Hi guys. I did not read the entire post, so excuse me if this is redundant, but I can address a couple of issues that seem to be unresolved. First, is the use of the name "Steve" for the engineer, Joseph "Joe" Brodey. He was nicknamed "Steve" as a reference to Steve Brodey, a well known daredevil of the era, because he was known to be able to handle a fast train. Use of the name "Pete" was due to a mistake made by on one of the original recordings of the song - I can't remember the singer's name - he had a copy of an earlier recording only, not the sheet music, and misunderstood. As for the term "lost his average" - in railroad/trucker speak of the time, the saying "lost his average" means to have your air pressure drop to a point that it can no loner efficiently apply the brakes and stop the vehicle. This usually happens when the vehicle is being operated on a curvy track with stretches of straight-a-ways between and the operator is trying to go as fast as possible. This is the technique: He will approach a curve maintaining his speed as long as he thinks he can, then apply the brakes to get into the curve, then accelerate thru the curve. Sometimes when this is being done in rapid succession, the air compressor that supplies the air pressure to the braking system can't keep up and average pressure drops below the minimum required to stop. This is referred to as "losing your average". Hope that clears it up for you guys. By the way, my question was does anyone know what the lyrics "this is not 38" refer to? I had always heard it was a reference to Casey Jones fatal trip, but 38 doesn't match either his trip number (2) or his the engine number (382). If you know, my email is av8nrog_74@hotmail.com