The Escape

Early railroad tunnels were barely wide enough for the train to squeeze through.
Railroad builders didn't want to make a tunnel any wider than it needed to be.
Source of Raton Pass photo: http://bit.ly/39IscR9

Even though Buckey thought he had an 'escape proof' plan, it didn't work out that way.  J.J. Smith slipped off his leg iron and jumped off the train at Raton Pass.  If ever there was a escape match made in outlaw heaven, Raton Pass would be it.  Back in 1889, the steam locomotive would have been going painfully slow up the whopping 3.5% gradient.  It's entirely possible the train was going so slowly, one could simply step off a car onto the trackside ballast.  To make matters even more escape-worthy, it was snowing up a blizzard outside!

Chances are almost certain that Smith jumped out while the train
 was climbing the steep grade before the actual tunnel.
Photo Source: http://bit.ly/39IscR9

Back then Raton Pass was essentially in the middle of nowhere. Smith simply vanished into the night and wasn't found despite a somewhat long and convoluted manhunt. Buckey decided to continue transporting the three remaining captives to Prescott.

Accounts vary widely (and wildly) on what happened after Smith's daring escape from the train. While there is no way of knowing which details are true or false, we believe this summary is probably very close to the facts.

Smith apparently began stealing various horses while heading quickly in a southeasterly direction toward Red River Country.  At one point he made the mistake of stealing a fine and handsome horse from a remote Texas ranch.  Meanwhile soon thereafter, Smith supposedly encountered a starving young woman lost in a blizzard.  Supposedly, Smith decided to save the woman from certain death by exposure.  He led her to within visual distance to the ranch where he had stolen the horse.  She was able to make her way to the ranch and probably collapsed at the door.

Meanwhile, Smith proceeded on. When the rancher helped the woman back to stable condition she told her story.  Since supposedly the stolen horse was the rancher's favorite animal, he asked the local sheriff to put out the equivalent of what is known today as an APB---an All Points Bulletin.  Eventually, Smith rode into Vernon, Texas, and was at that point about 400 miles southeast of Raton Pass.  Some account say it was Smith's 9th day of travel from the point of escape. That's about the correct "miles per day" average for a man on horseback.

Traveling almost 400 miles from Raton Pass to Vernon, Texas, would have been quite an effort!
Source of map calcuations: http://bit.ly/35tuIr4

Supposedly, the Sheriff of Wilbarger County had received the APB and immediately recognized the horse.  Smith was arrested and jailed for horse stealing.  Meanwhile, the Wilbarger Sheriff soon learned of the region-wide search for Smith The Train Robber.  Since Smith resembled the telegraphed description, the Texas Sheriff contacted Buckey and provided details of the man in custody.

It was a Bingo for Buckey and he quickly obtained extradition papers from the A.T. Governor's Office and beat feet for Vernon, Texas.  Buckey was then able to safely escort his prisoner back to Prescott.  Smith contested the train robbery charges but was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in the Yuma prison.

As legend would have us believe, the woman in the story was overcome with remorse for catalyzing Smith's capture.  She supposedly moved to Phoenix and pestered the Governor every day to pardon Smith.  Supposedly, the Governor finally relented and freed Smith who supposedly lived happily ever after with the woman.

There are many holes in many aspects of every facet of this part of the Canyon Diablo Train Robbery Story.  Due to the many inconsistencies and almost total lack of supporting primary sources, the so-called 'true story' will never be known.  At least one Buckey biographer went on record simply encouraging his readers to believe whatever they wanted to believe.  That's probably the only suitable approach for The Escape chapter of this saga.

Hopefully someday soon we will be able to provide some more verifiable details of this aspect of the complex story.

The north entrance to the Raton Pass Tunnel lies almost on the Colorado-New Mexico Line.  Todays I-25 runs almost alongside Raton Pass. The Pass is steeped in early historic travel and railroad lore.  Here is the Wiki for Raton Pass:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raton_Pass