Denver and Rio Grande
In the late 1870s, chief engineer Gil Harkness (J. Carrol Naish) and construction foreman Jim Vesser (Edmond O'Brien) are surveying a new route for the D&RG through the Royal Gorge in Colorado. Vesser learns that a crew from the competing Cañon City & San Juan Railroad is also in the gorge and confronts former friend Bob Nelson and his unscrupulous boss, McCabe (Sterling Hayden). McCabe shoots Nelson in the back during a fight but he and crony Johnny Buff (Lyle Bettger) blame Vesser, who thinks he accidentally shot Nelson while stunned from a blow. Linda Prescott (Kasey Rogers), the secretary of D&RG president General William J. Palmer (Dean Jagger), believes Vesser to be a cowardly killer. An injunction stops work by the D&RG in the gorge and Vesser suggests they run the CC&SJ men "out on a pole." Linda, who is actually Nelson's sister and is spying for McCabe after being told by him that Vesser murdered her brother, angrily accuses him of acting above the law.
Vesser talks Harkness into defying the injunction. When he enters the camp saloon to bring the men back to work, one of McCabe's agitators sparks a brawl over not being paid. Palmer obtains payroll money in Denver, but the train returning him to the construction camp is robbed by three men, who shoot Palmer's accountant. Vesser returns to the saloon, sees two men gambling with a lot of cash when everyone else is broke and accuses them of robbing the payroll. They try to flee towards the CC&SJ camp and a gunfight ensues. Vesser kills one and wounds the other, who Palmer identifies as one of the robbers but says that the unknown third robber is the man who murdered his accountant. Vesser confronts Linda, revealing that he saw her riding in the direction of McCabe's camp, but she dismisses his insinuations.
The injunction is lifted but Palmer announces he must go to Denver to keep the company out of receivership (and takeover by the CC&SJ). Linda reveals his plans to McCabe, who assembles his drunken thugs to prevent Palmer from getting to Denver by stealing a D&RG train and seizing all its stations to block the tracks. A D&RG telegrapher warns Palmer, who rallies his men to fight McCabe's. Vesser, Palmer and the D&RG men barrel through the blockade. Vesser and Harkness uncouple the engine from the rest of their train and allow it to crash head on into the stolen train to stop it from killing all of the others. Linda has doubts about McCabe after the violence and admits everything, but Palmer lets her go free.
Vesser barricades the gorge to keep McCabe in his camp while Palmer continues on to Denver via another branch. Linda returns to the camp and recognizes Buff as the killer of the accountant, who admits it just as McCabe enters. They argue and Buff exposes McCabe as Bob Nelson's killer. McCabe puts dynamite on a train car that will be sent hurtling into Vesser's barricade. Dodging bullets from McCabe and Buff, Linda runs to the barricade to warn Vesser and the others, who scatter in time to avoid the blast. McCabe, however, is shot in the back by Buff and killed in the explosion. Vesser forgives Linda and looks forward to building the railroad.
violence