Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker, Peggy Seeger - Under the large injector steam-valve...
текст песни

Under the large injector steam valve
There’s a length of one and one-eighth piping.
It connects with a driver’s brake valve.
The connecting point is a joint of brass.
A one and one-eighth steam pipe,
Fixed in a threaded joint,
Rests on asbestos packing,
And is sealed –
Sealed with brazing metal.

A hundred and twenty-five tons of engine,
Six hundred and fifty tons behind,
And the boiler pressure -
Two twenty-five pounds per square inch.

And the men? Two fragile bodies,
Flesh and blood and brittle bone,
Carbon and water, nerves and dreams,

Power from coal. Power from water.
Power imprisoned in a one and one-eighth pipe.

The restless steam,
Watches the tired metal,
Explores the worn thread,
Watching, watching,
Every turn of the four-foot wheels,
Every lunge of the smooth-armed piston,
Every thrust in the two great cylinders
Weakens the joint’s resistance.
And the brazed flange crumbles.
The pipe is parted -
IT BLOWS!

(Intense gush of steam).

We was too shocked, really, just for a few seconds. And then the realisation came what had
happened - that the brake pipe had gone. Conditions on the footplate, oh they was horrible. You
only had to put your, your face anywhere near it would peel like an onion.