Need suggestions for railroad-based short stories and songs, poetry, etc...

[Puckdropper]

In my english class, we have to put together an anthology of works. I decided to use the genre of trains, and need suggestions of works (and possibly where to find them.)

I'm not asking you to do the assignment for me, (that's always a bad idea) but just to make a few suggestions of train short stories, poems, songs, etc... and possbily where to find them if they can be found online.

[ironhorseman]

Well, I don't know about finding works online but the coffee table books I have, the kind you can find at Barnes and Noble (except Barnes and Nobles don't sell many train books no more, you can more tractor books from them now than train books, but that's beside the point).

Lemme just give you the list of the books I have that have what you seeking. You might possibly find them at the library or you can go to book store and read them there.

Yenne, Bill. The Romance & Folklore of North American Railroads. Smithmark Publishers, Inc. New York, 1995.

Soloman, Brian; Riley, C. J. Along the Rails: The Lore and Romance of the Railroad. MetroBooks, New York. 2000 www.metrobooks.com

Halberstadt, Hans. Classic Trains. MetroBooks, New York. 2001.

And possibly

Ogburn, Charlton. Railroads: The Great American Adventure. National Geographic Society, Washington D.C. 1977.

All these have songs, storys, legends, history, etc.

I don't know about the public libraries in your area but university libraries are an excellent source of info for things like that, especially if they have a special collections area.

Hope this helps some.

[kschmidt]

Greetings,

I happened to hear about this webpage while listening to "Lets Talk Trains" , an Internet Radio show dedicated to talking about trains. It airs live from California at 12noon to 2pm (CDT) on Saturdays. Give a listen

Also try www.tuneville.net They have a listing of a number of CD's which feature train songs. Included are CD's from Johnny Cash and also one from John Denver which I heard was supposed to be very good. So check it out. Good Luck with your assignment

www.letstalktrains.us Webpage for "Lets Talk Trains" Internet Radio Show
www.tuneville.net Webpage for Train Song CD's

Keith Schmidt
www.geocities.com/kaschmidt626/index.html

[Anonymous]

Google "kate shelly" she saved a train in the 19th century and became a legend. A favorite topic of storytellers and poets.

My great grandfather was in charge of building bridges for the C&NW after the Civil War on the same route as Shelley. I can't prove it, the records are gone, but he may have been responsible for the washed out bridge and the one she crawled over.

[Anonymous]

Well, there's a lot of great old railroad stories at http://home.mindspring.com/~railroadstories/ .

[Puckdropper]

Thanks! This has been a big help!!!

[Puckdropper]

Here's one for mudchicken:

http://home.mindspring.com/~railroadstories/rrmmv1n1/outofthe.htm

HARD ON THE FROG.
Probably this Railroad President Would Have Expected
His Cook to Make Codfish Balls Out of Fish~Plates.

RAILROAD presidents have not always been men thoroughly familiar with the practical side of railroading. In a recent issue of the Saturday Evening Post Frank S. Bishop, the general Eastern passenger agent of the Illinois Central, told of the first inspection trip of a newly elected lawyer-president of that road.

The roadbed was in a frightful condition, Mr. Bishop said, and as the train began to jump about the new president became alarmed. After one particularly terrifying crash, as the train passed over a switch, he gasped:

"What was that? What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," said the superintendent. "We just struck a frog."

"Well," sighed the president, "we certainly killed it."

[M636C]

There has been a recent thread on train songs. I have long thought the words of "City of New Orleans" accurately reflect many aspects of railroading at the time it was written! It may be worth your while checking out the lyrics!

Peter