Footplate Song - Dave Goulder

[randeshjayawandhane]

Lyrics:

Fifteen years and five – foot – one,
Dressed in soot and coal.
Cleaning engines for a year,
Elbows deep in paraffin oil.

Sixteen now and on the shed,
Carrying fire and sand.
Shifting clinker, raising steam,
Cleaning up and filling his can.

Twenty – two and a mainline man,
His trial has come and gone.
Fill the boiler, watch the gauge,
Open the door and shovel it on.

Thirty – four and now,
He’s driving every other day.
But times get worse and jobs go down,
And back he goes on fireman’s pay.

Forty – eight and getting stout,
But the footplate’s all his own.
His engine thunders through the night,
Spills his tea and rattles his bones.

Five – foot – nine, and sixty – one,
Glasses on his nose.
Can’t see too well so off he comes,
To sweeping up and polishing floors.

Sixty – five his time is done,
He swapped his coal and oil.
For a smart gold watch that bear’s his name,
Then sixty – six and covered in soil.

[captainhuggyface]

why do all the images of footplates look so werid