Winners of the West is a 1940 Universal movie serial directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor. It stars Dick Foran and Anne Nagel in a plot about the construction of a railroad and a local ganglord who opposes it. It was Universal’s 115th serial release (the 47th with sound).

The studio had used the name for an earlier silent serial but there are no plot similarities between the two versions. Columbia’s Roar of the Iron Horse is very similar to this serial, however, and the writer George H. Plympton worked on both.

Plot
The Southwest Central Railroad Company is attempting to build a railroad through “Hell’s Gate Pass”. However, King Carter, the self-appointed ruler of the land beyond the pass, does not want this to happen. He sends henchmen, including local Indians, to disrupt the construction anyway they can, from sabotage to kidnapping Claire Hartford, the daughter of the company President. The President’s assistant, Jeff Ramsay, and his sidekicks, stop King Carter’s schemes at every point and eventually defeat him entirely. This opens the area up to new settlers, the first of which is Jeff himself and his new wife Claire.

Cast
Dick Foran as Jeff Ramsay, employee of the Hartford Transcontinental Railroad
Anne Nagel as Claire Hartford, daughter of John Hartford
Tom Fadden as Tex Houston, scout and one of Jeff Ramsay’s sidekicks
James Craig as Jim Jackson, another of Jeff Ramsay’s sidekicks
Harry Woods as King Carter, villain
Charles Stevens as Snakeye, King Carter’s lead henchman
Edward Keane as John Hartford, President of the Hartford Transcontinental Railroad
Trevor Bardette as Raven, one of King Carter’s henchmen
Edgar Edwards as Tim, one of King Carter’s henchmen
Edmund Cobb as Maddox, one of King Carter’s henchmen
William Desmond as Bill Brine, Railroad foreman
Roy Barcroft as Logan, one of King Carter’s henchmen