Jonathan "Smudge" Jones was born on April 10th, 1909 in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He spent most of his free time in his childhood watching as trains from the Pennsylvania Railroad traveled around the Horseshoe curve. In his high school years, he became part of the school's wrestling team, growing to 6'3" and weighing in at 205 lbs by the time he turned 18. He stopped wrestling after an injury, and instead signed into the Pennsylvania Railroad, first working as a switch operator in Altoona Yards, before becoming an engineer around the yards, first working on various 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 switchers, but later went into freight work, using an M1A class 4-8-2 on fast freight service. He gained his nickname from the fact his face constantly had soot on it, even if he wiped it off one day, by the the end of work the next day, the soot would get back on his face. One night on 1937, Smudge was assigned to an express freight service, consisting of 14 B-70 baggage cars, loaded with valuable goods including , including a Mayan artifact that was claimed to be cursed. Not long after the train had left the yard and was on open track, the train began to fill with smoke. The crew, assuming a potential boiler explosion or fire, jumped clear of the train, all except Smudge, who hoped to try and find out what was happening. Within a minute, the train was enveloped in smoke, and when it dispersed, the train was gone without a trace, including Smudge. He would re-appear in 2024, after his train was somehow teleported to California, and almost collided head-on with a BNSF freight train in L.A
