Now bein' six years old
I'd seen some trains before,
so it's hard to figure out
what I'm at the depot for.
Trains are big and black and smokin' steam,
screamin' at the wheels,
bigger than anything there is,
at least that's the way she feels
Trains are big and black and smokin',
louder than July four,
but everybody's actin' like
this might be somethin' more
than just pickin' up the mail
or the soldiers from the war,
this is somethin' that even old man Wileman (?)
never seen before.
And it's late afternoon
on a hot Texas day,
somethin' strange is goin' on
and we's all in the way.
Well there's fifty or sixty people
they're just sittin' on their cars,
and the old men left their dominoes
and they come down from the bars.
Everybody's checkin',
old Jack Kittrel(?) checked his watch,
and us kids put our ears
to the rails to hear 'em pop.
So we already knowed
when they finally said 'train time'
you'd a-thought that Jesus Christ himself
was rollin' down the line.
Cuz things got real quiet,
Momma jerked me back,
not before I'd got the chance
to lay a nickel on the track.
Look out here she comes, she's comin',
Look out there she goes, she's gone,
screamin' straight through Texas
like a mad dog cyclone.
Big, red, and silver,
she don't make no smoke,
she's a fast-rollin' streamline
come to show the folks.
Look out here she comes, she's comin'
Look out there she goes, she's gone,
screamin' straight through Texas
like a mad dog cyclone.
Lord, she never even stopped.
She left fifty or sixty people
still sittin' on their cars,
and they're wonderin' what it's comin' to
and how it got this far.
Oh but me I got a nickel smashed
flatter than a dime
by a mad dog, runaway
red-silver streamline train