
= Deck floor
| Walls
{} Turbo-lift

The turbo-lift run is of course oriented perpendicular to the screen in this example.

 

[Warped9]

I’m not there yet with Decks 2 and 3 to go, but here is how the turbolift system is shaping up. The unusual looking layout in the saucer tries to address the issue of not creating overlong obstacles for personnel on main decks. If a horizontal shaft is too long than it becomes problematic for someone to move from one section of a deck to another without having to go around, over or under a shaft. So the system is laid out to take advantage of the system allowing lifts to go from one deck to another without having to return to the main verticals shafts at the central hub.

The overall result is a pair of main vertical shafts (two in the saucer and two in dorsal and secondary hull) and two main horizontal shafts (going aft to the dorsal). The rest is a system of overlapping horizontal and vertical that avoid completely bisecting whole sections of a deck, particularly Decks 4-7. The system also allows for lifts to cross from one side of the ship to the other. Having at least eight secondary vertical shafts eases traffic from the main vertical shafts in the saucer.

The furthest distance from a spot on the outer rim of Deck 5 (the largest deck) to the nearest turbolift port is 211 ft. That’s about two-thirds the length of a football field. I am pondering adding a couple of minor horizontal (and curved) shafts to lesson that distance. I’m not decided yet since it really doesn’t seem that great a distance on decks that are largely crew quarters.

Note, too, that the turbolifts are relatively fast given they can take advantage of inertial systems and greatly lessens the effects of sudden changes in direction and speed for the lift’s occupants. They are effectively each self-contained little vehicles centrally controlled by the ship’s computer.



I'm envisioning a different lift system for the stardrive support pylons given entering the pylons is allowed only by specialized personnel in specific situations. As such it makes no sense to have those lifts part of the main ship wide system. Also I don't think it doesn't make much sense to consider a ladder type form of access because it would be a very long climb to reach the nacelle. A small lift could reach different points within the nacelle as well as a sort of small access bay just within the nacelle.

 

[Sarvek]

Impressive and well thought out!!! Keep up the great work!!

 

[Warped9]

Having finished laying out the turbolift system I'm going back to specific sections. Presently I'm planning out the senior officers' offices.