Get on the Love Train--Love Train

[Murphy Siding]

.......Blame it on the train, but the boss is already there....

Manic Monday (?) -by the Bingles or Bangles or Shingles...?......

[Jordan6]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding

......Third boxcar,midnight train
destination Bangor Maine.....

King of the Road -The late great Roger Miller !

Darn it! That's what it was.

[Murphy Siding]

......Third boxcar,midnight train
destination Bangor Maine.....

King of the Road -The late great Roger Miller !

[markn]

Alot of the the great ones have been mentioned but just let me add "Downtown Train" by Rod Stewart

[Jordan6]

How bout' "King of the Rails"

[Murphy Siding]

Ed: I'd be terrible at even picking out the wood- I can't even pick out a good melon just by thumping it.[bow]

[edblysard]

Murphy,
The sound on them usually come from the front face of the guitar...make it thinner on either side of the neck, it gets twangy...
Leave it thick on the back, it gets deeper and mellow, thick in the same places on the face, but thin on the back, it will have the same sound as a older instrument, but will not have the resonance of one.

I thin the wood, then tap it, like you do when checking a watermelon for ripeness...thump it...if it has a crisp sound, its where I want it...a dull sound needs to be thinned.

Pick up a guitar, and tap on the face near the peg board, it should ring deep and long, tap near the neck and it should have a sharp, short, crisp sound, both places should make the strings ring, or sound off....

Its a matter of trial and error, although there are several excellent books out there about this and several different techniques, from hand planes to a lot of sanding to using a hand scraper to thin them, I prefer the scraper..

And a lot depends on the wood...hard woods can be thinned a lot, and still sound good, but you have to use light woods, popular and ash, for the inside braces and edge supports, or it gets to heavy to play for a long time.

I like to use popular for the neck, with a Texas ebony veneer for the fret board...ebony is a naturally oily wood, very dense with fine grain, you can actually wet sand it down with 2000 grit emery paper, and it will polish up all by itself, which looks real good, because you don’t want to apply fini***o the face of the neck, it wears off and interferes with playing.

Texas ebony is lighter color than African ebony, kinda brown, and often has very light streaks in it, adds a visual difference...African ebony is really dark, almost black, no streaks, and is very oily and dense grained.
Both work easily with hand tools, and look really good with almost any color or type of inlay you might use, because it is so dark.
Polished right, you have to feel it to realize it is wood; it almost looks like a plastic when it’s really polished up.

Another trick is to use veneer over ash, plain maple or mahogany for the body panels...glue it up and then cut your back and face, once you glue the sides on, and add the edging trim, it looks like it is solid wood, but it still light enough to play for a extended time.
If you remember back when Yamaha first started making guitars, they were really heavy and chunky, but sounded pretty good for a cheapie, hang one of them around your neck for a hour, and you realize why I like lighter!

Both ash and maple, once dry, resist cracking, warping and racking, are light and strong, so I use them a lot.

You can buy the veneer sheets at most Woodcraft stores, or go to a local wood milling shop, the ones that make trim and moldings often cut veneer sheets for cabinet shops, and have a nice selection, I use Houston Hardwoods a lot, they have a bunch of exotic offshoots and cut offs they sell real cheap.

I want to try a violin, but I think I will use a kit the first time out, they are a little more complicated than a guitar.

If it works out, I am going to do one free hand, and use birds eye maple, book end the back and face.
Should be fun, although I don’t have the reach to play anymore...might get the twerp interested in it though!

Ed

[Anonymous]

My favorite is "City of New Orleans" written and performed by Steve Goodman, although Arlo's version is hardly any different.

There's another song in my memory. I don't have a recording and I heard it only once. If you're from Chicago perhaps you have heard of Studs Terkel. Anyway, about 30 years ago, he had a radio talk show in Chicago. On one of his shows he had a folk singer who performed mostly labor movement songs (if my memory is any good). One of the songs went like this to the standard tune of Casey Jones, "Casey Jones...scabbin' for the SP lines..."

[Murphy Siding]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

One Toke over the Line, by...
Brewer and Shipley...actually a some what anti dope song....they sing about the death that awaits the heavy user.

"Waiting for the train to carry me home sweet Mary, hoping that the train is on time"...(I'm) one toke over the line sweet jesus, one toke over the line..."


Yeah, built them their gutiars...not that hard once you figure out how to thin the back of the wood for the body... thiner in some places makes them sound more "twangy", thicker gives you more the the Classic sound, deeper and richer...and trying to copy a really nice Spanish bass for her music teacher.

Ed

How in the world do you figure where to make them thin, and where to make them thick?

