(posted Feb 2014 to Facebook)
On our latest trip cross country we stopped in Jackson
TN. Jackson is nestled between Memphis
and Nashville and so it is the kind of town you would stop at to get gas or
maybe stay in because it was late and you didn’t want to drive any farther in
the dark (this last one is my excuse).
That being said, Jackson has a real claim to fame. The home of Casey Jones is located here.
Casey Jones, you say, isn’t that a mythical character made
famous in country ballads? I thought so also, but reality is there.
Casey Jones, born John Luther Jones, acquired his nickname
because as a youth his family once lived near Cayce, KY. And he liked the spelling of Casey better and
the nick name stuck. Enthralled by
trains from his childhood Casey started out as a brakeman, moved on to a
fireman, and finally made engineer for the Mobile and Ohio RR. Because of a tragic epidemic of Yellow Fever
in 1887, he was able to move from the local RR to the Illinois Central. He moved up through the ranks of the Illinois
Central and became an Engineer. He was
so very good at this that he acquired the reputation of always being on time,
“getting there on the advertised” as
railroad men would say. He was so
punctual that people along the line would set their clocks by his train. This was possible because Casey Jones, like
some other top engineers, installed his own whistle on the engine. His distinctive sound started soft and built
to full steam, and then tapered off at the end.
His distinctive sound was the result of his original design six pipe
whistle he installed on the engine.
While known for his on time passion, Casey was also loose
with the rules. During his career he was
cited nine time for infractions and spent 145 days suspended from duty. While this would make him sound like a
renegade engineer it is also important to know that the penalties for being
late were worse than those for breaking the rules. Casey’s on time prowess would soon get him
promoted to engineer on passenger trains.
It was this promotion that would open the path to his death. In 1900 Casey was assigned the passenger run
between Memphis and Canton, MS. This was
a part of the “cannonball” run from Chicago to New Orleans. This route had the
fastest schedule in the history of US railroading; the time were so short that
some engineers felt they could not be met and quit rather than take on the
route. Jones signed on for the section
of this run.
On the night of his death, Jones was not scheduled to work.
The engineer on duty that night called in sick and when Casey was called, he
went in to work. Because of the late
call in by the scheduled engineer, the train was about an hour and half late
leaving the station. Casey Jones was
determined to make up the lost time and “get there on the advertised”. Everything was going smoothly for Casey and
his skill as an engineer would help him pick up all but about 5 minutes of the
delay as he approached Vaugh, MS.
Unbeknownst to Casey Jones there was a problem at
Vaughn. Three trains were scheduled to
be at the station at the same time and normally this would not be a problem
since there was a passing track that could handle normal length freight trains
allowing the passenger train to use the main rails and move through. This night was different. One of the trains
was ten cars longer than normal which meant that they would need to use a
technique called a “saw by”. This trick
maneuver required both trains to pull onto the passing track until the last car
was off the main track which would mean that the leading cars of the two would
be out on the main rails; the through
train would slowly pull past the siding until its last cars had cleared the
last cars of the trains on the siding. It would then stop while the siding trains
would back up until the leading cars on the siding were clear of the main track
so the through train could pull ahead and proceed on the main rails.
The “Ole 382”, Casey’s train that evening, was rounding a curve
and the evening air was filled with a dense fog, combined both blocked his view
of the upcoming siding and the problems there.
At 75 mph there was too little time to avoid colliding with the cars
that sat on the main rails. Even so,
Jones tried all the means available, reversing the throttle and jamming on the
air brakes, to slow his train but soon realized a crash was to happen. He ordered his fireman to jump from the
train, an order that saved his life.
Jones’ efforts had slowed his train from the express rate of 75 mph to
35 mph but it was not enough to prevent the collision and Casey Jones
death. Taken from its place at the
throttle, Casey’s body was carried on a stretcher to the station, over one half mile away. A tribute to him and his
efforts to thwart the collision and protect the passengers. Casy Jones was the only person killed in the
accident.
Jackson, MS may just look like a way station on the way to
someplace else, but when you look closer there is the legend of Casey
Jones.
The following recording is from 1900 by Robert Hunter. While it plays loose with the facts, it
starts the legend.
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