I had a great evening yesterday listening to this radio ballad with the transcript in my hands.

I could not have done something remotely similar, Bob, but nevertheless I'll try to fill some of your ??. It is always easier to start from such a great work and to try to improve.

In the new MacColl songbook three ballads from 'John Axon' are listed as missing in the songbook:
The ballad of John Axon
Runaway train
Train journey

The first is the title ballad which runs through the radio ballad from the first to the last track. In Bob's transcription, for instance, the first two verses and the last verse belong to this ballad.

There is no real indication on the CD, where 'Runaway train' is. I think this ballad is on track 12, in the transcription above all the six verses from
The engine had reached the distant signal,
When the broken steam pipe began to scream. to

For I've got to see the journey through, brave boy,
I've got to see the journey through.

My guess for 'Train journey' is track 7, in the transcript immediately after 'Song of leisure time' from

The repair was done and the train made up ,
When they left (in) Buxton Siding, to

And he thought of his early courting days,
The days when he went hiking. immediately before the 'Manchester Rambler'

The 'Oh, Johnny' verses scattered through the CD seem like another song to me, but the songbook doesn't mention them.

Now my guesses:

- immediately after the Manchester Rambler: John Axon smiled at the though that later he'd be celebrating...
- after 'power from coal, power from water': The restless steam (?) watches the tired metal...
- couple of verses later: or this will be *our* dying day, me boys, this will be *our* dying day...
- it's hell on the plate, it's a funeral *freight* (?), Oh Johnny...
- Was I born for this - to hang like a fly on a iron wall,
Helpless - on a moving wall
To die - to end -
In a welter of blood and oil
Twisted metal *splintered* (?) coal
- Curse the boiler pressure, curse the burning coal the made it -
The fire and the air that fed it -
Curse the water that boiled and turned to steam.
Curse the steam brake and the nut *which connects with* (???) the steam brake pipe
Curse the brass of the steam brake valve
Curse the nut of the steam brake valve
Curse the steam

Wolfgang