History Main / RailroadPlot

An evil executive or tycoon has big plans for something, typically a railroad or a highway. Suddenly though, in the middle of construction, something goes wrong. [[Film/BlazingSaddles Quicksand is found, a town is in the way,]] or something else goes wrong. Whatever it is, now all of a sudden, there is a town, city, tree, memorial, planet, grumpy old man, or whatever in the way of the completion of a project, and this means either stopping/delaying the project (which means wasting a lot of cash) or destroying the town.

* The Thirsty Beaver in Charlotte, North Carolina is a small one-story bar which was built in 2008 in what was then empty lots. Some years later developers bought up the surrounding area looking to build a multi-story apartment complex -- they twice approached the bar owners about selling but were rebuffed. The developers eventually gave up and [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/The_Thirsty_Beaver_in_Charlotte_North_Carolina.jpg built a horseshoe-shaped apartment building around it]], drawing comparisons to the movie ''Film/{{Up}}''.

* in the western parody ''Film/RustlersRhapsody'' the hero reveals that every western frontier town he rides into is the same, including the fact that the railroad is coming to town.

* ''VideoGame/LANoire'': The game's overarching plot eventually revolves around a rather complex variation, befitting the noir genre. [[spoiler:Several corporate moguls realize that the future LA freeway will use eminent domain to acquire the land needed to build it, so they hatch the Suburban Redevelopment Fund conspiracy to buy the land first. They muscle out local homeowners, torch their houses when they refuse to leave, and build worthless, substandard houses in their place that are falsely assessed to boost the land's value. That way, when the US government eventually comes to build their freeway, the businessmen will be able to sell it off for a massive profit.]]

* At the beginning of ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', the [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Vogons]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up]] [[UpToEleven the earth]] because it's where a [[HyperspaceLanes "hyperspatial express route"]] is to be built. An unusual case as this doesn't make up the bulk of the plot; it merely kicks off the book's events... At least until a couple of books later, when it turns out that rather a lot more is going on than the reader or the characters had previously been aware of.

* The plot of ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' gets started when the corrupt Hedley Lamarr learns that his planned railway course has to be detoured because of some [[QuicksandSucks quicksand]], and conspires with an easily-bribed governor to hire a gang of baddies to rough up the remote town of Rock Ridge so that they can get the land on the cheap.

* The controversial concept of Eminent Domain embodies this trope. For example, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London Kelo v. City of New London]] established the very scary precedent that it's legal for the government to use eminent domain to force people to sell their properties to land developers, as long as the government can make a case that the proposed development would significantly enrich the community. In at least one case, this has resulted in a company demolishing a block of historic houses, [[ShootTheShaggyDog then changing its mind and not actually building anything there.]]
** Regarding the ''Kelo'' decision, it might be well to note that it was particularly controversial because the land was being confiscated to give to '''another private owner''', for commercial development, as opposed to using it to build public works like eminent domain is meant to be used.

** Regarding the ''Kelo'' decision, it might be well to note that it was particularly controversial because the land was being confiscated to give to '''another private owner''', for commercial development, as opposed to using it to build public works like eminent domain is really used.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': Humans go to Pandora to mine unobtanium. The largest deposit is, unfortunately, under the Na'vi Hometree.
* In ''Film/TheGhostAndTheDarkness'', the obstacle obstructing the railroad is a pair of man-eating lions who are decimating the construction crew.
* ''Film/MadeInMongolia'': Bodi's a country bumpkin who just inherited a house and a lot in the capital. Hujee is a CorruptCorporateExecutive who wants to build an apartment complex there, and by hook or by crook, he's going to get Bodi's plot of land.
* One of the subplots (which provides a a possible motive for murder) in ''Film/MissFisherAndTheCryptOfTears'' is a deal brokered by Montague to sell the British-Palestinian Railway to Lord Lofthouse and Sheik kahlil for a fraction of its real value, allowing them to make huge profit and scoring himself a hefty commission.
* Part of the background in ''Film/SixReasonsWhy'' is a bitter rivalry between the railroad and the Zeppelin line to link the boomtowns. This rivalry leads to the Entrepreneur's father, who runs the railroad being assassinated, and sends The Entrepreneur into The Badlands in pursuit of his killer.

* In ''Series/{{Daredevil 2015}}'', Wilson Fisk's master plan is to raze down Hell's Kitchen and replace it with his own building plans. On one particular block of tenements, he wants to demolish them so that his Yakuza business partners can build Midland Circle. Fisk's people resort to intimidation tactics to get the residents to leave, culminating in one holdout, Elena Cardenas, who has secured Nelson & Murdock to help her fight her eviction, being killed on Fisk's orders as bait for Matt.

* In ''Series/{{Cranford}}'', the imminent arrival of the railway is a major source of concern and disagreement in the community, with many concerned that it will destroy their way of life.

* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': In Season 5 episode 3, "The Guy For This," Mesa Verde wants to build a call center in Tucumcari, New Mexico. The land they want to build the call center on is land that had several houses on it, where the homeowners signed leases in the 1970s that stipulated the property owners could buy them out at any time. While almost everyone has accepted their buyouts, one Mr. Acker has refused to sell, and the judge has ruled against his right to claim the land as his. Despite all of Kim's attempts to meet, negotiate, and even sympathize with him, he refuses to budge.

* ''Radio/TheSixShooter'': In "Silver Annie", Britt a dying town which is counting on the railroad coming through ropes in Britt to try and persuade a cantankerous old woman is the sole holdout: refusing to sell the town the right of way to her land.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'', Carl's house is in a block where a major development is planned, and when he kept stubbornly refusing to sell it, the developers attempted to get him [[BleakAbyssRetirementHome committed to a senior home]]. They did succeed in evicting him and clearing the lot, but [[MovingBuildings not quite they way they expected.]]
* Is the focus of a two-part ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' episode. The railroad leads to Hell, reviving several antagonists.
* A railroad is being built in the [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Bugs Bunny]] cartoon "The Unruly Hare." Bugs has some fun at the expense of railroad surveyor Elmer Fudd.
** "Porky's Railroad" (1937) centered around Porky's train, "Ol' Toots" being decommissioned in favor of the new streamlined train the Silverfish. After the engineer of the Silverfish talks smack about Porky's train, Porky challenges him to a race.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In Kindergarten: Grown Up!, after 15 years of the kindergarten being abandoned, Ms. Johnson’s Kindergarten class of 2000 decides the Kindergarten should be repurposed for a bomb shelter after the town gets bombed, but before the bomb shelter is complete, Karimah breaks her left foot
[[/folder]]

This is known as a "Railroad Plot" due to it being frequent in Westerns, but other examples are not uncommon, including in real-life.

* In Kindergarten: Grown Up!, after 15 years of the kindergarten being abandoned, Ms. Johnson’s Kindergarten class of 2000 decides the Kindergarten should be repurposed for a bomb shelter after the town gets bombed.

* In ''Series/{{Daredevil 2015}}'', Wilson Fisk's master plan is to raze down Hell's Kitchen and replace it with his own building plans.

An evil executive or tycoon has big plans for something, typically a railroad or a highway. Suddenly though, in the middle of construction, something goes wrong. Quicksand is found, a town is in the way, or something else goes wrong. Whatever it is, now all of a sudden, there is a town, city, tree, memorial, planet, grumpy old man, or whatever in the way of the completion of a project, and this means either stopping/delaying the project (which means wasting a lot of cash) or destroying the town.

* In ''Series/{{Daredevil 2015}}'', [[spoiler:Wilson Fisk's master plan is to raze down Hell's Kitchen and replace it with his own building plans]].