I read every hobo book collected on my shelf

I fancied that I'd like to try the hobo life myself

I'd live on beans and move about exclusively by freight

No matter that it's Lismore in the year of '98

My first trip would be to Sydney, a thousand K's away

My girlfriend had moved down there nursing for the RPA

I gave notice on my room and said to forward any mail

And told the dole clerk I got work experience with New South Rail

I got a call from Patrick this guy I kinda knew

He'd heard about my grand plan and decided he'd come too

Well, I listed every risk and the potential mortal cost

So I found him at the depot a week later looking lost

I took his hand and shook it, the two of us well met

But the day growing long, and there's a place we had to get

We thumbed an easy ride out on the road that heads due west

To where the main line runs and if we're lucky we'll invest

In a freight train from Kyogle, here we are I see one now

And it's snaking through the town, stop the car and set us down

Hey Hey, it's a long way down the line

We're standing by the station, the trains flying by so near

You could nearly touch them, but they're going way too fast to commandeer

We had no choice to give up and crestfallen hit the pub

When these locals told us all about this outta town train hub

So we walked the line three miles north, and found they were legit

Here the track splits into two where trains can rest there and refit

No sooner had we got there than way off down the straight

We saw the twinkling of the headlights of a Southbound SP freight

Well to find a train is one thing another is to stop it

Preferably a plan in which the two of us don't cop it

The signal light shone green, I wondered could I change the gels

But Pat said that's a sure way to get locked in separate cells

Well, If I must choose a life of crime, I might as well go deeper

I found an empty cardboard box and placed it gently on a sleeper

I'm still not sure if it did it or the driver saw us bolt

But the night lit up with screaming steel and the thing came to a halt

A string of empty flatbeds stretched all along the siding

Each one had big metal ends with corners we could hide in

So we shot out of the long grass at which time we could afford

I laced my hands into a stirrup and gave Pat a boost aboard

We melded with the shadows and dared not make a sound

We could hear voices and footsteps in the gravel all around

Then our carriage gave a jolt which set off a chain reaction

Then the wheels started to groan and pretty soon we got some traction

On this freight train from Kyogle, now we're really on our way

Hear the driver sound the horn, tell the town we're coming on

Hey hey, it's a long way down the line

Went slow into a town I read a sign that says Casino

Feed Supplies, we thought our trip already done but what did we know When we cleared the yard again we thought the guard he could've seen us We had to get back from the engine and put some distance between us

We moved along the empty flatbed in the opposite direction

It's complicated physics but a thrill to bring to action

We climbed the ends and like in some old western celluloid

As the ground roared below us we both leapt across the void

Well, 5 cars back we stopped, a chance to study my new friend

To me he seemed a cross between Mighty Mouse and Sean Penn

But whereas I carried not much more than I was wearing

Pat was way more tactical and better at preparing

You see, He'd brought along this knapsack he'd had since Air Cadets

It was full of fruit and muesli bars and Beedi cigarettes

When he produced a bottle o' beer I said Patrick I like that trick'

Then he fished out two more tallies and then Patrick won the hattrick

The beer ran was gone by Grafton, our bladders like balloons

We were drunk and silly and light-headed from the diesel fumes

The full moon lights the landscape all around us as we ride

We hold each other by the belt and pee-pee off the sides

Of this freight train from Kyogle, no one can stop us now

And our spirits might be filled but there's a chance we'll both be killed

Hey hey, it's still a long way down the line

Our faces stung with icy raindrops brought on a salty breeze

As we tunneled through steep hilltops lousy with banana trees

Of course Pat brought a raincoat and fashioned a makeshift tent

And we huddled underneath it wet and shivering till it went

But the sky had cleared by Taree, where we took a different course

South westerly we traced the Manning River toward it's source

It's water gave a glowing pink reversal of the dawn

We both sat there mute with wonder as the hills lit up reborn

But this romance part was over as the sun increased it's power

As this metal car that carried us grew hotter by the hour

There's no way we could sit down cause it stung just like a hive

We had to get off soon lest we're barbecued alive

But we're going through more towns now we had to crouch down with our knees up

And people kept on spotting us and Patrick got the breeze up

Then coming into Newcastle or somewhere near enough

We heard a station master yell at us, Pat says, 'That's it, I'm getting off'

Of this freight train from Kyogle, it's some kind of living hell

We're covered from head to foot, in grease and grime and sweat and soot

Hey hey, it's still a long way down the line

Well, Patrick up and took the leap before I could protest

He hit the ground and tripped and flailed and rolled three times and came to rest

Then, lying with an outstretched arm as if to say 'now you'

But I just stood there stunned and watched his figure fade from view

Now I'd lost Patrick forever the train slowed to a crawl

I wished him here to see how easily I made landfall

I walked back 3 miles -well hallelujah! - he's still sat there in place

With blood from shin to shoulder and tear streaks down his face

I scooped him up and said I'd get him home to convalesce

I got us to the comfort of a city bound express

The passengers all stared like we'd just crawled out of the earth

And the afternoon commuting suits gave us a 6 foot berth

We ran into my girlfriend at the Marlborough Hotel

Pat says 'nice to see you' and she answered 'go to hell!'

You two can go play cowboys while I worry every hour

She sent Pat off to tend his wounds and me to find a shower

Now I'm stuck in Sydney living in the nurse's quarters

My girlfriend sneaks me in, so far the night guard hasn't caught us

And Patrick's moved to Albury on some employment scheme

I wonder does he wake at night haunted in his dream

By the freight train from Kyogle it's still calling through the land

'Come on you try-hard bums I will brush you off like crumbs'

Hey hey, we took the long way

Some say it was the wrong way

But I'll stay on this long way

Down the line