Famous Train Whistle
Jones was also famous for his peculiar skill with the train whistle. His whistle was made of six thin tubes bound together, the shortest being half the length of the longest. Its unique sound involved a long-drawn-out note that began softly, rose and then died away to a whisper, a sound that became his trademark. The sound of it was variously described as "a sort of whippoorwill call," or "like the war cry of a Viking.” People living along the Illinois Central right-of-way between Jackson, Tennessee, and Water Valley, Mississippi, would turn over in their beds late at night upon hearing it and say “There goes Casey Jones” as he roared by.
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Famous quotes containing the words famous, train and/or whistle:
“Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“Put me on a moving train if I’m sick, and I’ll get well. It’s good for mind and body to get out and see the world.”
—Maria D. Brown (1827–1927)
“Mother I longs to get married
I longs to be a bride
I longs to lay by that young man
And close to by his side”
—Unknown. Whistle, Daughter, Whistle (l. 1–4)