I was ten months in the making,

George’s vision gave me birth,

Though I’m awkward, big and brutish,

Fifty horses is my worth.

I’m a game and canny boiler,

Built and shaped by human hands,

Mighty Trojan strong as Hector,

Oozing sweat through oily glands.

Come on Jinnie light my fire,

Stoke my boiler till I steam;

Then come on Jimmy drive me higher,

Up the slope of George’s dream.

My namesake raced to Waterloo

But my flanged wheels turn stiff and slow;

My smokebox at each piston stroke

Lends my fire a powerful glow.

Muscle bound I heave and haul

Thirty tons of Killingworth coal

Up a hill four miles an hour,

I strain to make those wagons roll.

Come on Jimmy don’t despair,

As I break down most of the time;

Jinnie put your shoulder to me,

Shove me up and down the line.

Others will come after me

To steal my thunder and my parts

But I am first, a true foundation,

From which all future travel starts.

Now George, your reputation’s riding

Over tracks that I’ve laid down,

On a runaway train speeding onwards

Unto glory and renown.

So come on Jinnie light my fire,

Stoke my boiler till I steam;

Then come on Jimmy drive me higher,

Up the slope of George’s dream.

And come on Jimmy don’t despair,

As I break down most of the time;

Jinnie put your shoulder to me,

Shove me up and down the line.

(Gary Miller)

© 2014 Whippet Records

Copyright Control MCPS/PRS

In 2014, Gary was commissioned by Northern Voices Community Projects to write a song for 'North Tyneside Steam', a book published to mark the bicentenary of George Stephenson's steam engine Blücher, which tells the story of its creator in Killingworth and North Tyneside and of steam railways in the area.