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Note: B(+5) is a B with the fifth raised a semitone.
E7/G# means E7 with a G# in the bass.
B(+5) E
I'm the original honky tonk train
E
I'm the one that you see when you're watching a western
A7
That's me chugging by
E
Of the ones that you see in the films I'm the best 'un
E7
I'll tell you why
B7
'Cause no other loco can ever compare
B7 A7
With the places I've been 'cause I've been everywhere
A7 E
And I never once stopped for a moment of restin'
B7 E7
And if my fire's burning properly the hot air oughta
E E7
Rise and go along a lot of tubes
A9 E E7
That are surrounded by water in the boiler till eventually it moves
B A7 E B7
On down the engine's aorta out to the funnel where the cloud of smoke exudes
E E E A A A E
And now the hot air in the tubes has made the water in the boiler turn to steam
E E E E7
-- hot hot hot
A A A A A A E E
The steam also rises and collects inside that large symbolic dome at the top
E E
top top
B7 B7 A9 A9 E
But if you think that now the steam is just as hot as it is gonna get you're wrong
E E E
'cause it's not not not
B7 E E E A A A E E E E7 E7 E7
Because this is where the driver opens up the regulator valve handle --
A A A A7 A7 A7 E E E E7 E7 E7
The steam becomes alive again and goes back through the boiler or can
B B B A9 A9 A9 E7 E7 E7 B7
Which I call it only 'cause I've a shortage of rhymes ending in -an
E A7
So having been through the superheater tubes the steam is hotter than ever
E E E E7
it was before the heat is more you may be sure the steam now
A9 A9 E E7
Passes on into the piston cylinder and pushes the piston for-
B A
Wards and backwards by means of valves which reciprocate in alternation
E B(+5) E B7
According to simple mechanical law
E A E
The piston then pushes connecting rods fixed to the wheels
E E7
That are set on the rails
A7 A7 E
But that's not the end of the story 'cause then all that steam
E E7
As you will have seen
B7 A7 E
Is blown out as exhaust through the funnel whence it can expire
B7
Thereby increasing the draught of the fire
E A9
So now apart from some rather superfluous detail which doubtless will seem to you
E
obvious, hardly worth saying
E7 A7 A7 E
The story's over in its basic essentials -- the rest is merely overlaying
E7 B7 A
What you can see for yourself quite easily although I would just like
to mention the thing on the front
E E7/G# A Edim B7 E9
that always comes in handy when you want to catch cows
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