The series, which features Anson Mount, Colm Meaney, Common, and Dominique McElligott, chronicles the Union Pacific Railroad and its laborers, mercenaries, prostitutes, surveyors, and others who lived, worked, and died in the mobile encampment, called "Hell on Wheels", that followed the railhead west across the Great Plains.

Cullen gets hired by the railroad and supervises an all-black "cut crew", including Elam (Common), whose job is to prepare the terrain for track laying.

Thomas "Doc" Durant (Colm Meaney) begins his "mad, noble quest" to expand his Union Pacific westward, in order to complete the transcontinental railroad.

Reverend Nathaniel Cole (Tom Noonan) baptizes Joseph Black Moon (Eddie Spears), a Cheyenne, then takes him under his tutelage in the church.

Bohannon abandons his quest to avenge his wife and son's deaths, in order to battle Durant for control of the Union Pacific Railroad.

Hell on Wheels was created by Joe and Tony Gayton in late 2008, and Endemol USA's scripted television division, headed by senior vice president of original programming Jeremy Gold, came on board to develop the series for AMC.

[7] As a result of the deal, Entertainment One also holds global rights for DVD and Blu-ray sales, as well as video-on-demand and other digital distribution services.

You just have this cursory information that the Chinese and the Irish built the railroad, but it got in underneath all the dirt and stuff that went on, with the financing of it, and the greed and corruption.

[15] On December 12, 2012, AMC announced that John Wirth, a writer for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, would be the new showrunner, starting with the show's third season.

Common portrays Elam Ferguson, "an emancipated slave who is working to achieve true freedom in a world entrenched in prejudice".

[2][18] Colm Meaney was next to be cast as Thomas "Doc" Durant, a "greedy entrepreneur taking full advantage of the changing times".

Spears was cast as Joseph Black Moon, "a Native American man torn between his culture and the changing world around him".

[2] It was later announced that Jesse Lipscombe, Gerald Auger, Robert Moloney and Ted Levine had joined the series as recurring guest stars.

[20][21] Jennifer Ferrin joined the cast as a series regular for season three, playing a New York Sun journalist covering the construction of the railroad.

He was initially to portray a carpetbagger seeking to profit from the frontier,[24] but his role changed to John Allen Campbell, first governor of Wyoming.

"[29] Irish actress Dominique McElligott never expected to be cast in a period American role: "I was hanging out in London, having drinks with friends who are all flight attendants, and they said that they would get me over to America for free, and I could stay and do some meetings and auditions.

[1] Filming of the third season was suspended part way through the sixth episode when the location was included in the mandatory evacuation area due to the flooding in southern Alberta.

[37] The fifth season's production filming occurred on the CL Ranch, west of Calgary, for the Truckee, California, and Laramie, Wyoming, locations.

The Kananaskis Country park system, 40 miles west of the ranch, served as the Sierra Nevada mountains the Central Pacific must cross.

The website's critical consensus states, "Its Old West setting and central revenge plot may be overly familiar, but Hell on Wheels holds just enough intrigue to keep things interesting.

[40] The second season was given 60% on Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average" reviews,[41] while Rotten Tomatoes reported a 75% approval rating based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 7.0/10, and a critical consensus that reads, "While it still feels like it's finding its legs, the second season of Hell on Wheels is more confident than the first and perfectly acceptable for those in need of a Western fix.

Plenty of guns, knives, arrows, scalpings – mixed with the incendiary socio-psychological wounds left in the Civil War's wake.

"[44] The Wall Street Journal's Nancy Dewolf Smith comments: " 'Hell on Wheels' finds enough beauty, danger and emotion to make some part of every episode seem fresh and worth waiting for.

"[45] Brian Lowry of Variety writes: "While the diverse mix of characters could work to the program's advantage over the long haul, jumping to and fro among them creates a diluted, herky-jerky ride in the early going.

"[46] The Washington Post reported that the series has been criticized for not depicting Chinese immigrants during the transcontinental railroad construction scenes.

"[47] By the fifth season, the show expanded its focus to include a significant look at the role of Chinese immigrant workers in the growth of the railroad.

[49] The viewership numbers eventually rebounded with the season one finale being watched by 2.84 million viewers, maintaining its steady 0.7 rating in the 18–49 age range.

[50] In January 2012, following the season one finale, AMC confirmed Hell on Wheels as the network's second-highest rated original series, behind The Walking Dead, averaging three million viewers per episode.