On a cold and rainy night I was sittin' in the light Oh my switchman shack of mine post on the mountain The storms were pretty bad and the telephone was dead But it was just eleven hours till the dawn.
Then much to my surprice the telegraph jumped in the light As I read the code I thought could this be true The train was on its way headed up to mountain grade But she didn't have no engineer or crew.
At the other switch they tried to put her on the mountain side But she kept on coming up the mountain grade But I quickly dowsed the light to try to see into the night Maybe I could spot her headlight in the rain.
She was poundin' down below I could hear her whistle blow And I thought Lord that's a high and mournful sound Then the telegraph again there's a caving at the mine And the hundred men have burried neath the ground.
Lord, she's coming now I see, round the bend and straight at me And her ballet is glowin' red as coal in hell The headlinght switchin' wide searchin' all the mountain side But the only sound she's making it's a wail.
Then I recognized the train by the number and the name It's from miners Silver Ghost 0-40-1 Then she vanished up the track by the lonely switchman shack Like a mother who was looking for her son.
Now I heard the story how an engine went to glory Over fifty years ago in the same line It was steaming for the caving there were men needed saving But it missed the curve in trestle near the mine.
And every now and then you'll hear a whistle on the wind It's from mountail slides where many men're lost It's a high and lonely wail and searching up and down the mountain It's the train they call the Miners' Silver Ghost.
The train they call the Miners' Silver Ghost. The train they call the Miners' Silver Ghost...