“The Train That Carried My Girl From Town” is Frank Hutchison’s song. Hutchison, born in Logan County, West Virginia, in 1897, worked in the county’s coal mines before and after his recording years, and Okeh promoted him as “The Pride of West Virginia.” He played slide with the guitar flat in his lap, using a pen knife. On 28 September 1926 he recorded the song as “Train That Carried the Girl From Town,” and Okeh issued it on 45064 backed with “Worried Blues.” He cut both songs again on 29 April 1927, and Okeh put the new pair out on 45114. His recording career ran only from 1926 to 1929.
The singer watches the train pull out with his girl on it. If he knew its number he would flag it down; since he does not, he wishes it would wreck and take the engineer and the fireman with it. His real target is the rounder who took her: he would shoot him if he had his gun. He rings the telephone operator to try to reach her, finds his supper going cold, and in the last verse wonders whether any woman can be trusted, since this one left with her hand in his money.
The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, which inducted Hutchison in 2018, notes that the song became a staple for Doc Watson, who was heavily influenced by him. A live recording of Watson singing it alone with his guitar at Club 47 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 10 February 1963 was released in 2018. Later that year, on 27 November 1963, Flatt & Scruggs recorded it at the Columbia studio in Nashville with the writing credit given to A.D. Watson, that is, Arthel “Doc” Watson; Lester Flatt sang lead, with Buck Graves on dobro, Paul Warren on fiddle and Jake Tullock on bass, and it came out on The Fabulous Sound of Flatt & Scruggs (Columbia, November 1964).
Watson cut a band version for Good Deal! Doc Watson in Nashville (Vanguard, November 1968), with Merle Watson on guitar, Don Stover on banjo, Buddy Spicher and Tommy Jackson on fiddles, Shot Jackson on dobro and Junior Huskey on bass. On 2 November 1973 he recorded it again in Nashville, this time playing banjo, with Merle on guitar, for Two Days in November (Poppy, 1974). Ola Belle Reed recorded it with Bud and David Reed for Rounder; the David Grisman Bluegrass Experience included it on Muddy Roads (Acoustic Disc, 2013); and the Earls of Leicester recorded it on 15 February 2016 at the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville as the opening track of Rattle & Roar (Rounder, 2016), with Shawn Camp on guitar, Charlie Cushman on banjo, Jeff White on mandolin, Jerry Douglas on resonator guitar, Johnny Warren on fiddle and Barry Bales on bass.
