For twenty years engine 4449 sat on a siding.
Once a passenger engine,
She sat rusting away,
Children played in her cab.
Old men would sit and look at her remembering,
They knew the stories she could tell.
One day a different group cam to look.
They said this is the one we want.
They took her to the Burlington shops.
When they finished,
She was as good,
As the first day she ran,
Thirty seven years ago.
She was no longer a rusting derelict,
She had a job to do,
A new story to tell.
They brought her a train
Once also rusting and forgotten
She was now ready for her journey.
It will cover the country from coast to coast,
Take two years to complete.
Thousands will come to hear her story,
Heads of state,
And the little old lady next door.
She is now number 1,
She tells our 200th story,
And the old man are proud*
She is our Freedom Train.


©Richard M. Bell 7/5/76