Why the Railroad is Good but Flawed - Fallout 4 Lore 

One of my favorite lines in the game is when you talk to Virgil and he makes fun of the Railroad for trying to liberate vending machines or something.

“Don’t know why the hell they programmed us to feel pain” -Nick

Diamond city tolerated Nick in part because he looked like a synthetic. The synths that looked like people scared them more. They felt he was not hiding who he was, and it made them less fearful over time.

Railraod and Minutemen feel like two halves of a faction that got split. If they combined them, the new faction may have had enough named NPC's to rival the Brotherhood/Institute.

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." - Optimus Prime

OX: Sturges is a synth Me: U say wut? OX: Magnolia is a synth Me: WOOOOT?

"It's a common misconception that robots can't feel pain! We actually feel it in slow motion! At at great intensity! -Claptrap

tbh, I like the railroad for what they do, but they are heavily afflicted with tunnel vision.

Sole survivor: " So why do you want to help the synths?" Patriot:" At first to see if I could get away with it." - makes perfect sense.

I'm disappointed that there's no option to unite the three surface factions in an assault on the Institute. It would require the deleted option where Paladin Danse challenges Arthur Maxon for control of the Brotherhood of Steel. I envision it thusly: you would have to convince the factions to work together; getting the Railroad and the Brotherhood to get along for this will be the tough part. First, you have the Minutemen and the Brotherhood activate Liberty Prime. You sent him towards C.I.T. ruins, catching the Institute's full attention, whereupon they deploy their Synth armies to the surface. While the Institute is distracted by the coalition army and the Iron Giant, you take control of the Institute's teleporter, smuggle a strike team of Railroad operatives, Brotherhood Scribes, and Minutemen in. The Railroad starts the Synth uprising supported by the strike team while the Railroad and the Scribes steal as much research and data as possible. Classic divide and conquer. When Liberty Prime reaches C.I.T. and blasts a hole in the Institute's roof, the Brotherhood mostly hang back to secure the exit, with the bulk of the assault force comprised of Minutemen going underground to reinforce the strike team and the Synth rebels. The reactor is rigged to blow, the evacuation order is given, the surviving members of the SRB are arrested to be put on trial, everyone gets out of dodge, and you start the fireworks from a safe distance. The Railroad takes custody of the Syths until they can be resettled, the Brotherhood is given the bulk of whatever tech research the strike team recovers, Liberty Prime is reprogrammed to require authorization from the heads of all three factions to operate within the Commonwealth as an act of good faith, and all three factions are given roles in the new CPG. The Minutemen are the leading faction, covering local defense and maintaining trade roads like a police force. They keep the trade routes clear of raiders and hostile creatures, set up a coordinated trade network for scavengers and farmers, devise standard operating procedures for things like prospecting, scavenging, treasure hunting, and the like; The Railroad act as an intelligence agency and handles Synth affairs for the CPG. They gain Spectacle Island as their own settlement, safe house, and operations center, while there would also be a manufacturing plant designed to supply the factions and the Commonwealth with weapons, armor, ammunition, and equipment; And the Brotherhood of Steel are kept as a hired mercenary force, allowed to conduct their tech salvage missions and given a stipend from the CPG in return for aiding the Minutemen in clearing out raiders, super mutants, and hostile wildlife, so long as they agree to let free Synths and sentient Ghouls be, and to allow the people of the Commonwealth to keep the less dangerous tech they need to rebuild. Recovered intel and information would be shared collectively with the other factions, and they would be called in to safely recover and/or deal with technology that is too dangerous for common people, can't be used without a proper industrial infrastructure, or just so weird and outside context that the Brotherhood have the only people who can make sense of it. There would be joint operations and campaigns for the three factions, such as retaking Quincy and finally shutting down the Gunners for good, wiping out the raiders of Nuka-World, clearing out all hostile bands of Super Mutants from Boston, ect. For the Gunners example, the Railroad could infiltrate the group if they haven't already, relay information about where all Gunner strongholds are and what kind of forces they possess, sabotage their communications network, assassinate key officers, exacerbate rivalries, instigate mutinies, stuff like that. The Minutemen would use their network of artillery to bombard Gunner outposts and strongholds, and then work with the Brotherhood of Steel to rapidly deploy armored ground forces with vertibirds to sweep in and mop up. What do you guys think? Edit: I think someone made a BBC-esque mockumentary on RU-vid using many of the ideas I listed here.

