Nostalgia & History > US RR map (says 1854)

Says it shows all the RRs in the US --
meaning nothing west of Iowa?

https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/21897/rec/20

Lots of lines on the map, but most
don't have the crosshatching that
says they're operating. Most are just
under construction, it seems.

1854 map. No rails out west yet.

That's the question -- were there no rails at all west of the Missouri?

That's correct.
Keep in mind, at this time the first transcontinental railroad was about a decade in the future. There had been proposed routes (some of which are indicated on that map), but the southern states wanted a southern route (basically what would become the SP's Sunset route), so Congress was at an impasse. It wasn't until the secession of the southern states that Congress could finally authorize a route in 1862, and construction began a year later though would remain constrained by the demands on men and material for the war effort until the war's end in 1865.