All Aboard!

You've probably heard The Ballad of Casey Jones, but do you know the man behind the song? And even if you have heard of the lad, how does the legend of this locomotive engineer from the 19th Century Ohio River Valley make it to all the way to vaudeville, and into children's hearts even today?

Well the Random Road Trippers - a curious lot - needed to know more about such an American travel icon. And of course we wanted to see some big trains to match the big fire engines we saw in the morning.

Let's just get right to the point: John Luther Jones was a bad ass. As a boy in Jackson, TN he knew he wanted to ride the rails, and at the age of 15 he got his first job with the railroad. In his early years, he often claimed Cayce, KY as his home town and the name Casey stuck. By the young age of 26 he was promoted to engineer, and quickly gained notoriety for his punctuality, recognizable whistle cadence, and his need to quote time to the second from his pocket watch.

While a great engineer and a local legend along his routes, Casey gained immortality the evening of April 30, 1900 when his locomotive - carrying passengers cars and mail sacks - collided with a malfunctioning freight train stalled in his path. How could such a gifted and reliable engineer make such a horrible mistake, we asked? Ben suggested that he was an arrogant showboat, but Beets quickly dispatched such notions citing the fact that brazen behavior is a virtue.

Turns out Casey had to pull a double that day after the return trip engineer called in sick, and by the time the No. 382 train left the station they were a couple hours behind schedule. Not one to ever admit defeat - even on a foggy damp evening, - Casey was determined to arrive on schedule speeding along the route at speeds up to 100 mph. (aka Jason Lusk)

Only a few clicks from the destination and making up serious time (now only 15 MINUTES behind schedule), Casey had the train traveling at 75 mph when he spotted the stalled train ahead. He told his fire man, Sim Webb to jump and save himself. In the remaining seconds, Casey sounded the horn and pulled on the brake with all his might, slowing the train down to about half its speed. The locomotive crashed, tipped on its side and Casey was killed instantly. Miraculously, no one else was seriously injured in the accident.

While the actual crash garnered little national attention, fellow railroad man Wallace Saunders wrote a lyrical ballad to commemorate his friends love for the rails and his fateful last night. While inaccurate as all hell, the song was incorporated into a vaudeville act and a run near the top of the music charts, immortalizing Casey Jones as America's railman.