215 Rail Line Powder Gang

The 215 Rail Line Powder Gang was a faction planned for Van Buren.

Interactions with the player character
The gang will attack one week after the player character arrives in New Canaan. This is a big concern for many of the people in the community of New Canaan, and they are seriously worried about what is going to happen when the group arrives.

Characters

 * Jackson: This mean-spirited man used to be a foreman on the 215 Rail Line for NCR until the contracts dried up and Joseph Dodge, the Governor of Hoover Dam, didn't have the money to pay the workers. It didn't take long for Jackson to say "fuck this shit" and take to the desert with his crew, raiding wherever they found caravans—the groups that they fault for the problem. Over time, though, Jackson has become desperate, and has turned his sights on New Canaan. Not being a tactical mastermind, he has announced when he expects the surrender of the city's goods to him. Jackson wears metal armor and a Kevlar helmet, and he carries a 7.62mm assault rifle, several frag grenades, and a .44 revolver.


 * Boilermaker: A quiet, evil bastard, Boilermaker worked for the rail lines shoving precious coal into the engines of the trains on their rare trips. However, like the others, he was out of a job when the line work dried up. He suffered a lot of heat and smoke damage to his face, and he wears a welding mask to cover it. He wears football pads on the rest of his body. Boilermaker is huge and really strong, and he carries a flamethrower with plenty of ammunition and a hefty baseball bat. Boilermaker looks for the least heavily armored people and beats them with his baseball bat. The rest he burns.

Encounter Characters

 * 215 Snipers: They're equipped with .223 hunting rifles, combat knives, construction outfits, and motorcycle helmets. They hang back with Jackson and blow away people at long distance. They make a lot of arm and leg shots to disable people.


 * 215 Gunners: Three different jerks in Jackson's outfit. They're all equipped with 9mm submachineguns, lead pipes, leather outfits, and motorcycle helmets. They try to get into mid-range so they can burst large groups. They often flank the field just in case people try to run from the thugs.


 * 215 Thugs: They're all equipped with a variety of melee and thrown weapons: lawnmower blades, switchblades, sledgehammers, lead pipes, fire axes, hatchets, spears, etc. They wear leather armor and construction helmets. As one might expect, they close in to close range and try to "wolf pack" people down.

Behind the scenes
Commenting on the differences between the Fallout: New Vegas Powder Gangers and the 215 Rail Lain Powder Gang in Van Buren, Joshua Sawyer stated that the Van Buren faction had much more developed characters and were to play a larger role, while in Fallout: New Vegas, their focus in the game was greatly diminished.