Down by the Station

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"Down by the Station", also known as "Down at the Station", is a popular song written by Paul Mills and Slim Gaillard and first recorded by The Slim Gaillard Trio in 1947.^[1] The song was most famously recorded by Tommy Dorsey in 1948.

The song remains popular today as a children's music standard, a simple song about a railroad station master seeing the steam locomotives off to work. The lyrics are:

Down by the station early in the morning,
See the little pufferbellies all in a row.
See the engine driver pull the little handle,
Puff, puff, Toot! Toot! Off we go.

The song itself predates 1948; it was reportedly seen in a 1931 issue of Recreation.^[2]

Whether deliberately copied or not, the melody of "Down by the Station" is closely related to the chorus of the French-Canadian folk song "Alouette".^{[2][better source needed]} Some have pointed out that though the first line is similar to "Alouette", it is closer to the tune of "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," with the first two lines being similar.^{[original research?]} The third line of "Down By the Station" is higher in pitch than the second, and the fourth line returns to the pitch of the first line (except for a higher pitched or onomatopoetic "Toot! Toot!").^{[original research?]}

• The Four Preps recorded a version of "Down By the Station" in 1959, featuring an entirely different set of lyrics by group members Bruce Belland and Glen Larson. It peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100^[3] and #10 in Canada.^[4]

• The lyrics may have inspired Reverend Wilbert Awdry to write his first Railway Series story, Edward's Day Out.^[5]

• List of train songs