Engine One-Forty-Three

Along came the FFV

The swiftest on the line

Running o'er the C&O road

Just twenty minutes behind

Running into Seville

Headquarters on the line

Receiving their strict orders

From a station just behind

Georgie's mother came to him

With a bucket on her arm

Saying, "My darling son

Be careful how you run

For many a man has lost his life

In trying to make lost time

And if you run your engine right

You'll get there just on time"

Up the road she darted

Against the rocks she crushed

Upside-down the engine turned

And Georgie's breast it smashed

His head was against the firebox door

The flames were rolling high

I'm glad I was born for an engineer

To die on the C&O road

The doctor said to Georgie

"My darling boy, be still

Your life may yet be saved

If it is God's blessed will"

"Oh, no," said George, "That will not do

I want to die so free

I want to die for the engine I love

One hundred and forty-three"

The doctor said to Georgie

"Your life cannot be saved"

Murdered upon a railroad

And laid in a lonesome grave

His face was covered up with blood

His eyes you could not see

And the very last words poor Georgie said

Was, "Nearer, my God, to Thee"