Well it's been a couple of days so here goes another one for Leo, Karl, Bob
and any other train service guys....I'll include appropriate definitions for
clarity for the uninitiated.
THE HOGHEAD'S LAS REQUEST
A hoghead on his deathbed lay;
his life was ebbing fast away.
His friends around him closely pressed
To hear the hohead's last request.
He said: "Before I bid adieu
One last request I ask of you:
Before I soar beyond the stars
Just hook me on to ninety cars.
And let me set on that engine there
See how rough I can handle the air;
Oh, let me at some water tank
Make a big-hole (1) stop, and give a yank.
Then from the corner of my eye
I'll watch the pieces as they fly;
Then I'll calmly turn around
And watch the dust cloud settle down
Oh let me pull a drawhead out,
Then take my can with its long spout,
And when I'm safely on the ground
I'll take my time and oil around.
Then far behind in that red caboose
I'll hear the conductor cutting loose
A few pet names, as in days of yore
I've heard a thousand times or more.
Oh, just once more before I'm dead
Let me stand a conductor on his head
and see him crawl from out the wreck
With a windown sash hung around his neck.
And when he comes and wants to fight,
I will look so innocent like;
And the old excuse I will proclaim
There's a dynamiter (2) in the train.
Oh, let the train with the drawbars down
Have every crossing blocked in town
And when they chain those cars together
Oh, let it be in sloppy weather.
And on my tombstone put no name
If I can't start and break the chain.
And you kind friends, I'll have to thank
If you let me die at a water tank.
Let my ears hear that familiar sound
the tallow (3) pulling the tank spout down;
Oh let me hold in my greasy hand
a bunch of waste and my old oil can,
And let me die there on the ground
Where I've spent my life oiling around;
If a hoghead dies with conditions like this
I know he will die in perfect bliss.
And when at last in the grave I'm laid
Let it be in the water tank shade,
And put within my lifeless hand
A bunch of waste and my old oil can,
A marble slab I do not crave;
Just mark the head of my lonely grave
With a drawbar pointing toward the skies
At the spot where this poor hogger lies
Then fainter grew the hoghead's breath
His friends around him closely pressed;
His mind was wandering far away
Perhaps to some far distant day
When he a hogger of great renown
Was turning cabooses upside down.
Perhaps his mind had wandered back
to a drawbar lying beside the track.
When he in trying to start the train
Was doing his best to break the chain.
His face lit up with joyful light
And his soul prepared to take its flight;
His friends bent o'er and called his name.
He smiled and said, "I broke the chain."
Then closing his eyes, he said no more,
He was doubling the hill to the other shore.
RAILROAD MAGAZINE October 56
Author Unknown
(1) big hole stop.....emergency air brake application
(2) dynamiter....defective triple valve on a freight car which causes an
emergency application of the air brakes even when a service or lesser
application is made.
(3) tallow...early day slang for fireman short for "tallow pot"....Derived
from the early use of tallow (animal fat) for lubrication of the valve
mechanism on a steam locomotive...A can of this material (a pot of tallow)
was always kept sitting on the backhead of a steam engine to keep it hot and
thus liquid for ready application by the fireman, whose job it was to go out
over the running board to the front of the engine while running and apply
said material through the relief valves to the valve mechanism..
Pete
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