The Rail Song

I recall as a boy we would hop the freights
 wasn't nothin' but a kick back then
 there was no better thrill for my anxious heart
 than a long flatcar
 headin' out of the yard
 and I knew even then she was in my blood
 like the time when I first hired on
 and the fireman laughed at my bony nose
 but he tossed me a cap
 said GM&O
 and I was a man...
 I gave her my best years
 well, what can you do but laugh
 I don't expect she'll ever be coming back
 When we climbed up the great Appalachians
 her engines would be raging like hell
 then we'd come back down to the rising towns
 where the cattle stare
 in the frozen air
 For me there nothing more sacred
 than the beautiful sound she'd make
 her long blue signal blowin' deep in the night,
 it would get to me there,
 it would get to me there
 Now I'm afraid...
 Afraid of these silent hours
 awake underneath my old cap
 I don't expect she'll ever be coming back
 Well, I watched the beginning of the end for her
 when I saw my first jet airplane
 flying high overhead like a bird of prey
 while the mighty fell
 in the land of the brave
 Now I'm alone.