Railroad Town Without a Train

Early Thursday morning we finally got the news
We all went home that evening with the Clinchfield Blues
They say they’ll pay the wages for another 60 days
And then we’re on our own with whatever we have saved

It’s been a hundred and ten years and overnight it’s gone
Some say they felt the changes coming all along
Yesterday at 3 o’clock I heard the whistle blow
Of the last locomotive on the CC&O

Folks are gonna move on
But all that will remain
Is a track that runs right through
A railroad town without a train

George L. Carter laid the tracks so he could haul the coal
From the mountains of Virginia to the Carolina coast
They built this town around the rail yard the switches and the signs
I grew up listening to the music of the rattle and the grind

Now you’d never know the railroad ever came through here
Soon the weeds will grow so tall the tracks will disappear
And when my son is old enough one day I’ll explain
Why we live in another railroad town without a train

Folks are gonna move on
But all that will remain
Is a track that runs right through
A railroad town without a train

Folks are gonna move on
But all that will remain
Are the tracks that run right through
A railroad town without a train

These tracks that run right through a town