Once upon a time, there was an engineer He drove a locomotive both far and near Accompanied by a monkey who would sit on a stool Watching everything the engineer would do One day, the engineer wanted a bite to eat He left the monkey sitting on the driver's seat The monkey pulled the throttle, locomotive jumped the gun And did ninety miles an hour down the mainline run Big locomotive right on time Big locomotive coming down the line Big locomotive No. 99 Left the engineer with a worried mind The engineer got the dispatcher on the phone And told him all about his locomotive was gone He said, get on the wire switch, operator to the right 'Cause the monkey's got the mainline sewn up tight The switch operator got the message in time Said there's a northbound living on the same mainline We opened up the gate, we gotta let him through the hole 'Cause the monkeys got the locomotive under control Big locomotive right on time Big locomotive coming down the line Big locomotive No. 99 Left the engineer with a worried mind Big locomotive right on time Big locomotive coming down the line Big locomotive No. 99 Left the engineer with a worried mind Big locomotive right on time Big locomotive coming down the line Big locomotive No. 99 Left the engineer with a worried mind