Engine Driver's Epitaph

Author not known - inscribed on an engine-driver's headstone in 1840

My engine now is cold and still
No water does my boiler fill
My coal affords its flame no more
My days of usefulness are o'er.

My wheels deny their running speed
No more my guiding hand they heed
My whistle too has lost its tone
Its shrill and thrilling sounds are gone.

My valves are now thrown open wide
My flanges all refuse to guide
My clacks also, though once so strong
Refuse to aid the busy throng.

No more I feel each surging breath
My steam is now condensed in death
Life's railway over each station past
In death I'm stopped and rest at last.

Farewell all dear friends and cease to weep
In Christ I'm safe, in Him I sleep.

Notes

A Sydney Morning Herald article in 2004 begins with a variant verse from this poem

My engine now is cold and still
No water does my boiler fill
My coke affords its flame no more
My days of usefulness are o'er
My wheels deny their want of speed
No more my guiding hand they need.

The article attributes this to an epitaph on a Werris Creek headstone for the grave of engine driver William "Porkie" Paget.

The complete poem above comes from the headstone of a young English engine driver Oswald Gardner who died in 1840. This is described in detail by Charles Cooper on his blog Railway Pages

"The origin of this epitaph is discussed at length in Dow's Dictionary of Railway Quotations (2006, The Johns Hopkins University Press, page 65). It is referred to as "the Engine Driver's Epitaph", and is cited there as having appeared for the first time on the headstone of Oswald Gardner (St. Mary the

St. Mary the Virgin Church - Whickan, County Durham, UK

Virgin Parish Church, Whickhan, County Durham, England), killed at the age of 27 by a broken connecting rod on August 15, 1840. It has appeared on at least three other tombstones, two others in the U.K., and one other in the U.S.A., all for railway men in their twenties, and Dow's Dictionary observes that"this is a young man's epitaph". (Henry Goff was 23 years of age, and died instantly on February 3, 1880 when a wheel of the engine he was firing disintegrated near Glencairn, Ont., causing it to topple down an embankment.)"

The poem is also published in William Andrews collection "Curious Epitaphs" in 1899 pp. 6-7.

"Our next is on a railway engine-driver, who died in 1840, and was buried in Bromsgrove churchyard :–
My engine now is cold and still,
No water does my boiler fill :
My coke affords its flame no more ;
My days of usefulness are o'er ;
My wheels deny their noted speed.
No more my guiding hand they need ;
My whistle, too, has lost its tone,
Its shrill and thrilling sounds are gone ;
My valves are now thrown open wide ;
My flanges all refuse to guide,
My clacks also, though once so strong,
Refuse to aid the busy throng :
No more I feel each urging breath ,
My steam is now condensed in death.
Life's railway o'er each station's passed
Farewell, dear friends, and cease to weep :
In Christ I'm safe, in Him I sleep."