Analysis of Silver Rails

SILVER RAILS
I hang my lantern on a hook,
                 My bedroll I lay by.
Never again in my caboose,
          with boxcars on the fly.
Never again a hotbox will I switch out,
                  Nor a 'flaggie' leave behind.
It's  OVER!, five and fifty,
                     since on as a Lad I signed.
To ride those SILVER RAILS . . . .
                   Thru dark and gloomy night.
O'er rough beds and smooth beds,
 . . . . . . . . . . With hamlets left and right.
In daylight, In black night.
                  Thru ice 'n sleet 'n snow,
Oer flatland lands and hill lands,
                         with cities all aglow:
I'm gonna' miss all my cronies,
    as I go along life's busy way.
I'll think of them often,
and the 'scrapes' we've all been thru.
              I hope they think of ME
             and I hope they miss Me too.
So, I sit now in my lazy chair,
                     to ponder and to dream;
about those SILVER RAILS
       and the GOLDEN AGE OF STEAM: