"The President's Special" deals with an assassination attempt on the life of Chester A. Arthur. In reality, no such attempt occurred on his life, but it did happen to his predecessor James A Garfield, with the episode explicitly mentioning the event. It's never mentioned why the assassins are after him (aside from a throwaway line calling them "Confederates," but there is a pretty reasonable explanation offered through Garfield's own death. This occurred because Charles J. Guiteau, a man who believed he was owed a position in the federal government, was denied by the President, and thus killed him in retaliation for his supposed slight. When Arthur became president, he instituted reforms that actually required people who were qualified to hold positions. Who's to say the men who attempted to kill him in this situation were particularly pleased about this reforms?
In "Storm Warning," Redrock is the only one to notice that Casey and his family are being held hostage. When the Sheriff admits to having it learned it from the conductor, he says Redrock noticed that the dinner table had six plates out, when the arrival of Casey's sister Doris meant the Jones' were only expecting one guest. Redrock would be the only one to notice, since it's his job as conductor to notice anything amiss with the train, including its crew.
It's no wonder that Vic Hogan was trying so hard to blackmail his old boss. His efforts to get him fired from the Missouri Central Railroad might have succeeded, but considering he was involved in the train wreck, and not just Jeff Roberts, it's very possible he was fired as well. If no one was going to hire Jeff because of what happened, no one would certainly hire Hogan either.
One dreads the thought of what might have happened in "The Old Timer" had Casey Jr. not run away to find Redrock. Had he never done so, it's very possible the Cannonball, with it's broken brakes, would have careened off a broken trestle into the river below, possibly killing everyone onboard, including his father. The boy's disobedience and concern for his friend ended up saving more lives than he could have realized, but even so, not doing so would have been a disaster.
