Songfacts®:

• Train travel for many years was the best way to traverse Daniel Lanois' home country of Canada, but by the '90s it had long been in decline. In this song, the train is a symbol for changing times. In a Songfacts interview with Lanois, he explained: "What I was trying to address in that beyond the specifics of the train was the change of an era and the things we have to leave behind to discover what might be coming around the bend that's fresh. I really feel a lot from that song, that way. And the bends in the road, they keep coming."
• If you're picking up a U2 vibe in this song, that understandable: Lanois worked as a producer on many of their albums, including Achtung Baby in 1991. With his solo work, he took the same adventurous approach. "It's always part of my criteria to do something sonically that has never been done before, and I hear it in that record," he told Songfacts regarding the For The Beauty Of Wynona album, his second.
• There is a lot of Canadian imagery in this song, including the line, "Hey Pierre Trudeau oh, where are you?" Trudeau was prime minister of Canada from 1968-1984.
  
  In the album title, Wynona refers to the town of Winona, Ontario, near where Lanois grew up.