When I was a boy in the days of the train   I'd sit by the tracks on a long summer day   And I'd wave at the brakesman, and he'd wave back at me   While the thunderclouds rolled out of East Tennessee      But the dreams of a boy disappear when you're grown   And though I may dream, the railroads are gone   The ties they are rotten and the tracks shot to hell   Along with my dreams and the old railroad bell      In my dreams I ride the rails to California   Workin' diners and farms along the way   Or I'd hop a ride to hide across the border   With a black eyed girl beside me all the way      Now the mountains are silent and the railroads are gone   And the coal towns no longer hear the miners at dawn   But the train whistle shrills out her memories to me   While the thunderclouds roll out of East Tennessee      In my dreams I ride the rails to California   Workin' diners and farms along the way   Or I'd hop a ride to hide across the border   With a black eyed girl beside me all the way      Now the mountains are silent and the railroads are gone   And the coal towns no longer hear the miners at dawn   But the train whistle shrills out her memories to me   While the thunderclouds roll out of East Tennessee