Cannonball Run

This drawing was inspired by the famous “Cannonball Run” that Casey Jones engineered on his final trip from Memphis, TN to Jackson, MS on April 30, 1900. He was filling in for an engineer whose passenger train was starting 75 minutes behind schedule. Casey Jones was noted for always being on time. He tried to make up the time on this foggy night. When passing through Vaughan, MS, there was part of another train on the tracks ahead of Casey. He knew that he would not be able to avoid the collision. He made his fireman jump while he stayed on board to manually try to slow the train down before the collision. He hit the other train going 35 mph. His efforts cost him his life but saved all of the passengers as well as his fireman.