Haul away to Salisbury
I'll not be back today
We load the stock
With brick and rock
And Quarrying we may
Well Johnny's on the line ma
He's a rolling car
The buds are blooming in the sidings
The broom and Buddleia
They get on board at Weymouth
They alight thar at Frome
And by the time of Castle Cary
Well there wasn't any room
They've been a holidaying
Down the Heart of Wessex line
But it's alright, the car is tight
Johnny's rolling all the time
Well haul away to Salisbury
And back to Cattistock
We hit bad weather
At Marston Magna
And Rolled back to West Radstock
Now nevermind Bathampton
Westmoreland or Bath Spa
It's Limpley Stoke
With the Freshford folk
Who'll climb into his car
He never knew a girl before
Like the one from St Anne's Park
She could quick draw
And from her maw
She drew a big dog's bark
It was called the Heart of Wessex
the beating Vena Cava
The artery, the pulmonary
The vein and semi quaver
If ever there was a left leg
They'd call it Weymouth Quay
If ever blood went to their head
In Temple Meads they'd be
Now here's the heart of Wessex
A pumping people home
Up and down the West Country
From Salisbury to Frome
Now speaking of a right hand
Across to Clevedon pier
Upon the Cheddar Valley line
All drinking Strawberry beer
Upon the Great Western Railway
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
He built the bridge across the Avon cliffs
Johnny knew him very well
Now Johnny comes a walking
Down the tracks that he once rolled
The tunnels where he blew his whistle
Along strawberry hills he strolled
Now the beating heart of Wessex doesn't
Pump no more of his blood
But the tracks that once held his stacks
Are now covered in his mud
Yes Johnny's in the cab
Shovelling the coal
And he's the steam of fires seen
As the rolling stock does roll
And the body is not working
But it's still living mind and soul
And the ghost of Johnny Firkin
Still hauls down on the Wessex roll
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