The Gnr Steam Train Ukulele chords by Big Tom And The Mainliners

• Difficulty: Beginner

Tuning: G C E A (G C E A)

🎸 Verse 1:

C   F                                 G            C
The songs of Boxcar Willie, well they take me back again,
      G                                                  C
To my childhood days in Blaney when I saw my first steam train
        F                                G                       C
She was standing at the station with her smoke stacked black and tall,
     G                                        C
Then she left for Enniskillen, then on to Donegal.



🎸 Verse 2:
    F                                    G                 C
The first time that I rode this train oh how my poor heart felt
      G                           C
I was just another emigrant on my way to Holyhead
      F                            G                C
I was leaving home that morning to seek fortune and fame
                               G         C
So I left Castle Blaney on the GNR Steam train.

🎸 Chorus:
F                                  C
Farmers working in the fields they always knew the time
     G                              C                  G
As I listened to her whistle as she thundered down the line
    C                                 F
She took many folk away from home and brought them back again
    C                            G         C
But now she's gone forever, that GNR steam train.

🎸 Verse 3:
    F                                  G                 C
She carried freight and livestock from factries and from fairs
    G                         C
She also took the pilgrims to Lough Derg to say their prayers
F                            G                 C
Going to an Ulster Final she was really loaded down
                                      G                  C
And she steamed away from Ballybay to the game in Clones Town.

🎸 Verse 4:
   F                                  G                 C
Ah Taylors Tunnell is no more and the footbridge is now gone
      G                                       C
There's a row of Red Bricked houses where the railway gates once swung
F                                G                     C
There are many men in Blaney who wished they were kids again
                                           G         C
You could break and lose your heart on the GNR steam train.

🎸 Chorus:
F                                  C
Farmers working in the fields they always knew the time
     G                              C                  G
As I listened to her whistle as she thundered down the line
    C                                 F
She took many folk away from home and brought them back again
    C                            G         C
But now she's gone forever, that GNR steam train.

🎸 Verse 5:
    F                            G                C
And on her final journey she was shuttered to the side
                                      G                   C
The people mourned her passing like a dear friend who had died,
  F                                 G               C
I saw big men broken hearted, their tears fell like rain
                                      G         C
When they said goodbye forever to the GNR steam train.

🎸 Verse 6:
   F                            G            C
So Boxcar blow your whistle and imitate your train
                               G                C
The GNR or Western Union to me they’re both the same
     F                             G                C
They are now a part of history but their memories remain
                                       G              C
How I'd like to stop and listen to the whistle of the train.

🎸 Chorus:
F                                  C
Farmers working in the fields they always knew the time
     G                              C                  G
As I listened to her whistle as she thundered down the line
    C                                 F
She took many folk away from home and brought them back again
    C                            G         C
But now she's gone forever, that GNR steam train.
    C                            G         C
But now she's gone forever, that GNR steam train.