Now bein’ six years old, I had 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 they is, at least that’s the way she feels
Trains are big and black and smokin’, louder on 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 50, 60 people, they’re just sittin’ on their cars And the old men left their dominos and come down from the bars And everybody’s checkin’, old Jack Kittrel check his watch And us kids put our ears to the rails to hear ’em pop
So we already knowed it, when they finally said, “Train time” You’d have thought that Jesus Christ himself was rollin’ down the line ‘Cause things got real quiet, momma jerked me back But 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
I said, 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
But she left 50, 60 people, still sittin’ on their cars And wonderin’ what it’s comin’ to And how it got this far But me I got a nickel smashed flatter than a dime By a mad dog, runaway red-silver streamline train
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
