He spent his earlier years a workin’ on the rail   Counting all the city that raced by him   And though he knew that he was rooted to that train    When he closed his eyes   He swore that he was flyin’   And he worked so hard at stokin’ up that belly full of fire    He kept that steel ship sailing down that sea of iron wire   From the snow-capped Rocky Mountains to the sand that shaped the beach   He was always movin forward   But his dreams got out of reach   Along the way      He loved a woman once who begged to share his name   And his friends said he’d be crazy just to leave her   She always promised him his life would only change   For the better somehow he couldn’t believe her   Cause his heartbeat with rhythm of an iron horse in stride   And he couldn’t stand to trade his dreams to make that girl his bride   On a balmy August Saturday    He watched her walk the aisle   Where his brother took her hand    And flashed a smile   Stole his only love away      They moved to Deerborne   Got a flat next to the station    It was all they could afford   The rent was cheap there    It was an awkward and painful situation.   When he passed through town he pictured them asleep there   And her husband pulled her closer when he heard the trains go by   She tried hard not to notice    And tried harder not to cry    She swore she’d never tell her husband how her heart did strain   If she chased her dreams the way her one true love did    She would be with him today      Now her husband was a fireman   And he would worked the longest days    That he could to keep her guessing, keep her lonely    She made him angry in a fierce and forceful way   Cause he knew never be her one and only   When he married her he thought he had found the love to last the years   But he didn’t count on passing trains and muffled midnight tears   He could feel the knot of jealously    Grow tighter in his chest   He just had to find a way to love her better love her less   Or walk away      Then came the awful day the 401 derailed   Sending flames and sparks and metal flyin’   She heard the crashing cars    She felt herself go pale   And she fell down to her knees like she was dyin’   And Her husband was among the men they sent to fight the fire   That raged inside that train consuming all that it desired   For a wild heart beat faintly in the belly of that beast   But the flames soon grabbed a hold    they freed his soul    Sent it driftin out of reach      He came home dirty and he came home so ashamed   Came home scared to tell her it was over   The house was empty   Not a trace of her remained   After packing all her things a taxi drove her   To the station where her one true love had stood so proud and tall   Bought herself a ticket going anywhere at all   She could feel her lover heartbeat in the rhythm of the train   She leaned her head against the foggy rain watched the rain fall    She was free