Does anyone know any railroad folklore stories?

Question

or ghost/ haunting stories? or just plain funny stories?

Answer 1

My thanks to railfan. It’s nice to know my efforts have brightened someone’s day.

There are a few heroes of traditional railroad folklore, some immortalized in song, although at times the truth gets a little “spin” placed on it. Prime of these legends, slightly misrepresented, is “the great one,” John Luther “Casey” Jones.

On an early, misty, fog shrouded April morning in 1900, near Vaughn, Mississippi, Mr. Jones got himself into a jackpot that cost him, as well as 18 others, their lives. The truth is slightly different than the lyrics of the song, “Ballad of Casey Jones” which was written by an African-American engine wiper not long after Mr. Jones’ demise.

His skills as an engineer were formidable and he carried along with him a reputation as a “crackerjack” hogger. The man himself had a strong sense of what was proper and expected of a human being. This is demonstrated by the fact that his fireman was a black man named Sim Webb. On the Illinois Central at this time in history, engineers hired whomever they wished as their fireman. Mr. Jones gave the nod to Mr. Webb, and received considerable flack for doing so. He may well have been the first to have put into practice the concept of the latter day “affirmative action.”

In the song, it is written that the accident had been a “head on” collision with another train, “.....’cause there’s two locomotives that are gonna bump.” Not so. A preceding freight train, due to mechanical difficulties, had failed to clear the main track before the arrival of Mr. Jones’ “Cannon Ball Express” (not the train’s real name). Mr. Jones was running way to fast for conditions and when he blew past the rear flagman of the disabled train ahead it was too late.

The song recounts that Casey told his fireman to jump, which he did, and though seriously injured, he survived. Engineer Jones, to his credit, stayed with the engine, probably lessening the speed before impact, but I would be hard pressed to believe his heroism saved many lives, though it’s possible. Either way, he atoned for his error with his life.

The truth is, he was a very good engineer, noted for getting his train back on schedule while running late. The fact is that all the speed restrictions went out the window to do so, and there was passive approval on the part of the railroad officials. “On time” was good for business. The thing that got him was that he came to know he was good and he let it get the better of him. Confidence morphed into arrogance, and he lost his respect for the beast. A formal investigation determined he was at fault.

Lesser known in the annals of railroad folklore is an engineer named Steve Broady. He took the highball for Valhalla in a train wreck that became known as the “wreck of Old 97" and immortalized in the song of the same name. In this instance high speed was also the instrument of death and destruction, but in a much more spectacular fashion.

Engineer Broady, who was the regular engineer on that run, was called on duty at the regular time, but the engine that usually made that run, #38, was having mechanical difficulties and had to be replaced by engine #97. This of course made the train very late leaving Munroe, Virginia, with the orders to ".......put her into Spencer on time," as the song would say.

He was descending a grade in the White Oak Mountains into a town with a tight turn on a trestle at a high rate of speed, though probably not the “90 miles an hour” that the song suggests, and the entire train left the tracks and crashed into the town below. I think the death toll was near a hundred or more in this accident but I’m not sure. It was never known if the brakes had failed or if he was just going way too fast. He too perished, “.......a scalded to death by the steam.”

Even lesser known is the story of an engineer named Jesus Garcia. He was Mexico’s equivalent of Casey Jones, but for my money, the better man. I say this because on his last trip, it wasn’t anything he did to produce a calamity, but he was the sole casualty in his saga.

His train was stopped in a town in Mexico, I don’t know the name, when it was noticed that one of the cars in his train had caught fire, presumably from an over heated journal, or “hot box.” In this instance it was much more problematic than usual in as much as the fire was on one of several cars of dynamite the train was carrying. Knowing there was no time to spare, he whistled off and pulled out of town on the train, solo. He got the train clear before it exploded, saving countless lives, while sacrificing his own. He too was immortalized in a song titled, “Adios, Jesus, Goodbye.”

The story of John Henry is suspect in that, depending on which legend you hear, he was either a railroad track worker or a mine worker. Either way, he made is mark by challenging and beating machinery that was to take a man’s place. He won, so the story goes, but his heart exploded due to the massive amount of exertion. My guess is that this legend didn’t happen, but was a metaphor for a man’s worth as compared to that of a machine.

So, there’s a few, and I’m sure there are more.....................

Answer 2

Many years ago, the publicher of TRAINS magazine lamented that he had the magazine, for too many years, focusing on the trains, and not so much the people that run them.

They have a section every month that is devoted to short stories of railroaders and railfans. And the magazine has consistently had first person stories.

HOGHEAD should send a few in.

Answer 3

One of my favourite (and true) stories concerns the Chief Engineer of the pre-war German railways during the 1930s, one Richard Wagner (no relation). He hated Hitler and the Nazis and made no secret of the fact, refusing to make the 'Heil Hitler' salute.

When the Nazi government started putting swastikas on the trains he made an official complaint as he thought it spoilt their appearance. He described the Axis as 'a tube for blowing hot air across the Alps' and famously refused to be included in a photo of Hitler's special train at Berchtesgaden station.

He was also a Member of the (British) Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a friend of fellow Member Nigel Gresley who designed the record-breaking steam locomotive 'Mallard', this was during a time when the German government wanted good relations with Britain so he was sidelined into early retirement and replaced by one of Albert Speer's poodles.

His membership of the I Mech E was suspended during the war but restored afterwards.

He died in 1953.

A couple of other tales:

'The Ballad of John Axon' describes the true story of a British train driver who was killed when his locomotive steam brake failed and the train crashed. When he knew the crash was coming he told his fireman to jump clear but stayed on the footplate to the end.

'The Ghost Train', a play by the late Arnold Ridley, playwright and actor, best known for his role as Godfrey in 'Dad's Army'.

Answer 4

One of the best people to ask is someone who has, or currently worked for a railroad, such as Hoghead. His 360 page has quite a few "RailTails", both humorous and informative.