Railroaded
To be railroaded means to be forced or coerced into doing something against your will. The term came into common use in the nineteenth century when the railroads were being constructed in the continental United States. Congress ceded wide tracts of land to the different rail companies in exchange for the construction of a trans-continental railroad. People who owned or settled the land that lay on these easements were forced off their property by immanent domain. The settlers lost all rights to the properties they had worked to develop and were given token payment. Thus, to be railroaded is to be forced into some situation that you have no control over.
There was also a film noir movie called Railroaded that was made in 1947. This movie starred John Ireland, Sheila Ryan, and Hugh Beaumont. The movie is about a bookie who stages a robbery that turns violent. An innocent bystander is then framed for the killing.
