"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.
"Station" remains popular today as a children's music standard, a simple song about a railroad station master seeing the steam locomotives off to work.
The lyrics are: Down by the station early in the morning, See the little pufferbellies all in a row.
[2] Whether deliberately copied or not, the melody of "Down by the Station" is closely related to the chorus of the French-Canadian folk song "Alouette".
[3][better source needed] Some have pointed out that though the first line is similar to "Alouette", it is closer to the tune of "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," with the first two lines being similar.