Fun fan canon: the railroad are the remainents of the hippies at sunshine tidings co-op

*Makes gen 1 and gen 2 Scientist: I want this to feel pain *makes gen 3 synth

I believe synths are people too, but the institute has clean toilet paper :(

I love the railroad but yes. -Let's save all the synths! -Then what? -Well i don't know

Not a day in my life did I think I would hear oxhorn say "Cucks"

h2-22 made me cry, just his final "thanks" and the chuckle he did before saying it. I know it's just a game, but i always hoped he went somewhere nice..

Brotherhood Military, Institute Technology, Railroad tactics, Minutemen Ideals, and sole survivor leader = perfect factions.

I felt so much empathy for H2. His voice actor did an excellent job giving him so much character.

Can we take a moment to appreciate how great H2-22's voice acting is?

Railroad meetings: "Let's save synths" "Great, then what" "Idk"

Their insistence on nuking the institute's buildings bothered me too much. They were growing food, purifying water, had advance medicines, etc. Destroying all that progress after freeing the synths is just too much. It would have been far better to take the place over and utilize it's tech, replicate if possible.

Gosh darn it Institute, **all** of this could have been avoided if you just made will-less robots like everybody else. But noooooo you had to create machines that think, therefore they are. At the least you could have just made the labor robots without a will. They had the facilities to produce non-sapient robots as shown by the layout of their lab. Why go through all that trouble just to create rebellious, feeling slaves that have personal needs? Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for absolutely no reason. "Synths are expected to behave... like machines..." So why not just make machines?

The Railroad's hyperfocus is kinda helpful, tho? Once they finish with Synths, they can do something else, maybe eliminate all feral ghouls so non-ferals can be considered safe or work out a peace with the super mutants thru Strong. The mind-wiping is gonna come back to bite ppl in the butt later, tho. Imagine being infertile, never getting fat, living as long as an elf and suddenly you learn you're a robot.

You didn't mention Patriot's suicide. That moment hit me as a surprise and made me feel less happy with the railroad. It showed that the evacuation did not completely work as Binet's family died in the blast driving him to suicide. He was a supporter of the railroad that felt betrayed by them. Desdemona lies to the railroad saying he died in the blast rather than the truth about his suicide. Even giving him a send off in front of the railroad hailing him as a great agent despite him hating them. This cover up added more shades of grey to the railroad.

Psssh, I love the railroad. Would of loved to see a alliance between the railroad and minutemen

Me: Oh look, a video on fallout I haven't seen yet by oxhorn! Oxhorn: *Hippies, cucks, social justice warriors..*

17:29 "If you were treated like a tool your entire life, would you leave the Institute only to become a raider boss and treat settlers like tools?" This is actually a common occurrence in history. When slaves get power they often become slave masters. Happened in Hati, Liberia, and Egypt. It almost happened in South Africa.

Railroad is my favorite faction, I am so attached to deacon, glory, desdemona, and tinker Tom. I almost feel like killing them is betrayal of myself

I don't really know why that one Asian guy in the minute men is always sad.

Brotherhood- People>Synths Railroad- Synths>People Minutemen- People slightly >Synths Institute- Their own>Everyone

18:52 I know I'm a few years late to the party, but Glory saying "Isn't there supposed to be a light?" right before she dies just hits something different. Maybe I'm just a suckered for lines like that, but that filled me with equal parts of sorrow and rage to annihilate the Prydwen when I got my chance

I always thought the railroad beating the BOS was really unrealistic but the sole survivor did do all the work tho

"You go to warn Desdamona, just in time as Railroad soldiers burst through your doors" Yew wot m8? Too much coffee?

Reasons why the Railroad is superior to everyone else: 1. Deacon That is all.

H2-22’s voice lines feel me with sadness. Props to that man’s VA.

i got a strange ending in one of my playthroughs - joined the railroad and intended to win with them - but apparently i had gained enough minute man settlements also, so when i arrived to the roof it was the minutemen standing at the detonate button - not the railroad i had helped to the roof. i take that as a win - saved the synths then had the humans blow the shit up for the many years of meddling.

