About this episode
The episode recounts the story of Casey Jones, a railroad engineer who died in a collision while trying to save his train.
You’re listening to the Jesters with a Decca recording from 1944. Railroads were the nation’s backbone at the time and schedules were of the utmost importance. The engineer set out an hour and a half behind schedule in the wee hours of April 30 th 1900. He was determined to make up the time from Memphis to Canton, Mississippi and had just about done so a couple miles outside of Vaughan. But two trains were already taking up the passing tracks at the station, with cars left out on the main line. Jones, somewhat miraculously, slowed the train’s 75 mph speed to 35 at the time of collision. He was killed in the impact, his being the only fatality, and preventing many more. Image: Casey Jones’ home at the time of his death. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
Topics covered
- railroads
- history
- accidents
- engineering
- safety
Keywords
- Casey Jones
- railroad history
- train collision
- engineering
- safety
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Decca
Books & works: Jesters
Places: Memphis, Canton, Mississippi, Vaughan
More episodes of Sound Beat
- American Archives Month: Records Revisited · May 29, 2026 · 2 min
- Oh, Shenandoah · May 23, 2026
- STAR WARS Week: Lord Vader · May 9, 2026 · 2 min
- STAR WARS Week: Old Ben · May 8, 2026
- STAR WARS Week: Rescue · May 5, 2026
- The Force · May 4, 2026
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Sound Beat podcast page.