gmpullmanJones was born near Cayce, Kentucky, where he acquired the nickname of "Cayce", which he chose to spell as "Casey".
A common version of the story is that "John Jones" was such a common name that other railroaders nicknamed him "Casey" (based on his hometown) to separate him from the other IC men with the same name.
"Casey" of course was/is a fairly common men's first name particularly in Celtic (Irish, Welsh etc.) families.
FWIW, Casey Stengel, the Hall of Fame baseball manager, also was not born as a Casey. Charles Stengel got the nickname early in his baseball career, due his constantly complaining that things in New York or Chicago were OK, but they weren't as good as things back home in "K.C.", Kansas City.
PRR8259The question that has always intrigued me is this: Once the brakes were applied, could not Casey have also jumped like the fireman?
One thought that occured to me is that, according to reports, the torpedos were set about 3000 ft. from the caboose of the train ahead of Jones, and the train hit the torpedos going about 75 MPH. That means that he had to recognize what the torpedos meant, apply the brakes, put the engine in reverse (which most reports say he did), tell Sim Webb to jump, and blow the whistle to warn the crewmen ahead - all in less 30 seconds. He may just have run out of time.
BTW, although he had a number of violations, not clear if any were actually for speeding.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080314111126/http://www.watervalley.net/users/caseyjones/wreck.htm
zugmann BRAKIE Casey was found under the cab not in the cab with a hand on the brake and the other on the whistle cord as folklure claims. I thought that was from the wreck of ol' 97?
BRAKIE Casey was found under the cab not in the cab with a hand on the brake and the other on the whistle cord as folklure claims.
I thought that was from the wreck of ol' 97?
Some of the popular legends has Casey still in the cab still holding the whistle cord and brakes. The truth states they found Casey under the cab.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
wjstixBTW, although he had a number of violations, not clear if any were actually for speeding.
No,but he did get 10 days suspension for not regcognizing the flagman protecting a work train. Casey got 30 days for gross carelessness of handling orders at Jackson,Tenn.
Seems Casey's disregard for orders and flagman caught up with him at Vaughn.