The Gallopin' Goose

(chip davis, bill fries)



On a cold november mornin'

Back in nineteen-thirty-seven

With an early snow a-fallin'

On the three-foot tracks at ames

Came a mighty strange contraption

Known to trainmen as a motor

But to folks in colorado

She was known by another name



Up the canyons south of sawpit

Past the red cathedral spires

'cross the yellow mountain switchbacks

And the rapids far below

On the high and lofty trestles

Near the fabled mines of ophir

In the silver san juan mountains

Came a goose a-plowin' snow



[chorus]

With a pierce-arrow engine,

Runnin' hot and on the loose

Came the rio grande southern

The gallopin' goose

With a pierce-arrow engine

Runnin' hot and on the loose

Came number five, the gallopin' goose



'twas a four-door auto-mobile

On a dozen wheels of iron

Sixteen feet of rockin' boxcar

Spot-welded to her tail

Loaded down with mercantile

Ten bags a' high-grade ore

Two mothers nursin' babies

Seven miners an' the mail



Up the side a' sunshine mountain

By internal gas combustion

Eight pierce-arrow pistons pullin'

Fifteen thousand pounds a' lead

At the snowshed on the summit

The conductor said his prayers

He declared a busted driveshaft

On the pass at lizard head



[chorus]

With a pierce-arrow engine

Runnin' hot and on the loose

Came the rio grande southern

The gallopin' goose

With a pierce-arrow engine

Runnin' hot and on the loose

Came number five, the gallopin' goose



[musical interlude here.]



Down the three-percent to rico

In the valley of dolores

They still talk about the southern

An' her flock of flyin' geese

From the roundhouse at ridgway

To the depot at durango

All the tracks are gone for scrap iron

And the ganders rest in peace



Up the canyons south of sawpit

Past the red cathedral spires

'cross the yellow mountain switchbacks

And the rapids far below

On the high and lofty trestles

Near the fabled mines of ophir

In the silver san juan mountains

There's a legend in the snow



[chorus]

With a pierce-arrow engine

Runnin' hot and on the loose

Came the rio grande southern

The gallopin' goose

With a pierce-arrow engine

Runnin' hot and on the loose

Came number five, the gallopin' goose




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