Engine 143 - Intellectual

[Verse 1]

Along came the FFV, the swiftest on the line

Coming down the C&O road twenty minutes behind

Coming into Seville headquarters on the line

Receiving strict orders from the station just behind

Georgie's mother came to him with a bucket on her arm

She said, "My darling boy, be careful how you run

It's many a man who has lost his life just trying to make lost time

And if you run your engine right, you'll get there just on time"

And up the road she darted, into the rocks she crashed

The engine car turned upside down, and Georgie's breast, it smashed

His head lay against the firebox door, and the flames were rolling high

I'm proud to be born an engineer, on the C&O road to die

The doctor said to Georgie, "My darling boy, be still

Your life may yet be saved if it is God's precious will"

"Oh no, oh no," he cried so loud, "I long to die so free

I long to die for the engine I love, one hundred and forty-three"

The doctor said to Georgie, "Your life cannot be saved"

Murdered out on the railway and laid in a lonesome grave

His face was covered up in blood, his eyes, they could not see

And the very last words that Georgie spoke were, "Nearer, my God, to Thee"