I don't think there's a person over 40 years of age who hasn't heard the song that starts, "Come all you rounders if you want to hear, the song told of a brave engineer...."

That's the story of Casey Jones, the Illinois Central locomotive engineer, killed on April 30, 1900, when his train collided from the rear with another IC train which had not yet cleared the railroad siding.  The "Reader's Digest" version of the story is Casey was running late on the southbound mainline of the IC in Vaughn, Mississippi, where he was to "saw" the mainline with another train.

The term "saw" meant one train would partially pull into a passing siding, allowing another train to pull by on the mainline, then reverse the situation to get back on the mainline.  There is an excellent illustration of this move on the Train Web Site at this link if you're having a hard time visualizing the situation.

Instead of clearing the meeting of two other trains at Vaughn, Casey overran a track warning device and crashed into the rear of the first train at high speed.  His heroism was staying with his train as it plowed into the wreck, allowing him to apply the brakes until the last second, although it cost him his life.

For a detailed description of the incident, check out these web pages:

• Water Valley Railroad/Casey Jones Museum
• The actual Illinois Central Railroad Wreck Report

The scene at Vaughn in 1999 had not changed that much from the actual wreck photographs taken in 1900.  In the figure below, you're looking north at the wreck scene.  A corresponding picture appears at this link.  Casey's locomotive came to a halt in the ditch to the right side of the tracks along near the lower right corner of this picture.

(This picture along with one from my Crossroads of Blues page will soon be published in a book on scenes from American folklore by Chris Epting.)

There's not a whole lot to show you in Vaughn.  The Casey Jones Museum is not very big, but it has a one huge piece of history there--the broken bell from Casey's engine.