Welcome to Little Cozy Nook.
Now, gather ’round, friends, for I want to tell you a story.
It’s a story of a legendary engineer.
His name was Casey Jones, and there’s never been a man who could drive a train as fast
or as well.
People say that Casey Jones could drive a train before he could walk, and when he was
a baby he said “choo-choo” instead of “goo-goo.”
When Casey was a young man, growing up in Kentucky, the railroad was the fastest way
of getting around.
This was back before the days of airplanes or rocket ships.
There were no cars and trucks.
There were only horse-drawn vehicles—and the mighty iron horse, as it was called: the
locomotive.
Casey was an engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad.
He loved to sit way up in the cabin of the train with one hand on the whistle and one
hand on the brake.
When the tracks were straight and clear, Casey would pull on the throttle and the train would
take off like a rocket shooting into space.
When he came into the station, he would pull on the brake and bring the train to a sudden
stop.
Casey loved to watch the trees and fields go whizzing by as he zoomed through the countryside.
He loved to make the train’s whistle blow—and there was no other engineer who could blow
the train whistle quite the way Casey did.
Casey’s whistle started out soft, like a whippoorwill.
Then it rose to a howl, like a coyote crying in the night.
Finally, it faded away to a quiet whisper.
People in town always knew when Casey was coming.
Even before they could see his train, they could hear it.
They’d hear the powerful chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga, getting louder and louder.
Then they’d hear that wild, whistle sound.
Some said that Casey’s whistle had magic powers.
They said that when Casey blew his whistle, little babies would wake up from their naps,
but they wouldn’t cry.
Instead, they’d make little chugga-chugga, whoo-whoo sounds, then fall right back to
sleep.
When Casey blew his whistle, the cows would give an extra quart of milk, and the chickens
would lay at least a dozen eggs each.
And, as the story goes, if you cracked one of those eggs in a cold frying pan and put
out a piece of plain bread, just as soon as Casey went blazing by, there in that pan would
be a nicely fried egg, over easy, and on the side, a plate of hot buttered toast.
Now the reason Casey drove so fast was simple: he took great pride in always being on time.
Casey wanted to make sure that he got that train where it was going when it was supposed
to be there, no matter what.
Whenever he started out on a run, the railroad men would wave and yell, “Bring her in on
time, Casey!”
And they knew he would.
But Casey couldn’t make that train go that fast with his good looks.
No, Casey needed a good fireman to help him, and he had one of the best in Sim Webb.
The fireman on a train didn’t put out fires like you might think.
The fireman’s job was to keep the fire in the engine burning by shoveling coal into
it.
When the flames were a-roarin’, that made a lot of steam, and that made the train go
fast.
No doubt about it, Sim Webb was a first-rate fireman.
He could shovel coal faster than anyone on either side of the Mississippi.
The faster Sim shoveled, the faster Casey could drive the train.
Sim Webb kept the fire good and hot, and Casey Jones got their trains in on time.
Together, they were an unbeatable team.
There was only one day that Casey and Sim almost didn’t make it to the station on
time.
They were carrying a load of mail to Memphis, Tennessee, and it was raining cats and dogs.
The rain had been falling for five or six weeks, And the railroad track was like the
bed of a creek.
At the station in Memphis, the railroad men waited for Casey to arrive.
Some said, “There’s no way he can make it on time with all this rain.
He’ll have to slow down.”
But others said, “Just you wait.
He’ll make it.
Casey Jones always makes it on time.”
And sure enough, just then they saw a light on the tracks up ahead, and heard the lonesome
whistle that could only be Casey Jones.
The train pulled into the station, dripping wet, puffing hard, but right on time.
Casey and Sim were dog tired and more than ready for a good night’s sleep.
But they’d hardly settled into their beds when there was a knock at the door.
Word came that the engineer who was supposed to drive the train on the southbound run was
sick.
Well, they didn’t even have to ask Casey if he would take the man’s place.
Tired as he was, Casey got dressed and headed for the station.
And when he got there, he found Sim Webb, already stoking the fire with coal, getting
the train ready to carry mail, packages of freight, and passengers as well.
Now, friends, here’s where I have to tell you the sad part of this story, about how
Casey met his end.
As Casey mounted1to the cabin and took the throttle in his hand, he heard someone shout,
“Casey, you’re already more than an hour and a half late.”
But Casey just smiled and thought to himself, “I guess that means I’ll have to go just
a little faster.”
Casey opened up the throttle and the train plunged into the dark, wet night.
1Sim Webb shoveled the coal with all his might, and the train chugged on, faster and faster.
“Casey!”
Sim yelled.
“You’re running too fast.”
But Casey said, “Fireman, don’t you fret, Keep knockin’ at the fi re door, and don’t
give up yet.
I’m gonna run this train until she leaves the rail Or we make it on time with the southbound
mail.”
They drove on.
The train gained speed until it was flying faster than the speed of light.
Then Casey said, “I believe we’ll make it through, For the engine is a-steamin’
better than I ever knew!”
Casey got the signal that the tracks were clear up ahead, so he was “highballing”
down the tracks, pushing that train just as fast as it would go.
He was going so fast that it looked like they might even make it on time.
Just then, as they squealed around a curve, through the darkness, Casey saw a light up
ahead.
He knew that light wasn’t supposed to be there, not on this track.
At that moment, Casey knew.
There was a broken-down freight train stuck on the track just ahead, and he was speeding
straight toward it!
Casey pulled the brake as hard as he could, and yelled to his partner, “Jump, Sim!”
“Casey, you come on!”
replied Sim.
“Jump!”
Casey shouted, and in the blink of an eye Sim jumped.
But Casey stayed on the train.
He knew that he could not stop the train in time, but he knew that he had to slow it down.
He knew that if he jumped and let go of the brake, his train would crash into the other
train at a dangerously high speed.
So Casey pulled on the brake with all his might.
A terrible screeching, squealing sound ripped through the darkness.
Then came the crash.
The trains, they met in the middle of a hill In a head-on tangle that was bound to spill.
He tried to do his duty, the men all said, But Casey Jones, he ended up dead.
Poor Casey!
When they found him, they said he had one hand still on the brake and one hand tight
on the whistle: Trying to stop his train as best he could and give warning to the other
train.
Casey Jones didn’t survive that fateful ride, but he was the only person who died
in the crash.
Casey’s bravery that night saved all of the passengers on both trains, and his fireman
Sim.
After that, thanks to Sim Webb keeping the story alive, people would tell stories about
the brave engineer named Casey Jones.
They even made up songs about him.
You’ve already heard some parts of one of those songs.
Here’s another part: Casey Jones—mounted to the cabin.
Casey Jones—throttle in his hand.
Casey Jones mounted to the cabin.
Took a trip to the Promised Land.
They say that if you look up in the sky on a clear night and see a fl ash of light across
the sky—well, that might be a shooting star.
But then again, it might be Casey Jones, roaring across the sky, chugga-chugga, chugga-chuggin’—on
time—till the end of time.