From the recording Borderlands
The text for this song is included in John Lomax's collection of cowboy songs, and is entitled "The Hell-Bound Train" (see reference below). This version is based on one my Dad used to sing. Other versions have been recorded by various artists. This version includes some modifications to the text.
Lyrics
The Down-Bound Train (Traditional Cowboy Song) (1)
There was a stranger laying on a barroom floor,
Had drank so much he could drink no more;
So he fell asleep with a troubled brain
To dream that he rode on a down-bound train.
The engine with murderous blood was damp,
Brilliantly lit by a brimstone lamp;
While a goblin, for fuel, was shoveling bones,
The furnace rang with a thousand groans.
The boiler was filled with bourbon, scotch and beer,
And the devil himself was the engineer;
The passengers they were a motley crew-
Bankers and lawyers and politicians too
Rich men in suits, beggars in rags,
Pretty young women, and withered old hags,
Yellow and black, red, brown, and white,
All chained together as they rushed through the night
While the train rushed on at a terrible pace,
The sulphurous fumes scorched their hands and face:
Wilder and wilder the country grew,
As faster and faster the engine flew.
And brighter and brighter the lightning flashed;
Louder and louder the thunder crashed
Hotter and hotter the air became
Till the clothes were burnt from each quivering frame.
And out of the distance there arose a yell.
"Ha, ha," said the devil, we're nearing home!"
Then, oh, how the passengers all screamed with pain
And begged the devil to stop the train!
But he laughed and said “you’ve done faithful work”
And the devil never can a pay day shirk."
"You've justice scorned, and corruption sown,
And trampled the laws of nature down.
You have pillaged, plundered cheated and lied;
And mocked the whole world in your hell-born pride."
"You have paid full fare, so I'll carry you through;
For it's only right you should have your due.
Why, the worker always wants full pay for his hire,
So I'll land you square in the lake of fire."
"Where your flesh will waste in the flames that roar,
And my demons torment you forever more."
Then the stranger awoke with a terrible cry,
All his clothes wet with sweat and his hair standing high
Then he prayed on his knees as he never prayed till that hour
To be saved from his sin and the demon's power,
And his prayers and his vows they were not in vain;
For he never rode the down-bound train.
(1) Version of “The Hell-Bound Train” collected by LOMAX, J 1910 _Cowboy_Songs_and_Other_Frontier_Ballads_, Pranava Books. See Gutenberg online version https://www.gutenberg.org/files/21300/21300-h/21300-h.htm