"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.

Background

The song remains popular today as a children's music standard. The lyrics of the song 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.

It is a simple song about a railroad station master seeing the steam locomotives off to work. The song itself is much older than 1948; it has been seen in a 1931 Recreation magazine.^[2]

Whether deliberately copied or not, the tune is very closely related to the chorus of the French-Canadian folk song "Alouette".^{[3][better source needed]} Although the first line is similar to "Alouette", it is more closely related 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?]}

Other versions

• 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^[4] and #10 in Canada.^[5]

Popular culture

• Reverend Wilbert Awdry may have been inspired by the words of the song to write his first Railway Series story, Edward's Day Out.^[6]