The Iron Horse

Calhoun is under contract to deliver a herd of cattle, but a ruthless opponent of his is determined that he not succeed, and dynamites the bridge that was on the main route.

Calhouns plans to obtain a right of way through the town of Paradise are jeopardized by four Confederate former comrades-in-arms he has hired. The mens rowdy behavior and total disregard for law has Tarrant advising they be fired, but Calhoun feels too obligated to the leader of the group.

A gunslinger turned traveling salesman seeks revenge against the bushwhacker who crippled his drawing hand.

Calhoun must transport an Army unit which has captured the renegade Sioux chief War Cloud and is bringing him to stand trial for numerous murders. This comes at a bad time for Calhoun, as he is hoping to impress another passenger, a wealthy banker whom he hopes will agree to a loan for the railroad. The bankers daughter believes War Cloud is being mistreated. But a man who lost his family in one of War Clouds raids plans to make sure the Indian dies long before he arrives at the fort, and is willing to fight Calhoun to make sure of it.

After Dave is captured and forced to work in a town of outlaw forced laborers, Calhoun decides to infiltrate it in the hopes of getting him out, though he might not get out himself if his cover is blown.

After a boiler on the train blows, Calhoun offers to refund all the passengers, but a headstrong woman is determined to continue on as planned to the mine her grandfather left to her. Rather than let her go alone, Dave accompanies her, but on the way they learn that others are just as determined to stop her from arriving in time to sign the deed---even though the mine does not have the gold or silver the grandfather thought it had.

Despite Calhouns best efforts at providing security while a millionaire industrialist and his wife are on the train, a group of outlaws too easily manages to break through and kidnap the man.

After Calhoun rescues a headstrong young Indian woman from two buffalo hunters who were abusing her, he asks her to be his scout through dangerous terrain on his way to meet with a Sioux chief. She agrees, until she learns that he plans to negotiate putting the railroad through Sioux territory.

Ben Calhoun gets to end of beating line alive, then is invited for a last dinner before being shot. Ben wins his life back in a poker game, but Pembrooke reneges, and Ben runs away for his life and kills his pursuers.

A man who sold lumber to Calhouns railroad has disappeared, and his brother thus refuses to unload the lumber unless and until he is found to prove the sale was made. Suspecting two renegade Indians who quit just after the man left, Dave sets out to find them, along with the sellers brother. The behaviour of the owner of a trading post leads them to suspect the answers are to be found there.

While the train is stopped in the town of Banner, where Calhoun is making a major business deal with town founder Big Jim Banner, Barnabas is attacked by Banners son, who thinks Barnabas is one of the Claiborne boys with whom the Banners have a major feud. At first it seems to be a mistake, until Barnabas meets Jeff Claiborne, who looks just like him. Soon Barnabas, who was raised as an orphan, starts to believe that he may be a Claiborne as well.

Calhoun finds an eight-year-old Arapaho boy alive as the only survivor of a battle with the Shoshone. He wants to bring him back to his people, but the Shoshone want him brought to them, as he is the son and heir to the slain Arapaho chief. Calhoun fears that he will be killed if brought to them, but local townspeople, including a close friend, want to maintain the peace with the Shoshone and thus do as they ask---while others in the town want to use the incident to start a new war.

Calhoun is under orders from President Grant himself to safely transport Pierre Le Druc, an associate of Mexicos deposed puppet emperor Maximilian, to a meeting with his French countrymen on the west coast. But Le Druc is a ruthless killer, and a Mexican general is also pursuing the train to capture Le Druc and bring him back for trial.

Calhoun wins a high stakes poker game against outlaw gambler Dan Patrick. But Patrick says he does not have the money on him, and offers a beautiful young Spanish noblewoman as collateral. Calhoun agrees to leave the young woman with Barnabas as he goes with Patrick to retrieve the money. But Patrick has no intention of keeping his end of the bargain.

Calhoun learns that he is transporting three female prisoners to Kansas City, and that one of them is the only witness against a ruthless mob boss being tried for murder. But the man has no intention of letting her arrive to testify against him, and has put his associates on the trail and on the train to make sure of it.

Calhoun outbids his old nemesis Sam McGinty in an auction for a new boiler which both men need. But shortly afterward, the boiler is stolen at gunpoint and taken, along with Dave, to an impoverished town which needs the boiler to revive its only source of income. Dave soon finds himself in a predicament as he comes to sympathize with the townspeople.

Calhouns acquisition of a right-of-way for the railroad is threatened when he takes the side of allowing a band of Indians---mostly old people, women, and children---to go through it on their way back from the reservation to their ancestral home. The townsmen who agreed to the right-of-way do not want them to cross it, and insist that Calhoun keep them only on the narrow strip he owns or forfeit it, and hence lose the railroad.

Ben puts himself in the center of a conflict when he decides to help French monks establish a vineyard. But trapper Ike Bridger and his friends see it as prime beaver habitat and are unwilling to give it up without a fight.

Ben has trouble to deal with when Hode Avery, a bad sort from the war, arrives in Scalplock. Plus rancher Clay Hennings is upset that the railroad is spooking his livestock and wants it to stop.

Young Frank Wyatt is accidentally shot in a fight with Barnabas, who thought he was behaving improperly with a young woman. Calhoun tries to take Frank to the nearest doctor by using the train, but Franks powerful father forces both Frank and Barnabas off and takes them to his ranch. Though this action aggravates his sons wound, the elder Wyatt plans to kill Barnabas if Frank dies, even over Franks objection.

Although Calhoun discovers that the man who saved Julie and Barnabas from ambush is a former railroad engineer branded as a traitor during the Civil War, he still decides to hire him, despite Daves objection and his own suspicions. Unfortunately, the man still has his old associates riding with him and they are all planning to steal the gold that the train is carrying.

The ownership of a luxurious railway car is disputed so Ben takes possession of it even though it contains passengers. He ruins the plans of an outlaw gang that had plans to hold everyone and the car for ransom.

A dying marshal deputizes Dave (who in turn also deputizes Calhoun) to transport his prisoner to Doans Junction to be tried for murder. But other members of the killers gang have boarded the train and are planning to break him free. The prisoner also sees an opportunity for escape in a young woman who is being forced into marrying a wealthy man and clearly doesnt want to.