We’ve all heard ‘stories’ that radiation is dangerous – fact or fiction?* A common sight in factories, military installations, and the basements of selected government-funded middle schools, these safety barrels* are just what the name implies – safe. While their attractive coloring can be interpreted as a warning, for REPCONN, it’s an invitation to a future filled with nuclear power!
REPCONN Headquarters Tour
* Rhetorical questions and nomenclature of exhibit items cannot be used as a basis for criminal prosecution.
Locations
# 83 – Hunter’s farm
# 84 – REPCONN headquarters
# 86 – Junction 15 railway station
# 87 – NCR Ranger safehouse
# 253 – Train station
Location Details
# 87 – NCR Ranger safehouse – While I was looking for the railway-related locations, I found out about the city of Arden, swallowed up by neighboring town Enterprise and therefore becoming technically a neighborhood, but held something uniquely special of its own – the last fallout shelter of the county. It was in almost the exact location of the NCR Ranger Safehouse – in the empty field off of Blue Diamond Road.
The door to the shelter is locked tight, with most of the more interesting contents moved to the Clark County Historical Museum. I found out that there used to be quite a few shelters – behold the list of all Clark County, Nevada shelters. How incredible! Look at the locations! The title font! Everything! This has to be a mirage, it is too incredible!
This led me down an entirely new path of research, comparing a draft map of New Vegas to this list and to a list I found on the Nevada Bureau of Mines site, essentially determining the original inspiration for the New Vegas vaults, more or less. You can check out that entry here.
None of the shelters exist anymore, but I was so absolutely blown away with seeing this. I also enjoyed seeing some instructional materials from the shelter – including calling the “Overseer” the “Supervisor” – and a document called Radiation Permissible Activities. I think it is cool that in game, radiation levels are somewhat similar. Although I have only experienced a few places where radiation can climb to such levels, and most that I know of I only found while messing around via console commands.
I recommend the museum whole-heartedly. It is only $2 and features other cool items that look suitably fallout-esque like some mid-century televisions and furniture.
Make sure to use your Perception and be careful in the area of the shelter. It is sort of a strange place with tons of trash in piles, nice looking but clearly abandoned houses and businesses. If you are interested in reading the article written for the Las Vegas Review Journal, it was behind a paywall, so I included it here.
# 83 – Hunter’s farm – I believe this location is based off of Hunter’s Edge Farm, a business that offers horse boarding and riding lessons. It is located approximately in the same geographic place as the in game location – a little ways off of Nevada State Route 160 and convergence with Interstate 15.
# 84 – REPCONN headquarters – Not to be confused with the test site, this location is aligned with the real world location PEPCON – Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada – which was a chemical plant that provided an oxidizing agent used by NASA in their space shuttles. Unfortunately, chemicals there were stored incorrectly and a welder’s torch caused a chain reaction ending in a massive explosion in May 1988.
This explosion destroyed this plant as well as surrounding locations and had 2 fatalities and many more injuries. It is a pretty intense read, which you can take a look at here.
The location was rebuilt, changed hands a few times, and is now the Clark County Facilities Service Center. In the game, if you have time to read all of the plaques and listen to the tour guide, you are in for a treat. They are hysterical. And you will become an Honorary Rocketeer! The plant ultimately rebranded and moved to Utah, rebranding as WECCO, where it experienced a more or less identical explosion a decade later.
hey, where’s pluto?
# 253 – Train station – I walked around the Clark County Facilities Service Center neighborhood for awhile. It is a commercial district, as one could expect being centered around a rail line. There was not a train station, and instead in the real world there is a substation called Faulkner Substation. There are a great deal of trains on the tracks though, and some of them look like they have been there quite awhile.
who could have done this impressive yet unsightly bullethole graffiti 
# 86 – Junction 15 railway station – The real world equivalent of this location is the Union Pacific Railroad Arden Yard Office, situated at the intersection of Jones and Blue Diamond Road. In game it is located on I-15, and in real life it is about 3 miles west. The gate was closed when I arrived so I did not get to peek around, but it looked like a pretty run of the mill building. I did not even realize it was a train station with the exception of the sign out front.
The Lucky Thirty Kate 