In 1873, what were the dangers of transcontinental railroad travel from Georgia to San Francisco?

In the year 1873, there was no direct rail route between Georgia and San Francisco.  One would have to change trains several times between Georgia and Council Bluffs, Iowa.  Council Bluffs was where the First Transcontinental Railroad began.  From there, the train continued on to Sacramento.  In Sacramento, one would finish their journey by traveling by train to San Francisco.

Travel by train could be dangerous in the 1870s.  Though safety had improved by the second half of the 1800s, there was still the danger of crash or derailment.  Safety expectations were not always standardized among the different railroad companies at that time.  Stations communicated between each other using Morse code, but information was not always accurate.  If a train broke down along the tracks, there were few ways of communicating to other trains.  This could cause train crashes, which could be deadly.  Sometimes trains crashed and derailed because of wagons, people, or animals stopped on the tracks at crossings.  In the wintertime, heavy snows in the west could make railroad travel inaccessible.  Sometimes trains even got stuck in deep snow drifts.  While rare, train robberies occasionally occurred, such as those carried out by the infamous Jesse James.