I can’t remember if I posted this before or not but it’s a pretty good historical review. Sad about the lack of a history marker at the site, maybe TRAINS can fix that with their preservation award?
Eye witness video account:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cukvTfTYBA4
Look at the historical side …10 years or so ago?:
Thanks to CMStPnP for posting not one, but two very interesting and deeply touching videos which instantly took me back to my boyhood living next door to a mainline railroad and reading the Erie Magazine article from 1928 about Casey Jones and his ride into glory and American folklore.
As a boy in the 1950’s, Casey Jones’ story thrilled me with its danger, saddened me with its loss, and inspired me because Casey Jones saved Sim Webb’s life and warned others with his whistle, even as he brought his train speed down from 75 mph to 35 mph, thus saving the lives of many of his passengers.
“He was found in the wreck, with his had on the throttle*, scalded to death by the steam.” (The wreck of old '97)
At a time when I was learning about famous folklore figures like Paul Bunyan, Joe Magaric, John Henry, Mike Fink, Pecos Bill, Uncle Remus and others, two names stood out because they not only had been real men, but they became famous by serving their fellow man: Johnny Appleseed and Casey Jones.
Casey Jones saved Sim Webb’s life and Wallace Saunders gave life to the story of Casey Jones with the best possible help: a fine, tuneful song, still known in all parts of the United States 120 years later. To enter American folklore is to enter our national Valhalla.
Thanks, CMStPnP, for reminding us of this iconic American hero.
To lionize Casey Jones is ludicrous. He was speeding which was a major cause of the wreck.
Thanks CMStPnP.
This is very true… but I suspect it is also true that the railroad encouraged him to speed ‘when it suited their purposes’, and Casey was relying on his train’s superior class and the railroad’s ‘other’ rules to give him a clear track. To my knowledge even though he had a reputation as a hotrod runner he was not a reckless or wildly unsafe engineer (like some of the ‘cowboys’ I hear tales about, some of whom I suspect you knew or knew about…)
The major point of the popular response to the Casey story wasn’t ‘lionization’ directly; it was to enforce the sentimentality of ‘how are the mighty fallen’ that would go with the Titanic songs onlt a few years later, coupled with “be kind to your true live or husband because he may never return”. To make that stuff effective, the more god-like the engineer’s supposed powers and progress, the more ironic his ‘comeuppance’ at the hands of [insert chosen version of karma/fate/chance/divine retribution, etc.]
The lesson I take from the Casey Jones story is be nice to people, whoever they are, because you never know do you?
If Casey hadn’t be kind and friendly to Wallace Saunders, a Black roundhouse wiper and “the lowest of the low” for lack of a better term, there’d have been no song. Casey would have been just another dead engineer.
Wallace Saunders turned his friend Casey into an American folk hero like Dan’l Boone, Davey Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, and so many others.
Admit it, do any of you ever look at a steam locomotive and NOT think of Casey Jones?
By the way, Casey was a hero of mine when I was a little boy. Nothing that I’ve learned about the man since that time has changed my opinion of him. Says a lot.
Regardless of whether or not he was speeding and the company’s attitude toward this, under the train order rules Jones’ train had every right to occupy the main track when and where it did on this day.
There is some controversy around where the freight train’s flagman and torpedoes were located, and the story changes depending on who you ask and when you asked them. At any rate the official investigation blamed Jones and Jones alone, this conclusion of course also meant that no living employees would be disciplined.
I do not know if yard limits existed at this location, or if the timetable contained instructions requiring all trains to approach the yard, station or water tank prepared to find another train already on the main track.
They mentioned in the video the 6 foot drivers and implied the locomotive was built for speed. Also how the other engineers were concerned about the lighter than normal rail and would not take the route via Grenada, Miss. So I think railroad management complicity in any speeding to make up schedules is a given.
Casey had the reputation of being an engineer who could “Get 'em over the road,” so it’s no wonder he was the one they’d pick to make up the time on Number 1.
Passenger schedules used to be sacred things in those days and Number 1 was the prestige train. It became “The Cannonball” later and eventually became “The City of New Orleans.”
All this talk about Casey Jones- now I can’t get that damned Grateful Dead song out of my head.
As good as that song is, I think we can all agree that no Rule G violations occurred in the actual incident.
Funny how at the time of that song’s release how many rock and roll songs were about cocaine instead of teenage love, cars and how wonderful California was. I guess all the rockers moved to the Topanga canyon and got into some bad habits. Not to change the subject, of course.
Oh great. NOW I’ve got a craving for “Cherry Garcia.” [;)]
Hey, Joe, good to see you back. Were there actual speed limits back then?
A better question would be, “Were there accurate, or even working, speedometers back then?”
There were 4 trains at Vaughn that early morning when it happened. Two freight trains, one north and one south on the siding. The siding didn’t hold both trains, about 6 cars would hang out on the main. There were two sections of a northbound passenger train on the house track, which from diagrams and descriptions was single ended, the switch on the north end.
The freight trains had to saw-by trains on the main track. The train that Casey and Simm met north of Vaughn had been sawed through Vaughn. When that train left, the freight trains were in the south saw position. At that time, there were only 3 trains there. The second northbound passenger hadn’t arrived. What I’ve read speculates that the torpedoes were placed to flag Casey’s train for the south switch.
The fourth train arrived and needed to clear on the house track. This required the freight trains to saw north to let the northbound to reach the house track. While in this north saw position an air hose burst, putting the train in emegency. Before it could be fixed, Casey’s train showed up.
