The Gallopin' Goose Lyrics - C.w. Mccall

(Chip Davis, Bill Fries) 

On a cold November mornin' 

Back in nineteen-thirty-seven 

With an early snow a-fallin' 

On the three-foot tracks at Ames 

Came a mighty strange contraption 

Known to trainmen as a motor 

But to folks in Colorado 

She was known by another name 

Up the canyons south of Sawpit 

Past the red Cathedral spires 

'Cross the yellow mountain switchbacks 

And the rapids far below 

On the high and lofty trestles 

Near the fabled mines of Ophir 

In the silver San Juan Mountains 

Came a goose a-plowin' snow 

[Chorus] 

With a Pierce-Arrow engine, 

Runnin' hot and on the loose 

Came the Rio Grande Southern 

The Gallopin' Goose 

With a Pierce-Arrow engine 

Runnin' hot and on the loose 

Came Number Five, The Gallopin' Goose 

'Twas a four-door auto-mobile 

On a dozen wheels of iron 

Sixteen feet of rockin' boxcar 

Spot-welded to her tail 

Loaded down with mercantile 

Ten bags a' high-grade ore 

Two mothers nursin' babies 

Seven miners an' the mail 

Up the side a' Sunshine Mountain 

By internal gas combustion 

Eight Pierce-Arrow pistons pullin' 

Fifteen thousand pounds a' lead 

At the snowshed on the summit 

The conductor said his prayers 

He declared a busted driveshaft 

On the pass at Lizard Head 

[Chorus] 

With a Pierce-Arrow engine 

Runnin' hot and on the loose 

Came the Rio Grande Southern 

The Gallopin' Goose 

With a Pierce-Arrow engine 

Runnin' hot and on the loose 

Came Number Five, The Gallopin' Goose 

[Musical interlude here.] 

Down the three-percent to Rico 

In the valley of Dolores 

They still talk about the Southern 

An' her flock of flyin' geese 

From the roundhouse at Ridgway 

To the depot at Durango 

All the tracks are gone for scrap iron 

And the ganders rest in peace 

Up the canyons south of Sawpit 

Past the red Cathedral spires 

'Cross the yellow mountain switchbacks 

And the rapids far below 

On the high and lofty trestles 

Near the fabled mines of Ophir 

In the silver San Juan Mountains 

There's a legend in the snow 

[Chorus] 

With a Pierce-Arrow engine 

Runnin' hot and on the loose 

Came the Rio Grande Southern 

The Gallopin' Goose 

With a Pierce-Arrow engine 

Runnin' hot and on the loose 

Came Number Five, The Gallopin' Goose