| abstract | - The film opens with an overhead shot of a sprawling railroad yard in the morning, where all the trains are "fast asleep". The shot begins to focus on a single train No. 2, an American 4-4-0, which is Casey's, which is "slow asleep", and eventually cuts to a closeup of the cab window, where Casey is revealed to be sleeping in his engine cab. Doffing his bedclothes (he is fully dressed in blue overalls and a stereotypical engineer's cap underneath), he checks his watch and realizing that he is behind schedule, hurriedly readies the engine to depart. Mail is loaded aboard the train and with a toot on the whistle, Casey sets off at a dangerously high speed through the maze of switches and sidings, nearly t-boning two other trains in the process before making it safely out of the yard (much to the switchman's relief). At first, the trip is uneventful and we see Casey relaxing in a rocking chair in front of the open firedoor, casually stoking it one piece of coal at a time as if it were a parlour stove. Further on, however, the weather turns nasty, flooding the tracks like "the bed of a creek" and all but swamping the train. Eight hours late, but nonetheless undaunted, Casey climbs up on the cab roof and uses his coal shovel as a paddle. Before long, he has cleared the flood and is on his way again. No sooner is the train back up to full speed, though, then Casey is forced to bring it screeching to a halt: standing in the middle of the tracks grazing, is a large brown cow which finally moves aside after much shouting and whistle blowing on Casey's part. Unfortunately, a new problem presents itself. A stereotypical villain with a black handlebar mustache has tied a lady to the tracks in front of Casey's train. Unwilling to waste any more time stopping, Casey rushes forward, stands on the engine's cowcatcher, and scoops up the terrified woman just seconds in the moment in which the train is about to run her over. The villain turns to the camera and exclaims theatrically, "Curses! Foiled again!" Casey is in such a hurry now, that he doesn't even stop to let her off, depositing her (rope and all) in the arms of a pleasantly surprised station master as he rushes past the next platform at full speed. Hours later, night has fallen and we find Casey's engine steaming full-bore through a narrow, snow-covered mountain pass. As the train passes over a high trestle spanning a gorge however, another stereotypical villain who is "not on the level" nearly brings things to an explosive end. Once again undaunted by a seemingly impassable obstacle, Casey's engine struggles, huffing and puffing, up the side of the gorge and continues on its way. A short while later, the camera focuses on a backside shot of a group of armed men on horseback as they watch the train from up on a hillside in a desert. Casey is about to get his train attacked by train robbers! The next shot finds the whole gang inside the cab, brandishing their guns and knives menacingly. At first, Casey is so caught up in stoking the boiler, that he is oblivious to their presence. It is in the next moment that he accidentally picks up one of the bandits along with his coal shovel-full of coal that he finally notices the uninvited company. Even then, Casey is more annoyed by the distraction than anything else and begins to fight the train bandits, hitting them repeatedly with his coal shovel while continuing to stoke the boiler. After quickly throwing the last of the would-be thieves off the train, Casey checks his watch and is horrified to discover that the train thieves have put him behind schedule once again. Determined to make up for lost time whatever the cost, he opens the throttle so wide that he actually rips the handle from its mount and throws it away. The scenery outside quickly becomes a blur as the train travels faster and faster. Casey adds more coal to the furnace, and, when running out, also uses his coal shovel and rocking chair, until the ribbing on the engine's boiler exterior is forced off. Casey gives the engine some running repairs while the train roars down a hill. Just a bit further away, while otherwise occupied, Casey doesn't notice that another train, a slow freight train, double-headed by a pair of 4-8-0s is coming toward him on the same track, although Casey is too busy fixing his engine's dome to notice. An elder engineer, with a corn-cob pipe in his mouth, who is piloting his front engine, upon seeing Casey's train coming toward him, gasps 'Egad!', suddenly blows the whistle, says 'E-e-egad!', and begins to let the others know that Casey's train is heading toward them like a bullet. The brake-man of Casey's train, upon seeing the double-headed slow freight train, gasps, climbs out of the caboose, and runs up to the engine to tell Casey about the oncoming train, but Casey can't hear the brake-man, who continues to warn about the other train, which is still approaching. As the train speeds down the mountain, the conductor blows the whistle, and then fails to get the message through from Casey. As the conductor says 'So long.', he jumps off the train, and now in the next shot, a far away view from Casey's train, is still seen on the engine's roof in the next shot. The crews of the double header, upon seeing Casey's train, gasp and jump off their engines with their freight train unharmed and run for cover, and just as Casey sees the other train, he finally gasps 'Egad!' one more time, and the two trains collide with a humongous explosion. Afterwards, we are taken to a station, presumably the one Casey is meant to terminate at, and, with Casey being late, the Porter fears the worst. Then, much to his joy and surprise, Casey rolls down the hill in the remains of his engine carrying a bag of mail. A beaten up Casey then shows his watch with pride, it stating he is 'ON TIME-ALMOST'. And the Narrator says 'Next time, take the train!'
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