AMC’s “Hell on Wheels” debuted tonight. The plot seemed to be some silly revenge story of some confederate soldier against Union troops that were part of Sherman’s march to the sea. The show is centered around the building of the Union Pacific transcontinental line.
Has anyone else seen it and is willing to comment on how (in)accurate the portrayal of building the railroad was?
Why is that silly?
There are people on this forum who were alive for the building on the UP?!
Loved the show, good acting, sweet trains, action, romance etc. Looking forward to next week.
There are people on the forum who were alive in the 1860"s? Better notify the Guiness Book of World Records!
I haven’t seen it nor will I as I do not receive AMC…however, in another thread Hell On Wheels was discussed and historically it refers to the towns formed from railcars that moved west as the end of track moved west in the building of the Union Pacific railroad. Being that many who moved west and worked on the building of the Union Pacific Railroad (and others) were former Confederate and Union soldiers, this seems, so far, like an accurate theatrical portrayal. If you want to compare for yourself, I’d suggest reading any of the books chronicaling the building of the railroad and the West. A good summary found in Carl Jensen’s American Heritage history of American railroads followed by scads of histories…each with a political, philosophical, and social bent…which delve deeply into the story. Those books will allow you to give a full and fair comparison.
I watched the premier last night, its a story that seemed to be loosly based on the Clint Eastwood movie, “Outlaw Josey Wales”, about a Reb who’s wife was killed by Yankee soldiers and he’s on a revenge trip searching for those involved. He also is a former slave owner who is hired by the railroad to supervise former slaves hired to build the rail line. They bump into native Americans who do some gorey scalping and killing, if your into blood scene’s they did a good job!
Judging by the rail scene’s, not that I was around back then, it appears to have some accuracy as to how it was done from what I have read and seen of old photo’s. The town “Hell on Wheels”, packs up and moves along with the progress of the railroad. A correupt railroad barron on a mission and no one gets in his way. Tent city, crude buildings, people of illrepute (both male and female) and whiskey in abudance. But the story of the railroad is only a backdrop to the rest, I was somewhat disappointed not more of rail was involved. Thats a railfan prejudice.
At this point all we can do is watch more and see how the rails move along. Previews for next week show had little rail scenes, just people drama.
Silly because a former confederate soldier, even one with money wouldn’t have the resources to track down the squad/platoon that went through his down and killed his wife. It isn’t like he was part of the FBI. He would have returned home from the war to find his town burned to the ground, and his wife dead. How would one go about figuring out who amongst Sherman’s 62,000 men were responsible?
As for the crack about people still being alive that built the UP, I never said such a thing. I had assumed plenty of people here on this forum have done research into the creation of the railroad, and might have been able say, “Why the hell were they building a 6 foot tall bridge over that section of flat land?” Instead you went for the cheap laugh.
It may have been a cheap laugh, but I’ll take a cheap laugh over a grouch any day!
Anyway, if you look at my profile, it says I’m 2010 years old, so you just watch yourself, sonny.
I fully expect that in past lives, some of use did infact work on the building of the UP and the Central Pacific as well.
Nothing spoils a forum faster than someone without a sense of humor!
Saw it. Liked it. Was reasonably in line with what I remember from reading Ambrose’s “Nothing Like it in the World”.
The protagonist’s revenge centers around Meridian. That’s pretty far from Sherman’s march. I didn’t get the impression that they related the two, necessarily, except to relate it to the types of things that went on in the war…
Great show!
Now I may be displaying my ignorance on the Union Pacific here but I will ask anyways. I have read and it is mentioned in the series about building as many curves as possible was important since it would add to the mileage and increase the amount of money brought in. Now were these curves ever straightened out?
From what I’ve read, some detractors have made the case that the UP took a lttle more round-a-bout course through Nebraska at times, following riverbanks, rather than just going in a straight line. Some have written that it was just taking the superior route, others say the UP was trying to up it’s mileage payment. I don’t believe the route has been changed much in 100+ years, which makes me wonder about the alegations of wrondoing.
Starting right out of the gate, the UP original main line at Omaha looped down around the south side of town. From reading one of the histories, Dodge wanted to follow a route that is essentially what is now the existing main line, called the Lane Cut-off. (I wonder if many of the current railroaders would know that.) Where the original main meets the new main is a place called Lane, now it’s just a switch. Most of the original main has been abandoned, what’s left is now an industrial lead. Lane was 26 miles via the original line, 17 via the new line.
Durant and others were said to have pushed for the southern loop for a couple of reasons. One was cost of construction as this route followed some water courses. The other was that the more line they laid down the more money and land parcels they would receive. The cut-off has some high fills and a few
Following the river usually results in a more uniform grade, and a lesser one as the overall distance is longer. Also, likely without as many more expensive cuts, fills, bridges, etc., as long as there aren’t any major tributary rivers joining in that have to be crossed. So both aspects - more miles ==> more payments, and at a lower cost - are powerful incentives to follow the river alignment. For those guys, what’s not to like about that set-up ? [swg]
A couple years ago there was a thread on here about archeological studies along the former UP main lines in Wyoming, out in RJ’s territory. I was surprised at the extent of the relocations - none as significant as the Santa Fe’s 77-mile Williams-Crookston realignment of the early 1960’s, but still quite a lot of miles involved altogether over the years. I believe most of those were “detail” changes, probably to improve what the originial builders didn’t have either the time, money, equipment, or traffic to justify doing back in the 1860’s.
