Silver Ghost

On a cold and rainy night, I was sitting in the light
 Of my switchman's shack on my post on the mountain
 The storm was pretty bad and the telegraph was dead
 But it was just eleven hours 'til the dawn
 Then much to my surprise, the telegraph jumped back to life
 As I read the code I thought, "Could this be true?"
 A train was on it's way, headed up the mountain grade
 But she didn't have no engineer or crew
 At the other switch they tried to put her on the mountainside
 But she kept on coming up the mountain grade
 Well I quickly doused the light, to try to see into the night
 Maybe I could spot her headlight in the rain
 She was pounding down below, I could hear her whistle blow
 And I thought, "Lord that's a high and mournful sound"
 Then the telegraph began, there's a cave-in at the mine
 And a hundred men are buried 'neath the ground
 Lord she's coming now I see, around the bend and straight at me
 And her boiler's glowing red as coal in hell
 The headlight switches wide, searching all the mountainside
 But the only sound she's making is a wail
 Then I recognize the train by the number and the name
 It's the Miner's Silver Ghost Old 41
 Then she vanished up the track, by the lonely switchman's shack
 Like a mother who was looking for her son
 Now I heard a story, of how an engine went to glory
 Over fifty years ago on this same line
 It was steamin' for a cave, and there were men who needed saved
 But it missed the curve and trestle near the mine
 And every now and then you'll hear a whistle on the wind
 If a mountain slides and many men are lost
 It's a high and lonely wail, searching up and down the mountain
 It's the train they call the Miner's Silver Ghost
 The train they call the Miner's Silver Ghost
 The train they call the Miner's Silver Ghost