Railway Rifle (Fallout 3)

The Railway rifle is a custom-built weapon in Fallout 3.

Building
The rifle is built 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 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 limb or head, and possibly pin it to a fixed object, for example wall or the floor. While it has a low amount of spread, its accuracy is not perfect and the rifle will miss often at long range. However, its projectiles have much more mass 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.

After being fired, it makes the sound of a steam whistle.

The Railway rifle can fire a total of 222 railway spikes before breaking.

Locations

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

Appearances
The 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.
 * 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. The hand grip of the crutch can still be clearly seen under the barrel section attached to the piston.

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