Grandma's Poem

["Margaret S. Whittaker" <mswhitta@MAILBOX.SYR.EDU>]

Could anyone help me find the author and/or title for the following poem?
A student is going to use this for a declamation contest - it was one
that her grandmother used - but does not know the source.
The first four stanzas are:

You asked me to tell you a story,
a story of life on the rail...
Well, foremost of past recollections
is a sad and singular tale.
Way down in the lee valley
just back of a bottomless ditch,
I lived all alone in a cabin
and tended a railroad switch.

Half a mile or more on the level
the rails lay as straight as a die
and beyond that a cut through the mountain
hid the flying trains from the eye.
And there, just in front of my cabin
a siding for freight trains to wait
allowing the througher express trains
to pass by those laden with freight...

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Margaret Whittaker
mswhitta@mailbox.syr.edu