| DOWNBOUND TRAIN - V1 | 1:11 | FFOD / HNWB |
| DOWNBOUND TRAIN - V2 | 0.34 | LM-10 |
| DOWNBOUND TRAIN - V3 take 3 | 2:22 | LM-1 / HNWB / MT2 / ESR |
| DOWNBOUND TRAIN - V4a | 3:17 | THLRR / BUERM / TDB / LM-19 / GS |
| DOWNBOUND TRAIN - V4b | 3:29 | BITUSA |
| DOWNBOUND TRAIN - V5 | uncirculating |
Note: V1 and V2 are brief acoustic demos that were recorded at Springsteen's home in Colts Neck, NJ in late 1981. V1 includes the closing line used in both the Nebraska take and the final Born In The U.S.A. album version: "don't it feel like you're a rider [baby], on a downbound train." V2 is just harmonies, with no lyrical content. A demo was recorded and dubbed to a cassette tape on December 2, 1981 - nothing else is known about this particular recording, but it may be related to V3, a full acoustic run-through of the song recorded at some point between mid-December 1981 and January 3, 1982, with the patented Nebraska ending. Described by Springsteen in his notes to Jon Landau as an "uptempo rocker for full effect / needs band / could be exciting."
Power Station logs show sessions took place on April 27 and 28 and May 3, 5 and 6, 1982, the result of which provided the base track, V4. V4a features Springsteen's count-in, a small lyrical variation in the first verse left over from the acoustic demo ("laid off down at the auto yard" rather than "lumber yard"), some vocal howls in the mid-section, more up-front acoustic guitar over the final verse, and a shorter fade-out. Nearly a year later Bruce returned to "Downbound Train" on February 3, 1983 (V5) at Thrill Hill West, his Hollywood Hills garage studio. However, it was the 1982 cut that was issued on Born In The U.S.A. in 1984.