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The railway rifle is a custom-built Small Guns weapon in Fallout 3.

Characteristics[]

The gun fires railway spikes as crude flechettes, making a distinctive "toot-toot" noise after each shot like a train whistle. Though only moderately damaging, it is very effective at dealing limb damage (due to a 3x limb damage multiplier), able to cripple limbs with just one shot. On the killing shot, a spike may tear off the struck limb or head, and possibly pin it to a fixed object, for example, a wall or the floor. Its accuracy is not poor for a semi-auto rifle, but will often miss at longer range, making it more effective at short to medium ranges. It is most effective in V.A.T.S. where its limb-destroying effects can be put to precision use. It is also remarkably effective at disarming enemies, as it will often launch their weapons a substantial distance on a V.A.T.S. hit. It has a high critical multiplier, which, depending on one's base critical chance, can make it highly effective.

Durability[]

The railway rifle can fire a total of about 222 spikes, the equivalent of 28 reloads, from full condition before breaking.

Locations[]

  • Laszlo Radford uses the railway rifle. He is a random encounter who may be found at certain locations throughout the wasteland, but only appears after the Lone Wanderer has obtained at least one schematic for the railway rifle.
  • All of the components can be found in Fort Independence. Simply walk into the building and go straight and open the door. On the back left shelf, all the way to the left is a crutch. After that, back up and go right. There will be a staircase, then a door afterward, open the door and proceed downward. Go into the cubicle on the far end of the room on the right. There will be shelves containing three fission batteries and a steam gauge assembly. Then, move into the other room on the same floor. Turn right, and there will be a table with two pressure cookers.
  • All of the components can also be found in the RobCo facility. There are a good number of fission batteries and steam gauge assemblies spread throughout the floor area as well as two crutches in the central large room, near some computers. Finally, in the kitchen, there are two pressure cookers on the stoves. One may find additional fission batteries in the robots on the ground.

Crafting[]

The rifle is built from a crutch that forms the stock and grip part of the gun, a pressure cooker that acts as a firing chamber, a steam gauge assembly that makes the forearm, ammunition storage and barrel of the gun and a fission battery as a power source to operate the weapon.

Materials:Requirements:Produces:
Crutch (1)
Range
Level
Railway rifle (1)

Notes[]

  • The stock of the railway rifle seems to be an actual weapon stock, similar to that of a combat shotgun, instead of appearing as a crutch as the schematics intended. However, the handgrip of the crutch can still be clearly seen under the barrel section attached to the piston.
  • Railway spikes do not create ripples when fired into water.
  • The pressure gauge by the barrel of the railway rifle will indicate high pressure until it is fired once, then low pressure until it is reloaded.
  • Fallout: New Vegas includes a brief cameo of the railway rifle, seen on the far wall of the "hidden" weapons room in Mick & Ralph's. This version of the weapon is a non-interactive static mesh (i.e. a decoration) rather than a working weapon. Most of the other resources for this weapon remain in the game's files, but no actual, working version of the weapon exists within the game itself.
  • It was originally called the railspike gun in concept art.[1]
  • All items are also available in the Adams Air Force Base, on the first floor of the launch platform. It can be found in one of the secured alcoves. The particular alcove is located directly to the southeast as one enters the launch platform. Located within this alcove is also a workbench. Access to the alcoves through Science check (Level 80) or Explosive check (Level 50). This can only be accessed with the Broken Steel add-on.
  • During its reload animation, only one railway spike is inserted into the gauge assembly, even though the weapon has a capacity of eight spikes.

Sounds[]

SingleShotVB ReloadVB
JamVB

Gallery[]

References[]

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