How to feel sad in Fallout 4: Step 1: 10:21 Step 2: ??? Step 3: *FEEL VERY SAD*

Synths are people and the railroad is guilty of destroying PEOPLE'S personalities.

The Railroad is clearly intended to be a sympathetic faction. The worst operators in the Railroad are basically portrayed as jerks with good hearts or just freedom fighters with (understandable) trust issues. Deacon is meant to be the bridge. He's the fun operator guy who runs around and acts as the reasonable guy to smooth over the wrinkles between the sole survivor and Desdemona and the inner circle. And having to deal with Deacon is admittedly one of the hardest parts about siding against the Railroad. In my case, Deacon is really the only thing that gives me pause about cutting ties. But the Railroad loses me for several reasons. One of those is acknowledged by Deacon: that the Railroad is so niche-focused on synths that they basically disregard the plight of humans. They'll totally overlook humans in crisis unless those humans are potential assets to the Railroad. People give the Brotherhood of Steel a hard time about this but the Railroad seems to get a pass because their operational goal involves some nebulous concept of "rights". Secondly, I think what isn't getting acknowledged in the argument of "are synths people?" is the existence of recall codes. Harkness has a very defined personality in Fallout 3. Is very convincing to everyone - even himself - and requires the player to unravel a mystery to figure out the identity of the synth. And yet for all that he is as a person, one phrase is enough to wipe it all out in an instant. Everything about his personality, his life experiences, everything that makes him who he is - it all goes back to a blank passive personality the second Zimmer hits him with his recall code. I think this is something that needs to be addressed in the argument for the personhood of synths because it takes away the agency of synths. Who they are is who they're permitted to be. Every bit of radiant learning they acquire that tailors their personality can be erased at a moment's notice. Finally the Railroad's ultimate endgame seems contrary to their own stated purpose. If the point is to give synths self-determination, to let them exist as their own people and not as a caste of servitors to another group, the Railroad completely eliminates that. The only way for synths to increase in number is for them to be manufactured by the Institute. But is the Railroad's endgame to liberate the Institute? No. They destroy the Institute. All the synths that will ever exist - the whole purpose of the Railroad's existence - are the ones that were made before they blew up the Institute. Synths have been denied the ability to create a future for their people and worse, they've been denied that future by the group claiming to advocate for them. The Railroad unilaterally decided to end the means of synths to make any more of their own. They could have liberated the Institute and granted the synths access to the synth manufacturing center to use or not use as they saw fit. Instead they burned the whole operation to the ground. I think they're idiots who have a very poorly thought out long game. Well-intentioned, sure, but ultimately foolish.

If I recall, Glory was upset because she was trying to talk G5-19 out of the memory wipe. She tried to convince her that she could live a normal life without losing her memories, but G5 did it anyway and it all went wrong. So Glory might feel responsible for not only failing to convince G5, but also responsible for letting her die by not stopping her. When you show up with Curie, it's another possible failure that she is hesitant to face.

Uggh.... Why don't the Minutemen and the Railroad *WORK TOGETHER?!* The Minutemen can cover any tracks left by the RR whenever they perform their ops, and the RR can send Synths to the MM! It would probably be very much more convoluted, but just.... UGGGGHH.....

something I need to say. The railroad are against any form of slavery. With synths being the biggest slaves and the atrocities that the institute have done their focus in this story was to free synths and to stop the institute. The railroad agent in fallout 3 stated that they also try and stop the human slave trade as much as possible.

The memory wipe is scary, it's like an assisted suicide...

Daddy binet : "But if they can feel and dream, then they ARE sentient, and enslaving them is wrong" Also Daddy binet: "I'm going to put my quantum harmonizer in your photonic resonance chamber"

When I ran in to the Art vs Art encounter I had Deacon with me. At first he was happy that I calmed everyone down. Then, after synth Art attacked me, I killed synth Art. This he disliked. What was I supposed to do? Synth Art is an Institute infiltrator, not an escaping synth. He will kill human Art and take his place. But, because he is a synth, I'm supposed to just let him go? This is my problem with the Railroad. In their equation for the Commonwealth Synth > Human.

Why didnt you mention Patriot's suicide note? Its one of the most damning pieces of evidence against the Railroad!

