I have a book called _Scalded to Death by the Steam_ which is about train wreck songs. It has the song pretty much as Gene posted, written by Rev. Andrew Jenkins. On August 23, 1908 Benjamin Franklin Dewberry was the engineer on a passenger train going northbound from Atlanta GA. Around Buford they hit a bolt and Dewberry applied the emergency brakes. Neither the engineer nor the fireman, Mayson Wadkins tried to jump. The train was saved but the engine jumped the track and both were killed. Interstingly, the train was No. 38, the one denigrated in "The Wreck of the Old 97."

The book, incredibly, includes no versions of "Casey Jones." I think it was new words put on the older tune.