Analysis of Silver rails

I hang my lantern on a hook.
My bedroll, I lay by.
Never again in my caboose,
With boxcars on the FLY!

Never again a 'hotbox' will I switch-out,
Nor a crewman leave behind.

It's OVER!,  Five and Fifty,
Since on as a  Lad I signed;

To ride those SILVER RAILS,
Thru dark and gloomy night,
O'er rough beds and smooth beds,
With hamlets left and right.

In daylight, in black-night.
Thru ice and sleet and snow.
O'er flat-lands and hill lands,
Thru cities all aglow.

I'll miss all my cronies
As I go along life's busy way.
I'll think about them often,
and the scrapes We've all been thru.

I hope they think of ME
and hope they miss Me too.

So I sit now in a lazy chair,
            to ponder and to dream,

About those . . . . .  SILVER RAILS,
     And the Golden Age of Steam:

By; Hayward Christian Beach
                                            Pseudonym for;
                                            Francis M. Faber Jr.
                                            All rights Reserved:(1969)