When I was a kid, my sister played the viola. My family and a neighbor girl's family sort of co-owned a beat up, old instrument and they took turns getting lessons from a teacher at school. One day, at the bus stop,sis and the neighbor girl got in some sort of fight, and one sort of broke the viola over the other's head! We sure could have used someone with your talent back then. My dad, and the neighbor girl's dad rebuilt the viola with some cast off wood and a whole bunch of elmer's glue. It was never the same, but I didn't think my sister's playing sounded any worse.[}:)]

[edblysard]

Chris,
I started out building guitar kits for friends...
Then did a little research, decided to see if I could build one from scratch...
Made a nice pile of wood shavings, and a real ugly and cruddy dead sounding guitar!

But tried again, after doing a little more research, succeded in making a real good sounding, and nice looking one.

I found a fairly inexpensive source for a lot of the machine equipment, although most the work can be done with basic hand tools and hand held power tools, which actually makes it a little more fun, you can tell people you "hand crafted" it.

If your interested in a kit to try yourself, and general woodworking stuff, look here...
grizzly.com

and order a free catalog from them on line.

They have a special Lutherie catalog full of kits and tools just for making stringed instruments.

Although I dont ever invision this being a money making venture for me, its a lot of fun, and the satisifaction of seeing someone appreciate an instrument I built is well worth the time spent.

If you want to see some of my pens, click on the web page link below...next to the email and profile link, the web site is no longer in use, but we left it up just cause...

Ed

[Murphy Siding]

........That big 8-wheeler rollin' down the track
means your sweet lovin' daddy ain't a come 'n back
and I,m movin' on.......

Movin' On old, old old, Hank Snow song

[blhanel]

There's another pop tune that was high on the charts not too long ago, that when I hear it the tune gets stuck in my head- "My Baby Takes The Morning Train". It may have been mentioned already- I did a quick scan and didn't see it, though.

[CopCarSS]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard
I built her and her older sister classic guitars, beech and mahognay bodies, ebony necks with paduck inlays, and she darn near slept with it till we bought her a Fender Electric.

Ed

[bow][bow][bow]

Ed I was in awe of you before, but now you've sealed it. Building guitars?I'm just starting on string instruments after toying around with pianos most of my life, and I'm having enough trouble learning how to play the derned things!

I'm in the process of trying to teach myself guitar, electric bass, and ukelele right now. Of course, fingering for all three of those is way different, but I guess I like a challenge (I'm still teaching myself Rhapsody in Blue on the piano, too).

That is really cool that you did that for your daughters. What an incredibly fun thing to play, and what an incredible heir loom they'll have to pass down. You officially get my Cool Dad of the Year Award!

[AlcoRS11Nut]

QUOTE: Originally posted by fuzzybroken

"Train, train... take me on out of this town..." -- I don't know who did the original, but I know Warrant recorded it on their "Cherry Pie" album.

[:D]
-Mark
www.fuzzyworld3.com

I think the orignal is from Blackfoot. Don't forget about Guns N' Roses "Night Train"!

[Murphy Siding]

......I'm sitting in a railway station, got a ticket for my destination.....

Homeward Bound -Simon & Garfunkle

[Tulyar15]

Besides rail related songs there are a number of pieces of train inspired classical music. In Britain probably the best known is Walton's "Coronation Scot" which was commissioned by the London Midland and Scottish Railway for the launch of their streamlined "Coronation Scot" train that ran from London to Glasgow. (Streamlined loco # 6229 toured the USA in 1939, masquerading as # 6220 "Coronation" the flagship member of the class. # 6229 is preserved but without streamlining but the National Railway Museum are thinking about re-streamlining her).

I also like "Pacific 231" by Honegger, an early 20th century French composer. (There they count the axles instead of the wheels so in France a "Pacific" is referred to as a 2-3-1 rather than a 4-6-2).

[Anonymous]

Eric Clapton has a new album out right now and the cover is a shot of a musician stepping off a streamliner passenger car; probably an AT&SF Super Chief.
None of the songs appear to be train related though.
[{(-_-)}]

[Murphy Siding]

......."The engineers would see him sittin' in the shade
listenin' to the rhythem that the drivers made.
Maybe some day your name will be in lights
sayin' Johnny B Good tonight"

Johnny B. Good -Chuck Berry!

[Train Guy 3]

Any country fans remember "Baby Likes to Rock It" by the Tractors? I always liked that music video..... the ultimate party train.

