Underground Railroad

This article is about the Resistance escape route. For the railroad in a literal sense, see Rail transport.

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Underground Railroad
General information
Constructed	N/A refurbished by the Resistance
Destroyed	Several hours after teleportation malfunction
Location	Canals
Usage
Era(s)	Combine occupation
Affiliation	Resistance
Game information
Map(s)	d1_canals_01a to d1_canals_06

 

"We've been helping people escape the city on foot. It's a dangerous route to my father's lab, through the old canals."

―Alyx Vance

The Underground Railroad, also named Underground, Railroad or Railway, is a line of covert Resistance stations, hidden around City 17, meant to help refugees escape.

Overview

Station 12, one of the many railroad stations, shortly after it was raided by Civil Protection.

There were many safehouses in the Canals, a drainage network in City 17. Safehouses ordinarily contained a radio, supplies, and items necessary for a few resistance members to live there. These safehouses were called stations, and were numbered for radio chatter purposes. Whenever a refugee came through, the resistance members stationed at the safehouse would provide supplies and weapons, and help direct the refugee to the next safehouse.

Because of the heavy presence of Civil Protection officers patrolling the canals and rivers, safehouses were located in secret, underground areas to avoid detection. However, it seems that Overwatch possessed knowledge regarding the locations of these stations, as they were able to quickly eliminate many of the stations in the Railroad.

One large safehouse/outpost housed an Airboat, an amphibious vehicle that was lent to refugees to cross the last half of the journey to Black Mesa East. This last part of the journey contained stretches of toxic waste material, and made the airboat necessary for crossing it.

Gordon Freeman made his way through the resistance canal network on his way to Black Mesa East, and was the last refugee through. In their attempts to apprehend Freeman, Civil Protection came down hard on the Railroad. The canal system was flooded with Manhacks, CP patrols carried out summary executions of resistance personnel, and bases on the river were bombarded with headcrab shells. Save for a few survivors, the Railroad was all but wiped out.

Notable stations

All of these stations were eventually overrun by the Combine.

• Station 6 - housed the airboat.
• Station 7 - dockside farm.
• Station 8 - confirmed reports of manhacks being used to attack the Railroad.
• Station 9 - This station was heard on the radio in Station 12.
• Station 12 - largest station on the Underground Railroad.
• Outlying - Station 8 was recieving refugees from here before they were attacked.

Behind the scenes

The Underground Railroad may have been named after the similarly titled system of safehouses in the United States, set up to aid slaves escaping from the South before and during the Civil War.

List of appearances

• Half-Life 2 (First appearance)