The Ballad of Casey Jones

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"The Ballad of Casey Jones", also known as "Casey Jones, the Brave Engineer" or simply "Casey Jones", is a traditional American folk song about railroad engineer Casey Jones and his death at the controls of the train he was driving. It tells of how Jones and his fireman Sim Webb raced their locomotive to make up for lost time, but discovered another train ahead of them on the line, and how Jones remained on board to try to stop the train as Webb jumped to safety. It is song number 3247 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The song helped to preserve the memory of Jones' feat down through the years in its 40-plus versions and enhanced Casey's legendary status, to the extent that he has even come to be seen as something of a mythological figure (like Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, or John Henry) to the uninformed. Books and pulp magazines about the railroad and its heroes helped to perpetuate his memory as well.

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