by Scott B. Laughlin
Copyright 2013

They say there was a lawyer who
Called himself a railroad man
After sweet-takin’ investors
He grabbed the money and ran

But a US Marshall was on his trail
Chasin’ him hither and there
Caught him at a Kansas depot
Buyin’ a one-way fare

The lawyer is gone now
And the money as well
There’re tales of what happened
That dead men don’t tell

Ghost Train Ghost Train
She’s comin’ my way
Making sounds that never was
Some old timers say

I was there, fire flies winkin’
One quiet summer night
When I hear the train a-comin’
I even saw the light

On the grade stood a cow
Framed in the headlights dim hue
I watched the train hit her
There was nothin’ I could do

The next mornin’ we walked the grade
Me and Jim, my ‘cuz
We found only dirt, no rails
For that train that never was

Ghost Train Ghost Train
She’s comin’ my way
Making sounds that never was
So the old times say

And when we found that cow
I’d seen in the dark
She was dead as a horseshoe
But nary a mark

I can’t say just what I saw
The Ghost Train on that grade
There’re folks who don’t believe me
They claim it’s a tale I made

Just ‘cuz I ain’t seen her in a while
Don’t mean she ain’t there
Sometime I hear her chuggin’
She’s there somewhere