Freight Train Blues

I was born in Dixie in a boomer shack

Just a little shanty by the railroad track

Freight train was it taught me how to cry

Hummin' of the driver was my lullaby

(Chorus)

I got the freight train blues

Oh Lord mama, I got them in the bottom of my ramblin' shoes

And when the whistle blows I gotta go

Well, it looks like I'm never gonna lose the freight train blues

Well my daddy was a fireman and my old ma here,

She was the only daughter of an engineer

My sweetheart loved a brakeman and it ain't no joke

It's a shame the way she keeps a good man broke

(Chorus)

Well, the only thing that makes me laugh again

Is a southbound whistle on a southbound train

Every place I wanna go

I can never go, because you know

I got the freight train blues

(Chorus)

(Dylan/Lair) 1962

Huddleston, VA. Named after oil magnate Henry Huttleston Rogers. He started Old Virginia Railway in 1907. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), a close friend helped dedicate railroad.

Ralph's Last Stand.

Abandoned VW Bus by tracks.

Dead water snake lying by tracks.

Old Citizens Bank (Huddleston). Built in 1915. Sits at end of Whistlestop Way on Goose Creek.

Abandoned farmhouse facing tracks.

Old Virginian Railway is now home to Norfolk Southern. Above NS freighter #5575.

Freight Train Blues

There is something to be said about railroads and the blues. The cry of the lonesome whistle has come to symbolize man's never ending search for companionship. A search for meaning in life. Bob Dylan's haunting version of John Lair's ballad "Freight Train Blues" is not about loneliness but about seeking fulfillment, knowing that as long as the freight cars keep rolling we will never truly be satisfied...

Excerpt from "Huddleston trek uncovers railroad history and more." Published in the Smith Mountain Eagle (March 2005). To read complete story, go into archives at smithmountaineagle.com.