I've never actually seen that message from H2-22 before and it's so heartwarming that he doesn't want to forget those who helped him

One thing I’ve always wondered is something related to Glory’s death. As she’s dying, she says “shouldn’t there be a light?”. I think this is interesting considering her status as a synth. Could this be a subtle hint that in the universe of Fallout 4 synths truly don’t have souls?

The problem isn't whether or not the Railroad is good or bad, but rather the need for them. They have one goal, and a narrow one at that. To free synths is why they exist, and that's fine and all but it has no long term purpose. Once the institute is gone, what purpose does the Railroad serve? They don't help rebuild anything civilization wise, they aren't really ones to lead anything, and at most they would just be there to try and help with the integration of synths into the commonwealth. Outside of that they have no purpose, no long term success. They are a very here and now organization where as the Brotherhood, Minutemen and the Institute are aiming for a more future centric mindset. The Minutemen want to bring the people of the commonwealth together in order to provide a community and rebuild civilization where people can prosper. The Brotherhood, while zealous and misguided, want to protect people from the horrors of technology that lead to the future that they all live in now. The Institute wants to rebuild society in their image. And yes, this play god mentality of theirs is problematic, foolish, and even sinister at times, they are doing so in hopes to rebuild a world that is better than the one that came before it. Each one of the other factions have a far better grasp of their purpose and future than the Railroad does. Heck, even the raider gangs of Nuka World have a better grasp of their goals and future than the Railroad does. They may live in the now with a childish mentality of take what they want, but they seek territory and control for a reason.

I feel like if they teamed with the minutemen, they could be a small part of the minutemen that frees synths but also helps people. These to together would be the best faction in the game.

H2-22's final goodbye message is very sad for me. I wish there was an option to convince him keep his memories

Legit, I love the Railroad. I love the fact that despite them becoming desperate after nearly being wiped out, they don't give up. They have a mission, and that mission is to save every synth in the Institute, or die trying. But I wish for Desdemona to actually see the forest made up of all the trees. To realize that humans may have their flaws, but most of them would be willing to lend the Railroad a hand, if the Railroad lent them one first. To put her hatred of the Commonwealth's people aside and work alongside the Minutemen to destroy the Institute and the BoS. Then the Railroad can do what they do best, while the Minutemen can do what they do best. That would be the perfect ending imo. Here's the real pain point for me: Desdemona asks you if you're willing to risk your life for your fellow man, even if that man is a synth. But the impression I get from her is that she would only risk her life for her fellow man if that man was a synth. Humans? Screw 'em. Let them all die. Synths? Must protect at all costs!

We have the Railroad for saving Synths. We have the Minutemen for saving the people of the Commonwealth.

When it comes to the Railroad, I got nothing against them when you look at their objective but I think they're too small minded and incompatible when it comes to the big picture of the Commonwealth, yes their goal is Synth freedom and they wish to keep the synths safe from both the Institute and wastelanders who would harm synths but I think the Railroad is best served as sort of a covert arm of the Minutemen since freedom is the ultimate goals of both groups, saving the Synths that are self-aware is a noble deed but I do think they as a group would be best off allying with a group like the Minutemen.

If the wiping of memory equates to the destruction of a person, then what the Railroad does is supporting a form of assisted suicide. It is a non-starter for many.

The Railroad would be less flawed if they provided Synths with more ways to deal with their trauma than just erasing their memories. Some kind of help or therapy to at least see if mental recovery is possible. Don't just tell them "You either just deal with all the trauma by yourself or we erase all of your memories". Neither choice is very good.

Honestly, the Railroad and the Minutemen would make a pretty good team. The Railroad focuses on synths and the Minutemen focus on the safety of the Commonwealth.

It's interesting to hear the discussion of morality of saving synthesis while watching you vaporize other NPCs.

Railroad: Chaotic Good Minutemen: Lawful Good Brotherhood: Lawful Neutral Institute: Neutral Evil

Idk why but I always end up finishing the game with the Railroad about 75% of the time. Their message just hits me.

