being 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 smoking steam screaming at the wheels bigger and anything there is least that s the way she feels trains are big and black and smoking louder july 4th but everybody s acting like this might be something more than just picking up the mail or the soldiers from the war something even old man wyman s never seen before and it s late afternoon on a hot texas day something strange was going on and we are all in the way there are fifty or sixty people just setting on their cars and the ole men left their dominoes and come down from the bars and everybody s checking old jack kittrell checks his watch and us kids put our ears to the rails to hear them pop so we already know it when they finally said train time you d have thought that judgment day was rolling down the line because things got real quiet and mama jerked me back but not before i get the chance to lay a nickel on the track look out here she comes she s coming look out there she goes she s gone screaming straight through texas like a mad dog cyclone big and red and silver she don t lay no smoke she s a fast rolling streamline come to show the folks i said look out here she comes she s coming look out there she goes she s gone screaming straight through texas like a mad dog cyclone lord she never even stopped she left fifty or sixty people still setting on their cars wondering what it s coming to and how it got this far and me i got a nickel smashed flatter than a dime by a mad dog runaway red silver streamline train 