Film favourite was an all-american hero who died to save passengers
Trawling through the internet to find some old TV shows I loved in my long-ago youth, I found a real classic in Casey Jones.
As I watched episode after episode, I had a hazy memory come back to me of being told that the show was based on a real life person.
Is my mind playing tricks on me, Queries Man? – N.
The US television show, Casey Jones was first aired in 1957 and ran for 32 episodes.
The series was set in the late 19th Century, featuring the adventures of railroad engineer Casey Jones and the crew of the Cannonball Express steam locomotive, fireman Wallie Sims and conductor Redrock Smith, working for the Midwest and Central Railroad.
And, yes, the character of Casey was based on a real person.
He was born John Luther Jones on March 14, 1864, in Missouri, and became an engineer during the heyday of the American railroad.
On April 30, 1900, while driving the Cannonball Express, Jones entered American folklore after apparently sacrificing his own life to help save the lives of many of his passengers.
The train was approaching Vaughan, Mississippi, shortly before 4 am when, as he rounded a curve, Jones spotted a stalled locomotive on the line ahead.
Jones immediately ordered his fireman to jump clear, and he remained on the footplate, desperately trying to halt the
Cannonball before it collided with the train.
Sadly, it did crash into the train’s caboose, and Jones perished.
It was claimed that he died with his hand still on the brake, while, miraculously, his passengers suffered no major injuries.
The events inspired several songs, most notably The Ballad Of Casey Jones, which became a blues standard, recorded by artists such as Furry Lewis, Alexis Korner and Mississippi John Hurt.