[Anonymous]

Steam locomotives with their "lonesome whistle blowin'" have been gone for decades, and yet trains still get mentioned in songs today. Trains are still make for a powerful metaphor for today's songwriters and poets. Not bad for an icon from the 19th century. [8D] [:D]

[morseman]

Life's Railway to Heaven
Popularly known as Life is Like a Mountain Railroad
Copyrighted in 1890 with words credited to M.E.Abby and
music by Charles D. Tillman.
The Statler Brothers included it in their album The Legend Goes On.
recorded in 1982.

There is a book "Life is Like a Mountain Railroad"
(A Model of the Spiritual Journey written by Glenn J. Fisher in 1990.Glen Fisher was the minister of a church in Bala Cynwyd in 1990
and lived then in Wynnewood, Pa (near Philly)
This book was written about the hymn and his railfanning days.
He logged 4500 miles travelling in the cabs of the Clinchfield RR.
and compares the Clinchfield to this hymn. He also wrote a
sermon about the hymn.
He uses his experiences on the Clinchfield as the basis for
his model af the spiritual journey.

[Murphy Siding]

....."My Baby Thinks He's a Train"...

-Roseanne Cash[:)]

[siberianmo]

[2c] On the subject:

My all time favorite is Willie Nelson's City of New Orleans.

Seond is Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy

followed by all the train songs listed on this thread! [yeah]

[ndbprr]

i didn't see, "casey Jones comin' round the mountain" or that great Kingston Trio hit, "To Morrow" about the PRR Morrow Ohio branch. "The train that goes to Morrow is an hour upon its way".

[morseman]

Life is like a mountain railroad, with an engineer that's brave,
We must make the run successful from the cradle to the grave;
Watch the curves, the fills, the tunnels, never falter, never fail,
Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eye upon the rail.

CHORUS: Blessed Savior, thou will guide us 'till we reach
the blissful shore,
Where the angels wait to join us in thy praise evermore.

As you roll up grades of trial, you will cross the bridge of strife;
See that Christ is your conductor on the lightning train of life.
Always mindful of obstruction, do your duty, never fail,
Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eye upon the rail.
Chorus:

As you roll across the trestle look for storm or wind or rain.
On a curve or fill or trestle they will almost ditch your train;
Put your trust alone in Jesus, never falter, never fail,
Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eye upon the rail
Chorus

As you rolll across the trestle, spanning death's dark swelling tide,
You behold the union depot into which your train will guide;
There you'll meet the superintendent, God the Father, God the Son,
With a hearty joyous plaudit, weary pilgrim, welcome home.
Chorus

[Murphy Siding]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

I can pick and grin (6 & 12 string, banjo), but certainly not with the best of 'em. Building something like that is way over my head.

If I put on any folk rock on the stereo for my listening enjoyment, I can pretty well write off accomplishing whatever I was planning to do with music as a background - I'll be playing along in short order...

The piece used in "Dueling Banjos" is actually a song called "End of a Dream." I can play it, but have to learn a different roll to really do it justice. Same with "Foggy Mountain Breakdown."

Wasn't a country star known as "the singing brakeman?"

I think Jimmy Rodgers was called the singing brakeman.[:)]

[SALfan]

There's an old hymn (at least I think it's a hymn) that I remember only in fragments. Part of it goes "Life is like a mountain railroad", and another part goes "Keep your hand upon the throttle, and your eye upon the rail". I'd be grateful if anyone could supply the missing parts.

[tree68]

I can pick and grin (6 & 12 string, banjo), but certainly not with the best of 'em. Building something like that is way over my head.

If I put on any folk rock on the stereo for my listening enjoyment, I can pretty well write off accomplishing whatever I was planning to do with music as a background - I'll be playing along in short order...

The piece used in "Dueling Banjos" is actually a song called "End of a Dream." I can play it, but have to learn a different roll to really do it justice. Same with "Foggy Mountain Breakdown."

Wasn't a country star known as "the singing brakeman?"

[edblysard]

Ha, ha,
No, don’t have the room, and can’t afford that much top quality wood!

I have a wood shop/machine shop out back, been wood working since I was a small kid, Dad was a wood worker/jack leg house builder...I also have several lathes.
I can turn you wheels for your model locomotive or railcar, or craft you a fountain pen, roller ball pen, or a mechanical pencils...a little hobby that has managed to pay for the machine tools.

Biggest piece of furniture I have build is a chest of drawers, dresser, and bedroom set, some dinning room tables, and a 1/2 scale roll top desk for my youngest daughter...

It’s kinda a stress release thing, if I have a rough day at work, I can go back there and work it off, and make something useful in the process.

My wife calls me an extreme puttizier...

I think everyone needs a hobby, mine are wood working and model railroads, I like to build the locomotive models.

After all, if you can’t play, even as an adult, life becomes just a daily grind.

Ed