Daddy, What’s a Train? Songtext
von Utah Phillips

Daddy, what′s a train?
Is it something I can ride?
Does it carry lots of grown-up folks and little kids inside?
Is it bigger than our house?
Well, how can I explain
When my little boy asks me
Daddy, what's a train?

When I was just a boy
Living by the track
Us kids would gather up the coal in a big old gunny sack
Then we heard the warning sound as the train pulled into view
The engineer would smile and wave as she went rolling through

She blew so loud and clear
We had to cover up our ears
And we counted cars just as high as we could go

I can almost hear the steam
And the big old driver scream
With a sound my little boy will never know


Daddy, what′s a train?
Is it something I can ride?
Does it carry lots of grown-up folks and little kids inside?
Is it bigger than our house?
Well, how can I explain
When my little boy asks me
Daddy, what's a train?

I guess the times have changed
Kids are different now
Some don't even seem to know that milk comes from a cow
My little boy can tell the names of all the baseball stars
I remember how we memorized the names on railroad cars

The Wabash and the TP
Lackawanna and the IC
Yeah, the Nickel Plate
The good old Santa Fe

Just names out of the past
I guess they′re fading fast
Every time I hear my little boy say

Daddy, what′s a train?
Is it something I can ride?
Does it carry lots of grown-up folks and little kids inside?
Is it bigger than our house?
Well, how can I explain
When my little boy asks me
Daddy, what's a train?


We climbed into the car
And drove down into town
Right up to the depot house but no one was around
We searched the yard together for something I could show
But I knew there hadn′t been a train for a dozen years or so

All the things I did
When I was just a kid
How far away those old memories appear

I guess it's plain to see
They still mean a lot to me
′Cause my ambition was to be an engineer

Daddy, what's a train?
Is it something I can ride?
Does it carry lots of grown-up folks and little kids inside?
Is it bigger than our house?
Well, how can I explain
When my little boy asks me
Daddy, what′s a train?