The second season of Hell on Wheels continued its epic story of post-Civil War America, focusing on Cullen Bohannon, a former Confederate soldier, and his dramatic journey west as he struggles to leave his past behind. The building of the transcontinental railroad serves as the backdrop to the entire series. The scope and challenges of the expanding railroad were critical to the storytelling and couldn't be achieved without the resourceful use of visual effects provided by FuseFX. At the center of the traveling town are the trains. Production built full scale replicas of the period trains and laid down a few hundred feet of track to support tight shots and moments when the train isn't moving. But almost all shots showing wider perspectives and moving trains was achieved with CG models of trains and railroad tracks composited into live action backgrounds.