The Silver Ghost

[Verse]
On a cold and rainy night, I was sitting in the light
Of my switchman shack at my post on the mountain
The storm was pretty bad and the telephone was dead
But it was just eleven hours till the dawn

Then much to my surprise, the telegraph jumped into life
As I read the code, I thought, "Could this be true?"
A train was on its 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 dowsed 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 again: "there's a cave-in at the mine
And a hundred men are buried 'neath the ground"

Lord, she's coming now I see round the bend and straight at me
And her boiler is glowing red as coal in hell
The headlight switching wide, searching all the mountainside
But the only sound she's making is a wail

Then I recognized the train by the number and the name
It's the Miners' Silver Ghost 0-40-1
Then she vanished up the track by the lonely switchman shack
Like a mother who was looking for her son

Now I heard the story how an engine went to glory
Over fifty years ago on the same line
It was steaming for a cave-in
There were men who needed saving
But it missed the curve and trestle near the mine

And every now and then, you'll hear her whistle on the wind
If a mountain slides and many men are lost
It's a high and lonely wailin'
Searching up and down the mountain
She's the train they call the Miners' Silver Ghost
The train they call the Miners' Silver Ghost
The train they call the Miners' Silver Ghost