The Tenneva Ramblers recorded the song in 1927; the couplet
The engine passed at six o'clock,
And the cab it passed at nine,
originated with them.
Norm Cohen, "Long Steel Rail," p. 496

N. I. White, from a black railroad gang in NC:
The longest train I ever saw
Was on the Seaboard Air Line,
The engine pas' at 'a ha' pas' one,
And the caboose went pas' at nine.
"American Negro Folk Songs," 1928.