What's your favourite railroad songs

dangavel

Well-known member
Having a few minutes spare whilst cooking my dinner and listening to little
feat's great rendition of hank Williams song " lonesome whistle blow" made me want to start this thread, there are so many great railroad songs, if you can give a link to the performance . https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XmXoRmKTW_Y
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYTFIkZVEyg&list=RDgYTFIkZVEyg&start_radio=1&t=6

well this might throw up a few new items , my first ever single was chuck berry's ' let it rock '

Lyrics
In the heat of the day down in Mobile Alabama
Working on the railroad with the steel driving hammer
I gotta get some money to buy some brand new shoes
Tryin' to find somebody to take away these blues
"She don't love me" hear them singing in the sun
Payday's coming and my work is all done

Well, in the evening when the sun is sinking low
All day I been waiting for the whistle to blow
Sitting in a tee pee built right on the tracks
Rolling them bones until the foreman comes back
Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about
We've got an off-schedule train comin' two miles out
Everybody's scrambling, running around
Picking up their money, tearing the tee pee down
Foreman wants to panic, 'bout to go insane
Trying to get the workers out the way of the train
Engineer blows the whistle loud and long
Can't stop the train, have to let it roll on
 
Hey porter by Johnny cash

Great song , which i was listening to just recently, the Ry Cooder version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa9K6hRxHAkHey, Porter
Hey Porter
Would you tell me the time?
How much longer will it be
'Til we cross that Mason Dixon Line?
At daylight would you tell that engineer to slow it down
Or better still, just stop the train
'Cause I want to look around
Hey, Porter
Hey, Porter
What time did you say?
How much longer will it be
'Til I can see the light of day?
When we hit Dixie will you tell that engineer to ring his bell
And ask everybody that ain't asleep to stand right up and yell
Hey, Porter
Hey, Porter
It's getting light outside
This old train is puffin' smoke and I have to strain my eyes
But ask that engineer if he will blow his whistle please
'Cause I smell frost on cotton leaves
And I feel that Southern breeze

Hey, Porter
Hey, Porter
Please get my bags for me
I need nobody to tell me now that we're in Tennessee
Go tell that engineer to make that lonesome whistle scream
We're not so far from home so take it easy on the steam
Hey, Porter
Hey, Porter
Please open up the door
When they stop this train I'm gonna get off first
'Cause I can't wait no more
Tell that engineer I say,
Thanks a lot and I didn't mind the fare
I'm gonna set my feet on Southern soil
And breathe that Southern air
 
... chuck berry ...
big fans of chuck were the rolling stones ... as a fan from the first moments :
- no expectations (1968 beggars banquet) = "... take me to the station .. and put me on a train ..."
- love in vain (1969 let it bleed) = "... well I followed her, to the station .. with a suitcase in my hand ..."
- silver train (1973 goats head soup) = "... silver train is comin' .. think I'm gonna get on now, oh, yeah ..."
 
The songs that do not play, blaring over, wiping out the railroad train sound effects track of a Trainz video

I like to listen to songs when building a route in Surveyor
 
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The railroad comes through the middle of the house...………...I'm singing this song in the middle of the house.
 
big fans of chuck were the rolling stones ... as a fan from the first moments :
- no expectations (1968 beggars banquet) = "... take me to the station .. and put me on a train ..."
- love in vain (1969 let it bleed) = "... well I followed her, to the station .. with a suitcase in my hand ..."
- silver train (1973 goats head soup) = "... silver train is comin' .. think I'm gonna get on now, oh, yeah ..."

The first two are stone classics , probably their most fertile period. Of course trains always featured large in the blues and country music, one way of getting a new life for poor folks was to ride the rails someplace and hope it was better than what they had to put up with in their old homes.
 
What about the classic big band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra Chattanooga Choo Choo? Chattanooga Choo Choo was the first song to receive a gold record for selling 1.2 million copies. Then there's also Long Black Train, written and recorded by country music singer Josh Turner, who made a music video at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum which features TVRM 2-8-0 #610. Long Black Train spent 30 weeks on the Billboard country charts, reached a peak of #13, and was certified Gold by the RIAA, and can be heard while riding the theme park Dollywood's Dollywood Express. The Dollywood Express is pulled by one of their two ex-White Pass & Yukon 2-8-2 Mikados taking 7 former East Broad Top boxcars converted into passenger cars on a 20-minute, three-mile round trip up into the Great Smoky Mountains that surrounds Dollywood.
 
of course, one cannot overlook another Chuck berry staple " Johnny B Goode "

He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack
Go sit beneath the tree by the railroad track
Oh, the engineers would see him sitting in the shade
Strumming with the rhythm that the drivers made
People passing by they would stop and say
"Oh my what that little country boy could play"

I like this 1971 version by the Grateful Dead as much as any out there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PckVlp7Z8d4
 
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