“Life Is Like a Mountain Railway” — also widely known as “Life’s Railway to Heaven” — is a gospel hymn whose origins are tangled. The tune was set by the gospel composer Charles Davis Tillman around 1890, to words associated with the Baptist preacher M.E. Abbey; the song’s railroad imagery drew in turn on an older poem about a faithful engineer.
The hymn builds an extended metaphor: life as a railway run through mountains, tunnels, and steep grades, with the believer urged to keep a steady hand and a watchful eye until the train reaches its heavenly station. That vivid, sustained image made it one of the most beloved of all railroad gospel songs.
The hymn first reached records in 1918 and has since been recorded across gospel, country, and bluegrass by a long line of artists.
