Here's the version written by John Lair, published in 100 WLS Barn Dance Favorites (Chicago: M.M. Cole Publishing, 1935), and 'introduced by Red Foley'.

FREIGHT TRAIN BLUES

I was born in Dixie in a boomer shack
Just a little shanty by the railroad track
The humming of the drivers was my lullaby
And a freight train whistle taught me how to cry

CHORUS
I got the freight train blues
Lawdy! Lawdy! Lawdy!
Got them in the bottom of my ramberling shoes

My Daddy was a fireman and my Mammy dear
Was the only daughter of an engineer
My sweetie is a brakeman and that ain't no joke
It's a shame the way she keeps a good man broke

Aeroplanes and autos always leave me cold
The moaning of a steamboat never stirs my soul
The only thing that makes me want to navigate
Is a wildcat whistle on a South-bound freight

I know I'm old enough to quit this running 'round
I've tried a hundred times to stop and settle down
But every time I find a place I'd like to stay
I hear a freight train holler and I'm on my way.

And here's a little more about John Lair from the Guide to the John Lair papers courtesy of the Hutchins Library at Berea College.