Casey Jones

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For other uses, see Casey Jones (disambiguation).

John Luther "Casey" Jones (March 14, 1863 – April 30, 1900) was a locomotive engineer who worked for the Illinois Central Railroad (IC). In 1900 he was killed when his locomotive collided with another train. His dramatic death trying to stop his train and save lives made him a folksong hero beginning with a song written by Wallace Saunders who was an engine wiper for the IC.

Contents 1 Beginnings 2 Death 3 Jones as folk hero in art 4 Museums in Casey Jones's honor 5 Notes 6 External links

[edit] Beginnings

John Luther "Casey" Jones was born March 14, 1863 in southeast Missouri. While he was still a small child, his family moved to Cayce, Kentucky, which is how he got his nickname. As a boy, he developed a growing obsession with trains. In 1878, at the age of 15, he went to work for the Mobile and Ohio Railroad as an apprentice telegrapher. By 1890, "Casey" had reached the pinnacle of the railroad profession as a crack locomotive engineer on the Illinois Central Railroad. The railroad sent him to Jackson, Tennessee, where he met and married Janie Brady, bought a house, and set about raising a family. Railroading was a natural talent, and Casey Jones was recognized by his peers as one of the best in the business.

[edit] Death

In 1899, Jones was given a regular passenger run on the Cannonball route which ran between Chicago and New Orleans. On April 29, 1900 Jones was in Memphis, Tennessee, from the northbound Cannonball when he agreed to take the southbound Cannonball because the scheduled engineer called in sick. He left Memphis at 12:50 am, 95 minutes behind schedule, but made up almost an hour between Memphis and Grenada, Mississippi, nearly 100 miles away. By Durant, 55 miles farther down, they were almost on time.

At Durant, Jones received orders to "saw by" two freights that had taken the siding in Vaughan. The two freights were too large to fit into the siding, leaving one end on the main line. If the "sawing" maneuver had been done correctly, the freights would have allowed the approaching train to pass the first switch, and then the trains on the siding would move past the other switch. However, an air hose on one of the freight trains burst, applying the brakes on the freight cars behind the break, and left them immobile on the main line. Meanwhile, Jones was travelling excessively fast, possibly up to 70 miles per hour, and did not have enough time to brake. When collision seemed imminent, Casey told his fireman, Simm Webb, to jump for it, but Jones rode the engine into the cars and was killed. It is believed that because Jones stayed to slow the train, he saved the passengers from injury and possible death (Casey himself was the only fatality of the wreck). Popular legend holds that when Jones' body was pulled from the wreckage of his train his hands were still firmly latched onto the throttle and brake.

The fireman, Simeon T. Webb, died in Memphis in 1957 at the age of 83. Jones' wife, Janie Brady Jones, died in 1958 at the age of 92. The Joneses had two sons and a daughter. Mrs. Jones hated the last line of the ballad, which said "..go to bed children and hush your cryin', cause you got another papa on the Salt Lake Line." She said she never had any thought of remarrying. ^[1]

Casey's tombstone gives his birth year as 1864 but according to information written in the family Bible by his mother he was born in 1863. The tombstone was donated by two out of town railroad enthusiasts who accidentally got his birth year wrong.

[edit] Jones as folk hero in art

• Jones' picture appeared on a 1950 United States postage stamp honoring railroad engineers.
• In the AC/DC song What's Next to the Moon, a railroad engineer is mentioned to be "dreaming about Casey Jones".
• Joe Hill used Jones as an anti-hero in his parody song "Casey Jones, the Union Scab", later sung by Harry McClintock and Utah Phillips, among others.
• The Grateful Dead used Jones as a metaphor for heroic behavior in the song titled "Casey Jones".
• There are several other versions of the tale of Casey Jones recorded into song, including not only the original song credited to Saunders, but also a version entitled "The Ballad of Casey Jones" written by Mississippi John Hurt, and performed by, among others the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band and the David Nelson Band. Folk artist Dave Van Ronk has a song entitled "Casey Jones" on the album 'Somebody Else, Not Me'.
• An American TV series titled "Casey Jones," loosely based on his life, was made in 1957 starring Alan Hale Jr..^[2] The producers and writers of the show took a few liberties with the facts. For example, Casey's wife was now named "Alice", instead of "Janie", they had a son, "Casey Jr." who rode with his father in the cab and his engine was now number 1, instead of 382 or 638 as in real life. Also, instead of the Illinois Central, Casey worked for the fictional "Transcontinental Railroad Co."
• An episode of the animated series, the Real Ghostbusters features the ghost of Casey Jones trying to prevent a railway accident
• The stationmaster in the American television series Shining Time Station, was named Stacy Jones in a tip of the hat to the folklore legend.
• In 1946, the Delmore Brothers, a country duo from Elkmont AL, wrote and recorded 'Freight Train Boogie', a song about Casey Jones.
• Allan Sherman used the tune as a basis for one of his many early ethnic Jewish songs, this one called "J.C. Cohen".
• On March 3, 1950, Disney Studios released a short cartoon titled The Brave Engineer about Casey Jones. Narrated by madcap comic Jerry Colonna, the film depicts Casey's attempts to prevail over floods, train robbers, mechanical failure (he pushes his locomotive so hard that it literally begins to fall apart) and other hazards in an attempt to get his mail train through, ultimately culminating in the accident. Unlike real life, however, the cartoon ends with Jones having survived the collision to bring (what's left of) his train in on time (almost). It is interesting to note that at the time The Brave Engineer was released, the real Casey's widow Janie, and his fireman, Simm Webb, were still very much alive; what they thought of the cartoon is not known.
• The comic strip "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" the name Casey Jones is used for the vigilante hero.
• The nom de guerre Casey Jones was given to the leader of "trains" of enemy MiG-15s taking off from the Chinese side of the Yalu River in the Korean War movie The Hunters
• The 1941 Disney film Dumbo features a circus train named Casey, Jr. (or Casey Jones, Jr.) Casey Jr. Circus Train is an attraction featured at Disneyland in California and Disneyland Paris.
• Casey Jones is mentioned several times in "April the 14th" and "Ruination Day," songs on Gillian Welch's album Time (The Revelator), released in 2001.
• Johnny Cash also did a song entitled "Casey Jones", in which he tells about Jones' fateful trip.
• In the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley (Louis Gossett Jr.) sings a vulgar cadence referring to Casey Jones' sexual exploits while punishing Zack Mayo (Richard Gere).

[edit] Museums in Casey Jones's honor

• The Historic Casey Jones Home & Railroad Museum in Jackson, Tennessee
• Water Valley Casey Jones Railroad Museum in Water Valley, Mississippi
• Casey Jones Railroad Museum State Park in Vaughan, Mississippi Museum Closed in 2004

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "Widow of Casey Jones Is Dead at 92; "haunted' by Ballad of Famed Engineer", New York Times at ProQuest Historical Newspapers, 1958-11-22, pp. 21. Retrieved on 2006-08-15.
2. ^ http://brokenwheelranch.com/caseyjones.htm

[edit] External links

• Ballad of Casey Jones
• Casey Jones on Find-A-Grave
• Casey Jones - The Real Story
• Casey Jones - Toonarific Cartoons