Railway rifle (Fallout 4)

The railway rifle is a weapon in Fallout 4.

Background
A model that is a product of Tinker Tom'ref name="tom">Railroad HQ terminal entries; Tinker Tom's terminal, Field test log the railway rifle shoots railway spikes at lethal velocities. During development there were issues with its cooling unit, and liquid nitrogen was eventually used to decrease the reload time.

Characteristics
The railway rifle fires railway spikes as projectiles in the same manner as an air rifle. These are rarely found as ammunition, but are cheap to buy and may be recovered from enemies slain using the weapon. In exchange, the railway rifle has become enormously more powerful from its last iteration while retaining its ability to do extreme damage to limbs—sometimes even pinning detached ones to walls.

The railway rifle is most effective in VATS at close to mid ranges, although its range is somewhat increased from its last incarnation and can be greatly increased with modification. The reason that the rifle is more effective in V.A.T.S. is that the nails seems to have a slight travel time which makes it harder to hit enemies further away. This travel time reduces the efficiency of the railway rifle as a sniper weapon. However, a scoped railway rifle can still be a devastating sniper weapon for use against unaware enemies because of its massive damage.

In addition, a train whistle can be heard when reloading the weapon.

Variants

 * Prototype railway rifle

Locations

 * Big John's Salvage - inside Big John's fallout shelter, which is in a blue overturned railway car just behind his house. In order to enter the shelter's trapdoor, the power must be switched on. The power switch is near the automobile-powered main gate to the salvage yard, attached to a power cable that runs to the blue railway car. After hitting the switch, access the trapdoor by jumping on top of the car.
 * Potential reward for completing the Railroad quest Underground Undercover and starting Precipice of War.
 * Bedford Station - Inside a blue railway car attached to a locomotive. Appears at Level 20.
 * Carried by Desdemona during the quest Tactical Thinking.
 * Carried by generic Railroad agents.