Texas, 1947

[Intro]
Being six years old I had seen some trains before
So it's hard to figure out what I'm at the depot for

[Verse 1]
Trains are big and black and smoking steam screaming at the wheels
Bigger and anything there is least that's the way she feels
Trains are big and black and smoking louder July 4th
But everybody's acting like this might be something more
Than just picking up the mail or the soldiers from the war
Something even old man Wyman's never seen before
And it's late afternoon on a hot Texas day
Something strange was going on and we are all in the way
There are fifty or sixty people just setting on their cars
And the ole men left their dominoes and come down from the bars
And everybody's checking old Jack Kittrell checks his watch
And us kids put our ears to the rails to hear them pop
So we already know it when they finally said train time
You'd have thought that Judgment Day was rolling down the line
Because things got real quiet and mama jerked me back
But not before I get the chance to lay a nickel on the track

[Chorus]
Look out here she comes she's coming look out there she goes she's gone
Screaming straight through Texas like a mad dog cyclone
Big and red and silver she don't lay no smoke
She's a fast rolling streamline come to show the folks
I said look out here she comes she's coming look out there she goes she's gone
Screaming straight through Texas like a mad dog cyclone

[Verse 2]
Lord she never even stopped
She left fifty or sixty people still setting on their cars
Wondering what it's coming to and how it got this far
And me I got a nickel smashed flatter than a dime
By a mad dog runaway red silver streamline train

[Chorus]