If the Rivet City Security Captain (can't remember his name) from Fallout 3 is any indication then the original memories of Synth's are NOT erased but locked away. He was a Corsur and if you get the code phrase from the Railroad agent watching over him he gets his old memories back along with his current ones.

i see the railroad as a spy agency when paired with the minute men.

the railroad seems to be based on "The Underground Railway" which was a organization who's goal was to free slaves, I recommend googling it

Oh my god, I’m a monster. The guy at 2:33 I killed him because I thought he was an institute spy, going there to replace someone. Instead I killed an innocent synth that I stand to protect

Railroad has a great covert ops feel. Its the best way to both down the prydwen (great quest) and destroy the Institute. I joined the Railroad, on first playthrough, as a tribute to Nick Valentine's character. I was surprised more didnt view Maxson as an obvious d-bag, or the Institute as obvious evil. Oxhorn is on point on the morality of all the factions.

2:37 “I don’t.” “Sorry, I don’t.” “I don’t, but give me your caps anyway.” Truly top notch writing there Bethesda.

2:13 Robot Oskar Schindler?! Great guy by the way, I deeply respect him for his actions.

The Railroad is by far my favorite faction of Fallout, the people who are saving everyone and are interesting to talk to. I don't understand all the hatred towards them, especially since a lot of people like Nick Valentine, Curie, Sturges and Paladin Danse so how do you saw they're just machines after seeing their struggles?

I'm learning a great deal of morality while you blow some BOS heads

if the institute wants android slaves, why give them so much latitude in programming that they become self aware?

I wish I could meld the railroad with the minutemen. Turn them into a division and give them more support and recourses

Until I watched this, I always thought the Railroad was this global force for good. Ox, you've once again opened my perspectives to the factions. The Railroad is indeed flawed, but not evil. They just focus on one thing instead of trying to help all.

But more importantly, Stormcloak or Imperial? Jesus a year later and 200 hundred replies? my best comment by far! Still can't believe this comment is so popular

Ik this is late but in regards to the mind wipe, I'd like to point out that erasing a synth's memories may not change them as a person or erase who they are, as we see in the Nick Valentine companion story. Nick at first is deeply torn by the idea that his personality is defined by his memories, all of which were uploaded from the "real" Nick Valentine. He feels that his memories, his personality, and his life don't belong to him. At first I thought that this would end when Nick comes to realize that just because his body is different and just because his memories had been transferred or copied, doesn't make him a different person. I thought he *was* Nick Valentine the pre-war cop, who got himself into a weird out-of-time conundrum just like the sole survivor, but he isn't. The reality is that he is a different person because his brain is structured differently, and he is right that those memories don't belong to him. The resolution in that story comes when he realizes that even if he can't claim his past, he can still claim his future. I understand that Nick is very similar to the person described in his memories but I don't think that what happened to him is necessarily the same as what happens to the others, I think the Institute specifically intended for Nick to be a copy of his predecessor, whereas the Railroad mind wipe gives the synths a generic set of memories, but leaves their core personality intact. Just like Nick, these synths are able to forge lives for themselves in the future.

"Hate runs deep in the Commonwealth. Deeper than the soil. Little minds cling to their petty prejudices no matter what the evidence says." She might as well be turning to the camera and speaking directly to the player at this point.

I just like playing as an "agent." So Railroad it is. I'm a simple guy lol.

The synth body that is used for Curie used to belong to Glory's lover. That's why she is upset.

"Sturges is a Synth." Excuse me... WHAT?!?!

Love Oxhorn but 18:30, "you race back to the railroad headquarters to inform Desdemona just in time to find railroad soldiers bursting through your doors" he had railroad on the brain for this one!

(what do you call a fantasy nerd) i just realized the synths have to pretend to be moonblinked to avoid actually being moonblinked

The Railroad is an excellent analogy for their namesake, the Underground Railroad; the agents are the conductors and the SRB Coursers are the slave catchers. Obviously, this would make the Institute the plantation.

My favorite thing about the Railroad was acting like a secret agent.

I really love the background song played in the Railroad HQ

I probably said this constant times, but a Minutemen+Railroad alliance is the best ending, as the Minutemen can cover the Railroad's weaknesses.

I don't understand why everyone wants to explode to Institute. I mean, there are _valuable_ assets there. The Brotherhood would probably be able to take the most advantage of the institutes stuff, because they already have engineers and scientists in their organisation. The Railroad, Minute Men _and_ Brotherhood could use the institute as another base of operations, building upwards and spreading influence with institute assets and technology to better aid the people of the Commonwealth. The Synth retention and Robotics space could be used for other things like actual robotics and SRB could be used for whatever. What good is a big irradiated hole to the Commonwealth?

