I hear the Doc Watson recording just a bit different from Gene's transcription - the main difference is that I'm sure he refers to the train as "she." Here is Norm Cohen's transcription of the 1926 Vernon Dalhart recording, the earliest known recording of the ballad. It's almost the same as Doc Watson's version.
-Joe-


The Freight Wreck at Altoona
(Carson Robison and Fred Tait-Douglas)
(as recorded by Vernon Dalhart, 1926)

She just left the point at Kittanning,
The freight number Twelve Sixty Two;
And on down the mountain she traveled,
And brave were the men in her crew.

The engineer pulled at the whistle,
For the brakes wouldn't work when applied;
And the brakeman climbed out on the car tops,
For he knew what the whistle had cried.

With all of the strength that God gave him,
He tightened the brakes with a prayer;
But the train kept right on down the mountain,
And her whistle still piercing the air.

And on down the grade she went racing,
She sped like a demon from Hell;
With the engineer blowing the whistle,
And the fireman was ringing the bell.

She traveled at sixty an hour
Gaining speed every foot of the way;
And then with a crash it was over,
And there on the track the freight lay.

It's not the amount of the damage,
Or the value of what it all cost;
It's the sad tale that came from the cabin,
Where the lives of two brave men were lost.

They were found at their posts in the wreckage,
They died when the engine had fell;
The engineer still held the whistle
And the fireman still hung to the bell.

This story is told of a freight train,
And it should be a warning to all;
You should be prepared every minute,
For you cannot tell when He'll call.



note that the Riley Puckett version has five verses and a significant text change in the last stanza. The Dahlart-Robison version has nine verses.
Source: Long Steel Rail, Norm Cohen