Texas Silver Zephyr

She was a young and pretty Coleman County farm girl

Never been more than fifty miles from home

I was just a drifter, I was livin' off the land

Spent the summer on her daddy's farm

In the evening, we'd walk along the railroad

We'd hear that lonesome whistle in the night

She'd pretend we rode the rails to Denver

'Cause her head was full of flashing neon lights

'Course that big old shiny diesel as it rounded Carver's Bend

Was enough to make a young girl want to roam

She'd pretend she rode those shiny rails all around the world

And had the Texas Silver Zephyr bring her home

Well the summer work was over and the restless got to me

I kept talking 'bout the places I would go

Her young head got to spinnin' with the things she'd never seen

So she followed me to Denver in the fall

Then jobs got scarce in central Colorado

Denver winter nights get awful cold

Just one old army blanket was the only one we had

No money for the oil to run the stove

Yes that big old shiny diesel as it rounded Carver's Bend

Was enough to make a young girl want to roam

But through all those hungry nights, the only promise that I made

I'd have the Texas Silver Zephyr take her home

She started feeling bad but didn't tell me

She had a way of keeping problems all her own

So I didn't know her troubles with the baby

Before I could get a doctor, she was gone

Now the wind is cold, whipping through this boxcar

I watch the fence posts disappearing 'neath the snow

I keep thinking 'bout the hungry nights in Denver

How she never once complained about the cold

Lord, I know it's not the way she really wanted

In her dreams she had a Pullman all her own

But she'd be proud of me to know I kept my promise

And had the Texas Silver Zephyr bring her home

And through all those hungry nights, the only promise that I made

I'd have the Texas Silver Zephyr bring her home