Engine, Engine, Number Nine

DESCRIPTION: "Engine, Engine, Number Nine, Going down Chicago line, If the train goes off the track, Do you want your money back? O-U-T spells OUT." Or, "Engine, engine, one the line, Wasting water all the time. How many gallons does it waste...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: playparty train money
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) New Zealand
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 96, "(Engine, engine, on the line)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 49, "Engine, Engine"; p. 68, "Chicago Line" (2 texts)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 29, "(Engine, engine, number nine)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 118, "Engine, engine, number nine"; p. 139, "Engine, engine, number nine" (2 texst)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #136, "Engine, engine number nine" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), p. 255, "(Engine, engine, number nine)" (1 text, with just two lines)
MidwestFolklore, Vance Randolph, "Jump Rope Rhymes From Arkansas" Volume 3, Number 2 (Summer 1953), p. 84, "(Engine, engine, number nine)"; "(Engine, engine, number nine)" (2 texts)
Roud #19220
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Chicago Line
NOTES [27 words]: This seems to be relatively rare, but I learned it, or at least the first two lines of it, in my youth in Minnesota, presumably in the late 1960s or early 1970s. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: SuSm096C

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