Lyrics:
It was on a summer’s eve when the wind was sighin’
Through the branches of the trees
A train rolled out for Cincinnati
On the old C.P. & V.
They’d been switching cars and sending back signals
When the engineer took flight
For he was killed at Rarden Station
Never would he make it back alright
Did he ever come back, no he never come back
His fate was easy learned
For he was killed at Rarden Station
That’s why he never returned
The engineer was poor George Glasgow
He was runnin’ number four
And little he thought when he left Portsmouth
That he’d run that train no more
He was runnin’ into Rarden Station
Eleven minutes late
And when he saw the switch was opened
He leaped blindly to his fate
Did he ever come back, no he never come back
His fate was easy learned
For he was killed at Rarden Station
That’s why he never returned
The fireman’s name it was Robert Little
He was kindlin’ up a fire
And when he started to rush through
He was crushed between the cars
He’d been shoveling coal in the fiery furnace
His face it was all black
And he vas killed at Rarden Station
That’s why he never came back
Did he ever come back, no he never come back
His fate was easy learned
For he was killed at Rarden Station
That’s why he never returned
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About the Song:
This is an obscure train wreck ballad recorded only once prior by Bruce Buckley for his 1955 Folkways album, Ohio Valley Ballads. The melody comes from Henry Clay Work’s 1865 ballad, “The Ship That Never Returned.” It is believed to be an evolutionary bridge between Work’s ballad and the popular trainwreck ballad, “Wreck of the Old 97,” as suggested by Charles Edward Smith in the album’s liner notes and supported by Charles W. Darling in The New American Songster (1983, 1992). To support this claim, Smith notes that engineer [Joseph] “Steve” Broady, the protagonist of “Wreck of the Old 97,” “worked for a branch of the Norfolk & Western that eventually took over the Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Western on which the Rarden wreck occurred.” He also reports that it “is said to have been written by the engineer’s daughter.”
Other titles include: “Wreck of the Cp & V”
Parent Song: “The Ship That Never Returned” (Henry Clay Work, 1865)
Related Songs: “The Train That Never Returned”, “Wreck of the Old 97″
Learned from Bruce Buckley’s 1955 album, Ohio Valley Ballads.