Amazon Brigade: Although they don't get into combat, a group of women formed by the wives of the men who occupied the Carter Place in Plum Creek to sabotage the railroad schedule show up at the place, armed and announcing that they'll join their husbands in defending the land if they have to.
Community-Threatening Construction: The railroad is initially welcomed into town until it's revealed that it its works involve displacing people from their lands, and that it's bringing with it drunks and other rowdies that would completely transform the character of Walnut Grove. The town fights against the railroad and the railroad eventually redirects to go to a different small town.
Even Evil Has Standards: Although Mr. Hollingsworth is willing to let his men go to shady lengths to get the families out of their lands, he warns them that he doesn't want any bloodshed when a group of townsmen take over the Carter Place and his goon Harlan Wilkins suggests that they fight them off.
Foreshadowing: Perhaps unintentional because the episode was unrelated and not intended to bear a connection to what later came about that was written in the future, but it becomes much harsher to watch in hindsight of the series finale, where the premise of a railroad tycoon taking over the town will come up one more time. Here, the people in charge aren't powerful enough to get their way and there was a loophole they could exploit to save the town, but a few years later, one Nathan Lassiter, who is powerful enough to muscle his way through, will come snooping around wanting to make a land grab and signal the end of Walnut Grove.
Leave Him to Me!: When Harlan Wilkins, a railroad enforcer who personally threatened the Carters shows up to finish his Bill at Nellie's place, Almanzo gets up ready to go after him, but John Carter (whose land was the pivotal center of the dispute and was beaten up for it) stops him and says "he's mine". He approaches Wilkins, punches him in the face and when Wilkins complains that he got dirt on his clothes, John Carter boasts about how he and the others, "a bunch of dirt farmers, beat them empire builders".
More Despicable Minion: While Hollingsworth is the true mind behind the railroad project which intends to drive people out of their lands and turn Wlanut Grove into a Company Town, his henchman, Harlan Wilkins, is the one shown orchestrating dirty tactics to convince the people to leave, up to and including threats and physical assault.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After Almanzo, John Carter, Mr. Edwards and other men take over the land at Plum Creek, without which the railroad couldn't be built and keep guard there to sabotage the railroad schedule, the company owner, Mr. Hollingsworth, invokes a reunion with their wives, hoping that they could visit their rebellious husbands and talk them out of it before there was any bloodshed. Laura, Sarah and the other women do visit the occupied Plum Creek... with guns of their own and announcing that they will join their husbands in defending the land. This turns out to be final nail in the coffin, as the company can't be seen fighting a bunch of women, which combined to their tight schedule, forces them to go for the plan B and build the railroad in Tracy instead.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Two masked men from the Railroad company visit the Carter place and beat John to a pulp offscreen when he goes outside, to pressure the Carters to give up on their land.
Race Against the Clock: A villainous example. The railroader company has a tight schedule to finish the railroad through Walnut Grove, so in order to exploit that, a group of men led by Almanzo and Isaiah take over the land in Plum Creek, which was pivotal for their plans in order to belate them and force them to retort to make the works in Tracy instead (where the people did want the railroad).
Soft Glass: During a brawl between two railroad workers for a seat at Nellie's restaurant, one of them is thrown through the glass window, but gets up without so much as a scratch.
Token Good Teammate: Stewart Hobson is the only member of the Railroad company to sympathize with the townspeople. So much so that he allies with them to help them delay the construction and convince Hollingsworth to do work in the town of Tracy.
