True Railroad Story---verified

                                          The Great Divide

by Riley Lincoln Sr.

WPB Fla.

Jan 2013

One dark night in 1938 all the coal locomotives

   Were headed for the  "Great Divide"

For one of their own had dies

    The man who did more

Than any man before

    All the great steam locomotives

Were thundering through the darkness of the night

    "Hot Boxes" were ignored

The trains roared

THe smokestacks threw out thick black smoke

    Every train was going for broke

All of them were headed to the "great divide"

    The "King of the Hobos" has died

The North Arctic Express steamed across

    The snow-covered land of the midnight sun

Headin' for the "great divide"

    It was a shock to hear the King had died

The Black Diamond Express

    Out of the Virginia coal mine

Was hauling to make it on time

 

The Orange Blossom Special was steaming

    Up out of the jungle in a hard rain

Some would call them insane

    Plow on through the rain

Hank Snow was bringing

   In the Golden Rocket

He was burnin' up the track

   And that's a true fact

The Golden Rocket was on its flight

    To pay respect

To the man who parted last night

    Every train was heading 

For the Great Divide

    The King of the Hobos has died

A boxcar was his home

    With a high golden dome

Boxes of Crown Royal were piled high

    They said the man would never die

All of the trains stopped

    On the Great Divide

And held services for the man who died

    Some would say he was

The greatest man of his time

                  ----------King of the Hobos