Hell on Wheels is an American
Western television series about the construction of the
First Transcontinental Railroad across the
United States. The series, which features
Anson Mount,
Colm Meaney,
Common, and
Dominique McElligott, follows the
Union Pacific Railroad and its surveyors, laborers, prostitutes, mercenaries, and others who lived, worked and died in the mobile encampment called "
Hell on Wheels" that followed the
railhead west across the
Great Plains. In particular, the story focuses on Cullen Bohannon, a former
Confederate soldier (Mount) who, while working as foreman and chief engineer on the railroad, initially attempts to track down the
Union soldiers who murdered his wife and young son during the
American Civil War.