Thinking about my childhood and the area's dependence on the Rock Island Line
Lyrics
Railroad Benediction
Minyard 2005
In March of 1980
Rock Island, Illinois
There was only a couple of places
Where a man could be employed
You either worked over at the Harvester plant
Makin’ tractors and combines
Or you worked down in the Silvis yards
Of the old Rock Island Line
Daddy was a railroad man,
A switchman in the Yards
Trains were the only life he ever knew
So that pink slip hit him hard
________________________________________________
< Chorus >
The Rock Island Line is closin' down today
They’ll be shuttin’ down the tracks
The railroad men won’t be needed no more
Because it won’t be coming back
There’ll be one last whistle blowin’
Tonite the 12:15’s on time
It’s the Railroad Benediction, Lord
For the old Rock Island Line
____________________________________________________
It’s been over 20 years,
since the railroad went away
There’s a low-rent high-rise standing there
where the Silvis Yards once lay
You can see the rusting tracks out there
All overgrown today
And a few old empty boxcars
Like the lives they stole away
The Atchison Topeka
and all the other lines
Have all gone down the same sad way
A reflection of the times
< Chorus >
< Bridge >
So God rest you aging switchmen
And you engineers past your prime
God rest the Chessie and the Santa Fe
And the old Rock Island Line
< Chorus >
Yes it’s the Railroad Benediction
For the old Rock Island Line
