Railroad Man's Prayer

Found in a book that referenced a magazine called “The Railroad man’s magazine”

Now that I have flagged thee, lift up my feet from the road of life and plant them safely on the deck of the train of salvation.
Let me use the safety lamp of prudence, make all couplings with the link of love, let my hand-lamp be my bible,
and keep all switches closed that lead off the main line into the sidings with blind ends.
Have every semaphore white along the line of hope, That I may make the run of life without stopping and when I have finished the run on schedule time and pulled into the terminal, may thou superintendant of the universe say "Well done, good and faithful servant, come into the general office and sign the payroll and recieve your check for happiness

Amen…Thank you for bringing this to us!!
Icemanmike-Milwaukee

A little dated (handlamps and semephore arms), but good.

Does anyone know who first penned this? I would love to find out so proper credit can be given.
Mike

We may never know who penned this, but perhaps it’s better that way.

That the “semaphores be white” dates it far more than a simple mention of semaphores does.

Reminds me of a song…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCYX005_hw4

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Monthly Journal, May 1895

A Railroader’s Prayer

A railroad man is responsible for the following prayer:

“O Lord, now that I have flagged Thee, lift my feet from off the road of life and plant them safely on deck of the train of salvation! Let me use the safety lamp known as prudence, make all couplings in the train with the strong link of Thy love, and let my lamp be the Bible! And, Heavenly Father, keep all switches closed that lead off on the sidings, especially those with a blind end! O Lord, if it be Thy pleasure, have every semaphore block along the line to show the white light of h

Even with the ch-choo-pum-pums, this one is lovely:

Mmmm-mmmmm! That lady could SING!

For his literary reputation? [;)]

Whoever he was, he certainly was a prolific poster (282,456 posts!!!).

Thank you for posting this video - I really like Patsy Cline’s version of the song, and it had been a long time since I’d heard it.

Firelock, you are SO right. Her voice was powerful enough to break granite when she really bore down.