When I was in high school in the mid-sixties, I recall singing this song in a friend's rec-room.
His dad, who was a railroad man, told me that the firebox door would be so hot that if Georgie's head was against the firebox door, he wouldn't be saying, "I'm proud to be born an engineer on the C&O Road to die."
He would be more likely to be saying, "AAAAAAARRRGGGGHHH!!!"