The Echo Of A Train

You can hear the lonesome whistle as she’s passin’ through the night,
Divin’ down the tunnel that she’s carving with her light,
Past the timberlands and coalmines, through the fog and sleet and rain,
And a lost soul is the echo of a train,

And the echoes come a-bouncin’ back from off the mountainside,
And their cold and icy fingers go a-pokin’ at my pride,
Lord, you never would believe it just to see me rockin’ here,
But I used to be a railroad engineer,

Yes, I used to drive an engine for the mighty C&O,
Up the deep New River canyon through the mountains we would go,
We would rumble into Richmond with a hundred cars of coal,
And a load of satisfaction in my soul,

We were working under Truman when a big strike closed the mines,
The nation switched to oil and gas and the railroad hit hard times,
There was people darn near starvin’ just as far as I could see,
And the railroad found it had no job for me,

They were shootin’ at the pickets and the starvin’ times went slow,
And the West Virginia miners just to find work had to go,
To another occupation, or they had to leave the state,
And I came up on the mountain here to wait,

Now when dark surrounds my cabin, I sit on my porch and rock,
And I hear the mountain whippoorwill, the tickin’ of my clock,
I cain’t hardly get around now, got so old that I cain’t see,
And I wait here for the train to come for me,

Oh, I seem to feel the rumble, I can almost see her light,
I can hear her fireman groanin’ as she plunges through the night,
Once my life was full and happy, now I wish that I was dead,
And the echo of the whistle fills my head,

Say can’t you hear the lonesome whistle as she’s passin’ through the night,
Divin’ down the tunnel that she’s carving with her light,
Past the timberlands and coalmines, through the fog and sleet and rain,
And a lost soul is the echo of a train.