This is one of a very few "wreck" songs that tells a pretty decent account. That's pretty rare. Even this one though succumbs to the "brave engineer at the throttle til the end" mythology which IS NOT rare at all.

In this case the enginman basically did all he could AFTER he became aware of the situation......and then jumped. He was killed because his head hit a rail when he jumped. He somehow missed the signal and was running too fast anyway.   But instead of just letting him die, being say, just "killed in the wreck," we have him bravely dying in the cab.

My Ol' Man was an engineman. By all accounts he was a good one and well known as a "smooth rider" by train crews. He loved the railroad. He did nothing else his entire working life even including his WWII service. He could, quite literally, describe every foot of track in both directions between the Columbus yards and the Conway/Pitcairn yards outside of Pittsburgh. There was an extremely bad crossing at Heath, Ohio with a very steep road grade on either side. It was also used by refinery tankers. He once said that if he ever encountered a tanker that appeared to be stuck on the tracks he was going to shut down, throw the Air into Emergency, and go out the side door. I asked what if the tanker got off before the train got there and he said "The train would stop all by itself and I'd just walk up to the engine and get back on."

For a lot of reasons I always figured my Dad for a brave man or at the very least a stand up kind of guy. I also never considered him to be an idiot.

Spaw