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Round House Nellie
Mabel Mercer
Popularity ยท Low
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๐ฌ๐ง English ยท Original
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Lyrics
Original
Translation
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Did you ever hear the story old timers tell
'Bout a locomotive called Old Nell
How she took that farewell ride
Down the Colorado mountain side
Deadheadin' she ran out of coal
Her brakes went dead, she began to roll
When she got up to Eighty-fer
The engineer began to sing to her
Run for the roundhouse, Nellie
Your puffin' days are through
Your brakes won't hold and your boiler's cold
But we're goin' in with you
That train whistlin' for the tunnel
Is Number Nine, no doubt
If we meet inside and start a mountain slide
There'll be ten years diggin' us out
If you don't slow down at Union Town
Old girl, it's in the cards
There'll be a new back door in the roundhouse
And a new track leavin' the yards
On through the fields we'll travel
But if you take the sky
We'll be leavin' you on the P.D.Q
Singin' goodbye Nellie, goodbye
Here's some more of the story
Of that ride to glory
A fireman hollered to the engineer
"I been your coalin' man for thirty year
One more run, we got a pension due
And the way she's rollin', Nellie knows it, too."
Some cattle grazin' on the tracks that day
They had no business on the right of way
A low car puncher sadly shook his fist
Cried "Come back, Nellie, there's a heifer you missed!"
They made the trestle down the riverside
It started swayin' and the fireman cried
"This ain't no place for us to wash our face
Gonna shed my heavy denim just in case."
The section foreman saw them flyin' through
He said "We better get the wreckin' crew"
They stood bareheaded, threw their shovels down
Singin' there goes Nellie on her last go-round
Hug the rails at the canyon crossin', girl
It's good to be alive
The bottom's three miles down if we roll it
And it's too straight down if we dive
No man alive has ever seen a railroad angel fly
For they met their end at Horseshoe Bend
Singin' goodbye Nellie, goodbye
ย
Folks say that all together
Railroading in the sky
Are the haulin' freight through the pearly gate
In the sweet by and by
Sweet by and by
Goodbye Nellie, goodbye
ย