BILLY SHEEHAN

On the forty-pound rails steamed a C-16,
Commanded by its driver, Mister Billy Sheehan.
The G.M. gave him orders on the strict Q.T.
To run a faster schedule than the Spirit of P.
Keep the regulator open, watch the black smoke roll,
Pile on all the floorboards if we run out of coal.
If we don’t beat the record, ’Billy said to his mate,
‘Send my memos care of Peter at the golden gate!’

Chorus:
Billy Sheehan, ran a faster schedule
Billy Sheehan, a mighty man was he.
Billy Sheehan, ran a faster schedule,
Out to break the record of the Spirit of P.

His fireman was a punting boy for Narrabeen,
He said, ‘I’ll lay the odds against the C-16.’
Billy flashed a roll of notes that was a bear;
The boiler then exploded, blew them both in the air,
Said Billy to his fireman as they left the wreck,
‘I dunno where we’re going but we’re neck and neck!’
The fireman then said, ‘Billy I’ll tell you what I’ll do.
I’ll bet another fifty I go higher than you!’

The wife of Driver Sheehan was at home in bed
When the Railway wired that old Bill was dead.
She called her children to her, said, ‘Listen, honey lambs,
The next old man you get’ll be a guard in the van!’
The railway’s all in mourning now for Billy Sheehan,
No more we’ll hear the puffing of his C-16.
There’s crepe on all the locos, both the goods and mails,
From Ingham and Mount Isa down to New South Wales.


Billy Sheehan
1. Collected by Bill Scott in the mid 1950s from his brother David who was a railwayman at the time in Hughenden, Qld. It is a parody based on the American songs STEAMBOAT BILL and CASEY JONES. C16s were a class of light locomotives, “Spirit of P” refers to the Spirit of Progress which at the time was the fastest train in Australia and ran from Melbourne to Albury. The Second Penguin Australian Songbook p178 1980.
2. Arranged by Stan Arthur. Complete Book of Australian Folklore, p106 1976; reprinted Songs of Australian Working Life p72 1989. Also on Wattle recording C9, Folk Songs from Queensland 1959.

Johnny Cash singing Casey Jones