The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Introduction

American 4-4-0 loco

Just as one of the earlier pieces was not really about a bus route, this one is not really about railways. So what is it about? Well, you have heard of the American Dream and this is the American Nightmare, as seen through the eyes of a once hopeful immigrant from Britain.

The central image is borrowed from the poet Robert Lowell, and you should imagine one of those American locomotives with a cowcatcher on the front and an enormous headlamp in front of the smokestack.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Now, when I was young and ambitious,
I took all the knocks in my stride.
I felt that the world was my oyster,
And I could do well, if I tried;

But when it seemed I was succeeding,
I found that again and again,
The light at the end of the tunnel
Was the lamp of an oncoming train.

Abandoned farmhouse in Nebraska Photo by Edward Freeman

I married a girl from Wyoming;
We hoped that our life would be good;
We took on some land in Nebraska,
And built our own house out of wood.

I worked all the hours the Lord sent me,
And some that the Devil sent too;
But I still owed my soul to the bankers.
What more could a poor fellow do?

It turned out my wife was unhappy.
She said that our life was no fun.
So she went off back home to Wyoming,
And left me to bring up our son.

Then one year I had a good harvest;
The bins were all brimming with grain.
I reckoned I'd pay off the mortgage
And be in the clear once again.

It seemed I was out of the woods now,
But vermin destroyed all my grain.
I was trapped in a single-track tunnel,
In the path of an oncoming train.

The bankers foreclosed on the mortgage;
I had to sell up and moved west.
The neighbours could give me no work now;
I couldn't do what I knew best.

I found us some work on a railroad,
With jobs for both me and my son;
But when the tracks reached Sacramento,
The good times were over and done.

We then went to work for a farmer;
We toiled in the sun and the rain;
But the farmer went broke just as I did;
We were back on the road once again.

And now that I'm old and I'm weary,
I'll tell you what life's all about.
I've worked forty years like a Trojan,
And still ended up down and out.

So you who are young and ambitious,
Pay heed to my solemn refrain:
That light at the end of the tunnel
Is the lamp of an oncoming train.

Watch out! Photo: Shubhajit Ghosh