Also Desdemona telling us to "cut loose" Liam Binet was messed up. Say what you want about the situation. I HATE betraying someone who has given me their trust. It's a core principle of who I am as a person. I don't like lying and I dont like backstabbing. I hate disloyalty in all forms with a burning passion. When *SPOILERS ALERT* Liam Binet commits suicide my heart sank. I felt I did the wrong thing by choosing the RR. I regretted all the decisions I made at that point. Hell I felt then and there that the RR was the worst ending possible, even worst than siding with the Institute because I could have made the Institute a better place. We already had 3 leading Scientists and other lower level Scientists wanting to actually do something to help the Commonwealth. We could have had Dr. Li help us. In fact many wanted her as the next director. If we wanted to do more to help people on the surface we could have had her on our side as a leading voice to convince the skeptics. In many respects the Institute ending could be the 2nd best ending imho, right after the BoS ending. Imho Maxson is ultimately right about Synth production. It's unfortunate that so many people have to die for the greater good but it is necessary imho. That tech should die and never be allowed to ever see the light of day again.

My favourite thing to headcanon about the Railroad is that one day, in the future after Fallout 4, when the Railroad's operations have died down due to simply having freed all the synths, someone - perhaps the Sole Survivor - reprioritises the Railroad to fighting conventional human slavers and slavery. I always thought it would be a shame for all the Railroad's resources and tactics and organisation to just die out after their mission ends. There will always be darkness in the wasteland, but I believe that the Railroad has the capacity to continue being the lantern lighting the way to freedom.

Anyone else notice that the brotherhood in fallout 4 are very similar to the enclave in fallout 3.

synths are just very realistic sexbots

Oxhorn i love your point about the Railroad becoming basically the governing faction of the Commonwealth at end game if you side with them. It makes so little sense & is absolutely against what the entire game leads us to believe about them & how they operate.

“It’ll work because it must.” Anyone tells you that... run.

18:39 "railroad soldiers bursting through the door" **shows BoS soldiers**

The Railroad's goals are noble, but their prioritizing of synth's over humans is a problem. Additionally, one could argue that wiping the minds of freed synths, even to free them, essentially "kills" who that synth is - yes, their physical body is no longer under Institute control, but the person that sought that freedom no longer exists... Oxhorn, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Robobrain project, and whether they are still "people" too... What happens to a memory-wiped synth, who, decades later, doesn't age. Does the Railroad provide any sort of training (combat or otherwise) to those Synths that don't want to have their memories wiped?

No faction in fallout seems to be concerned with the most important tasks in a nuclear wasteland, like cleaning up the rubble and rebuild the roads.

I honestly see doing the memory wipe the same as a form of suicide. Losing your thoughts, memories and having a new consciousness put in its place means you are no longer you. I look at it akin to someone with alzeimers, watching someone lose all their memories then the rest of themselves ... effectively becoming someone else entirely ...

I've played through all the faction endings now, and I have to say that while I totally agree with you that the Minuteman ending is the best one for all involved, the Railroad ending was hands down the most exciting and fun. Hell, the dialogue between Tinker Tom and Deacon during the endgame infiltration missions (Cambridge and the Prydwen) is priceless. Took Preston along just so I could role play an alliance between the Minutemen and the Railroad (an option Bethesda should have had on the table, and would have made for a stronger Commonwealth in the end). My only gripe is that the Railroad (all the factions that are against the Institute, actually) want to blow the Institute up. You'd think the Railroad would want to take over the facility and continue to create synths, have a more solid base of operations. All that tech, the safety of the place. They wiped out the future of the very beings they work so hard to protect. Never made any sense to blow it up in every single ending that didn't favor the Institute. Whoever controls the Institute, and all of its tech, at the end of the game would be far better equipped to help the Commonwealth prosper. Seemed shortsighted and self defeating.

H2-22 made me sad.

Isn't it curious that so much of the Institute's "property" keeps running off?

Railroad: let's blow up the Institute to save the synths! Institute gets blown up. Synths: you did remember to save the instructions so we can make baby synths right? Railroad: wait wut?

How can something that's strictly machine have nightmares? I don't understand how you could justify the synths as not being people.