The flagman on the freight train had gone back, beyond his torpedoes. He did not set down anymore torpedoes. He claims to have signalled the train and I don’t doubt this. The weather had been rainy/misty, the track on a curve to the left. Torpedoes are/were used to get the attention of rngine crews to look out for something ahead. With the flagman out beyond his “guns,” it’s quite plausible to miss signals. You can’t read train orders, check you’re gauges, or even yell across the cab of a steam engine and maintain continuous view on the tracks ahead.
I’ve read that he had a message, if not an actual train order, to be prepared to saw through Vaughn. He may have expected to be pr
[quote user=“jeffhergert”]
A better question would be, “Were there accurate, or even working, speedometers back then?”
There were 4 trains at Vaughn that early morning when it happened. Two freight trains, one north and one south on the siding. The siding didn’t hold both trains, about 6 cars would hang out on the main. There were two sections of a northbound passenger train on the house track, which from diagrams and descriptions was single ended, the switch on the north end.
The freight trains had to saw-by trains on the main track. The train that Casey and Simm met north of Vaughn had been sawed through Vaughn. When that train left, the freight trains were in the south saw position. At that time, there were only 3 trains there. The second northbound passenger hadn’t arrived. What I’ve read speculates that the torpedoes were placed to flag Casey’s train for the south switch.
The fourth train arrived and needed to clear on the house track. This required the freight trains to saw north to let the northbound to reach the house track. While in this north saw position an air hose burst, putting the train in emegency. Before it could be fixed, Casey’s train showed up.
The flagman on the freight train had gone back, beyond his torpedoes. He did not set down anymore torpedoes. He claims to have signalled the train and I don’t doubt this. The weather had been rainy/misty, the track on a curve to the left. Torpedoes are/were used to get the attention of rngine crews to look out for something ahead. With the flagman out beyond his “guns,” it’s quite plausible to miss signals. You can’t read train orders, check you’re gauges, or even yell across the cab of a steam engine and maintain continuous view on the tracks ahead.
I’ve read that he had a message, if not an actual train order, to be prepared to saw throug
[quote user=“jeffhergert”]
A better question would be, “Were there accurate, or even working, speedometers back then?”
There were 4 trains at Vaughn that early morning when it happened. Two freight trains, one north and one south on the siding. The siding didn’t hold both trains, about 6 cars would hang out on the main. There were two sections of a northbound passenger train on the house track, which from diagrams and descriptions was single ended, the switch on the north end.
The freight trains had to saw-by trains on the main track. The train that Casey and Simm met north of Vaughn had been sawed through Vaughn. When that train left, the freight trains were in the south saw position. At that time, there were only 3 trains there. The second northbound passenger hadn’t arrived. What I’ve read speculates that the torpedoes were placed to flag Casey’s train for the south switch.
The fourth train arrived and needed to clear on the house track. This required the freight trains to saw north to let the northbound to reach the house track. While in this north saw position an air hose burst, putting the train in emegency. Before it could be fixed, Casey’s train showed up.
The flagman on the freight train had gone back, beyond his torpedoes. He did not set down anymore torpedoes. He claims to have signalled the train and I don’t doubt this. The weather had been rainy/misty, the track on a curve to the left. Torpedoes are/were used to get the attention of rngine crews to look out for something ahead. With the flagman out beyond his “guns,” it’s quite plausible to miss signals. You can’t read train orders, check you’re gauges, or even yell across the cab of a steam engine and maintain continuous view on the tracks ahead.
I’ve read that he had a message, if not an actual train order, t
On 19th Century locomotives I don’t believe there were, speedometers were a 20th Century thing.
In the 19th Century speed was estimated by the time in seconds between mileposts. Aside from that it was “seat of the pants” estimation.
The New York Central’s 999’s speed was estimated by the milepost and seconds procedure.
Maybe the locomotives in 1900 didn’t have speedometers, but the trains could. Huh?
The following was written in the 1980’s by the late Loris Troyer, sometime editor of the Kent - Ravenna (Ohio) Record Courier.
“The Railway Speed Recorder Company was chartered on December 2, 1875 and operated for some 29 years in Kent (Ohio). The Reverend W.W. Wythe of Meadville,Pennsylvania secured a patent for the speed recorder but it was the skill of James B. Miller, inventor of the Miller Keyless Lock, who perfected the speed regulator. The company was capitalized for $250,000 employing as many as 80 skilled machinists.”
“The device recorded every movement of a train, the duration of each stop, and speed at any point along the rail line. The recorder was designed to be attached to the sill under a particular rail car. The instrument operated thusly, a worm gearwas attached to the car’s wheel which in turn engaged a 50 toothed gear. It took ten thousand revolutions to cause the speed recorder’s drum to revolve one complete turn. According to the advertisement the recorder would provide freedom from wrecks and damaged roadbeds. Its inclusion on a train did away with stealing time at stops at stations and then making up for the lost time by fast runs between stations.”
"It was the only firm in the world that manufactured a device to record the speed of trains and at one time the devices were used on scores of rail companies throughout the United States and foreign countries. Eventually the Company filled all the orders placed by the various rail companies and turned its attention to the manufacture of other railroad hardware – track jacks, caboose and car shop stoves, milk testers and an electric saw. The company quit the Kent facility and moved to Meadville in 1904 thus ending a bit of historic rail in