For the history oriented on this forum, this is the anniversary of the day that Casey bought the farm, so to speak.
In this day in 1900 he bashed into the back end of a stalled freight, leading to a whole bunch of songs about his bravery in the face of certain disaster. Wikipedia has a decent article and I'm sure other hits will show up during a search.
Maybe we should all raise a root beer in his honor (he was a teetotaler) and run our old Madison cars.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
tripleo - thanks for the reminder! Casey is the most famous locomotive engineer of them all ... and for good reason. Will raise a cup in his direction later this evening.
He should'a stayed in Memphis.
Due to the accident, Illinois Central 382 is permanently connected to John Luther "Casey" Jones, even though it seems that was the only time he ran it. Back then, engineers had their own assigned engines, and his was 638, a 2-8-0 that had been on display at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
FWIW both Casey Jones and baseball manager Casey Stengel were given the nickname "Casey" because of their hometowns.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