The one signifigant thought to remember about 19th Century railroad building…
Earth-movers = Immigrant laborers with strong backs, picks and shovels augmented by mules and wagons to haul away anything to be moved. Throw in black powder as the explosive available and all in all you have very limited earth-moving abilities. Cuts and Fills were to be avoid whenever possible.
With the advent of more modern earth-moving machinery early in the 20th Century the ability to economically realign routes became something that could be justified on the balance sheet.
Route justification to the 19th Century rail builders was the constant trade off between the competing interests of ‘build it longer for less’ vs. ‘build it shorter for more’ and trying to balance all of that with continuing operating & maintenance costs. A tough task when, at that time, men really didn’t understand the long term ramifications of either decision.
You don’t have to go west and the building of the Transcontental to be wowed by the early builders of railroads and canals. If you look at the seminal tracks west from the Hudson, accross NJ and into PA and over its mountains, you’ll see what little they knew and were able to do by hand when they dug the D&H (including the Gravity railroad), the Erie, and Morris canals followed by the railroads which followed river courses as best possible and going miles to achieve a workable grade. Then look at the 20th Century “cut off” like the DL&W across the Jersey HIlls and the Erie RR Graham line skimming the southern reaches of the Catskills, just to name a few. Step back to Hoosic Tunnel blown through because of the most recent development of dynamite and compare it to the mighty drills of today burrowing into the granite under Manhatten. What you couln’t do in 1830 became possible my mid centry, common in the following one and then enhanced to the point of almost no comparison.
I really enjoyed the program and look forward to watching the next episode. Sure, the main plot is very much “Spaghetti Western” material (fine with me, I’m a fan of that genre) but the backdrop of the budding Credit Mobilier scandal and political intrigue was fascinating to me…
Just saw the latest episode and with each one I try to examine the railroad equipment to find the mistakes. I don;t knwo whaere they get the locomotives from, but they sure look right. No wierd panels on the sides covering up air brake equipment as is often done - these locos (maybe just the same one over and over) have no air brakes. No modern coupler, at least not on the front, just a long drawbar for a link and pin fitting extending past the pilot. The latest one had a mistake though, a load of supplies came in on a flat car attached behind the loco - the flat car had arch bar trucks and really looks proportionally way too big. It was a fishbelly side riveted steel car - something out of the 1910’s or 20’s. Compare to the fabricated very thin looking trucks on the loco’s tender, the more modern (lol, calling archbars ‘modern’) trucks on the flat car definitely looked out of place.
So far though I’d judge the period stuff to be very well done. Not just the railroad stuff, all of it. It IS just a TV show, but they seem to be taking some effort to make it accurate. All in all, I really am enjoying it. The revenge plot is just one of several storylines workign through the show, and Colm Meaney plays a great Thomas Durant.
–Randy
I’m loving this show and Meany is great as Doc Durant.
The show’s creators have made it clear this isn’t supposed to be a historical biopic, but Historical fiction. That even Durant is an Amalgam of various characters.
They did say though that they are hoping to bring in Grenville Dodge and some other characters.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/hell-wheels-creators-explore-freedom-257966
[quote user=“rrinker”]
Just saw the latest episode and with each one I try to examine the railroad equipment to find the mistakes. I don;t knwo whaere they get the locomotives from, but they sure look right. No wierd panels on the sides covering up air brake equipment as is often done - these locos (maybe just the same one over and over) have no air brakes. No modern coupler, at least not on the front, just a long drawbar for a link and pin fitting extending past the pilot. The latest one had a mistake though, a load of supplies came in on a flat car attached behind the loco - the flat car had arch bar trucks and really looks proportionally way too big. It was a fishbelly side riveted steel car - something out of the 1910’s or 20’s. Compare to the fabricated very thin looking trucks on the loco’s tender, the more modern (lol, calling archbars ‘modern’) trucks on the flat car definitely looked out of place.
So far though I’d judge the period stuff to be very well done. Not just the railroad stuff, all of it. It IS just a TV show, but they seem to be taking some effort to make it accurate. All in all, I really am enjoying it. The revenge plot is just one of several storylines workign through the show, and Colm Meaney plays a great Thomas Durant.
–Randy
A video on AMC, Hell on Wheels web page shows how they manufactured the locomotive and equipment. Most of it is made of wood and styrofome, with gadgets attached to make the steam and smoke work. If you have not seen it check it out, they did a good job staying to the accuracy of the period. Also, the locomotive was manufactured in three weeks.