Railway Rifle (Fallout 3)

The Railway Rifle is a custom-built weapon in Fallout 3, made from a crutch that comprises the stock and grip part of the gun, a Pressure Cooker that acts as a firing chamber, a Fission Battery that acts as the firing pin and a Steam Gauge Assembly that comprises the grip, ammo storage and barrel of the gun.

Characteristics

 * The Railway Rifle falls into the Small Guns category.
 * The gun fires Railway Spikes. Though only moderately damaging, it is very effective at dealing limb damage (due to a 3x limb damage multiplier), able to cripple limbs often with just one shot. On the killing shot, a spike may tear off the struck body part, and possibly pin it to a wall if there are any close enough.
 * The Railway Rifle has a deceptively low DAM stat, and has moderate accuracy (better than the Assault Rifle, lower than the Hunting Rifle). However, its shots have a lower velocity than bullets, making it more effective at short to medium ranges, and most effective in V.A.T.S. where its limb-destroying effects can be put to precision use. It has a high critical multiplier stat that, depending on your base critical chance, may make the Railway Rifle one of the best non unique small guns.
 * Oddly enough, the rifle weighs less than the components. The Steam Gauge Assembly weighs ten pounds, the Fission Battery weighs ten pounds as well, the Pressure Cooker weighs five pounds, and the Crutch weighs two pounds, so technically, the railway rifle should weigh about twenty-seven pounds. Some components might have been removed from the materials during the assembly, however, which could explain the weight loss.
 * 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 like the schematics intended.

Construction

 * See Schematics - Railway Rifle

Item Locations

 * Laszlo Radford uses the Railway Rifle, he is a random encounter who may be found at certain "random encounter" locations throughout the Wasteland.

Schematic Locations

 * At Rivet City with Abraham Washington. Part of the Stealing Independence quest.
 * The store clerk Tulip in Underworld Outfitters has a schematic for it.
 * MDPL-13 Power Station, on the work bench

Appearances
Railway Rifle appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

 * Seagrave Holmes's computer terminal in Rivet City contains an entry about his failure to create a weapon that fires Railway Spikes. The entry describes his attempts at using rubber bands as a propulsion system, and possibility of making his contraption steam-powered, hinting that he is, possibly, the original inventor of the railway rifle.
 * When fired it makes the sound of a steam whistle.
 * If this is given to Charon, he will burn through the Railway Spikes really fast, so if you're near an enemy, you will hear continuous steam whistle sound.
 * A good place to go to construct the Railway Rifle is the Old RobCo Factory. A workbench and all the parts required to build the device are present inside the factory, many within the workbench room.

Glitches

 * It has been observed by multiple players on different consoles that using the Railway Rifle, especially with VATS can result in freezing. It is thought that this happens when the player scores a critical hit on a headshot. Bethesda has since announced that this was fixed in the Fallout 3 patch 1.1
 * Despite the supposed solidity of the spikes, nothing can be placed on top of them. For example, if two spikes are lodged in a wall at roughly the same height, you are unable to place something on top of them, such as a Chinese Officer's Sword, or anything else. This may have been done on purpose by the developers in order to prevent players from using the spikes as a kind of "ladder," as can be done in the original Half Life with mines. Or on Oblivion with the paintbrushes.
 * On occasion, the severed head or limb of an enemy will not be pinned to the wall behind it, but will float in mid air wherever it was shot off. It does not get in the way of the player's walking; however, (s)he cannot shoot through it.
 * If the player burns the enemy he is fighting before pinning his limb/head to a wall, the enemy's head will be nailed to the wall on fire, and will never go out. this creates a cool, Limb torch/lamp during day and is even better at night.

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