Black Smoke Train Lyrics

The tracks were just a mile away / when I was four and five years old / And I could hear the whistle blow and see the black smoke rise and roll
Rise and roll / black as coal / and rolling 'cross the rooftops of our town.

In the summer time my dad just home from work would take my hand / And walk with me that peaceful mile / to where the two of us could stand
Hand in hand / boy and man / and watch that ole evening train go down

Ref: It's bye bye black smoke passenger train
God speed your last long ride /
As over the mountain and cross the plain /
And blow your whistle on the Great Divide

A cloud of birds would curl above / the old abandoned factory / And pour itself like lazy smoke backwards down the tall red stack

My daddy said "Watch the birds go to bed" / In the chimney by the green mountain side / The sunlight made our shadows long / and hurt my eyes when I would gaze
Down the tracks where I could see / that train from some old scary place
Mean and old, / grey and cold, / and so far away it made me cry

Ref: It's bye bye black smoke passenger train ...

Bridge: Where does it come from / where does it go / You got to catch the train and ride boy / If you wanna know

The engine passed at six o?clock and so we stood there man and boy
Until the iron horse run by steam and steel and smoke and whistle noise
Split the air -- laid us bare and struck us dumb as railroad ties
We watched the coaches clatter by with smiling porters pouring tea
For diners on the dining car who never once looked out at me
Fancy women squeezing lemons and blind to West Virginia rolling by

Ref: It's bye bye black smoke passenger train ...