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Music for opperating trains

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Music for opperating trains
Posted by mikesmowers on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 1:07 PM
I have heard several of you mention a CD that you listen to while running your trains. I would like to make such a CD for myself, and was wondering what songs you have on your CD? What are some good ones?   I was listing to the radio a couple of nights ago and "This Land Is Your Land"  by Peter, Paul & Mary was playing as the train rolled along the mountain side and I thought that was approiate. any Ideas?  Thanks,     Mike
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Posted by ARTHILL on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 1:45 PM

I collected all the songs about trains I could find anywhere and eventually put them all on a CD. They included all the Glenn Miller songs, the Monkeys, some Johnny Cash and lots of others. Part of the fun was collecting the songs. I ran a thread here about 6 months ago asking for favorite train songs and that was helpful. If I can find it I'll ad it.

 

I could not find that thread. I did search songs and got many pages of reading, but it included the names of a lot of songs.

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Posted by jon grant on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 2:05 PM

Why not play music from the era you are modelling. If you model Transition era, play 40s and 50s music. If you model more modern times play something appropriate - I play rock music whatever the period, but that's me. 

 

If you are going to do a CD, remember copyright laws.

 

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 3:48 PM
I usually have the twilight zone on the TV while i'm running trains. Otherwise, no music is played, except the metal wheels hitting the railjoints making a "click click click          click click click" sound on my passenger train
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 3:57 PM
Since I'm a huge fan of 1970s/80s pop/rock thats what I play. Sometimes I just listen to a local radio station, or I'll play a CD.
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Posted by BRAKIE on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 3:59 PM
I only listen to music while doing scenery,painting,kit building etc and not during operation.Smile [:)]

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Posted by mikesmowers on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 4:07 PM
What I am looking for is names of songs or artist that do railroad songs. I have downloaded a few from Johnny Cash.     Thanks
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Posted by rayw46 on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 5:35 PM

"The City of New Orleans," comes to mind.  A reach would be, "The Gambler," you know, "On a train bound for nowhere...."  How about, "The Last Train for Clarkesville?" The obvious, "Chattanooga Choo Choo."  A little bluegrass, I think it's called, "The Cannonball Express."

But you know what, I think I would go with the music from the era you are modeling, as has been suggested. It's not necessarily about trains, it's about the feel.

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Posted by ARTHILL on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 5:37 PM
This train don't stop here Anymore is one of my favorites. Sentemental Journey, The Night They Took Ole Dixie Down, The Train They Call New Orleans.
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Posted by SOU Fan on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 5:47 PM

 BRAKIE wrote:
I only listen to music while doing scenery,painting,kit building etc and not during operation.Smile [:)]

 

That's what the club I go to does.  We turn on the radio and then work(us youngings).  The old guys work but they have  a tendancy to start talking, and then they don't usually stop for quite a while.

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Posted by Guilford Guy on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 6:20 PM
LOVE TRAIN
thats a great song

Alex

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Posted by larak on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 9:16 PM
I've been compiling a list too.

Hpefully this won't format as one big paragraph.

Here are a couple of obscure ones:

Cho Cho Cha Boogie (Louis Jordon)
Nobody Cares About the Railroads Anymore (Harry Nilsson)

Less obscure:

Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Bill Grogan’s Goat
Blacktop Train - Ellis Paul
Brave Engineer
Bringing in the Georgia Mail
Bye, Bye Blackbird
California Western Special
Casey Jones
Charlie & the MTA
Chattanooga Choo-Choo
Choo~Choo Ch’Boogie
City of New Orleans
Daddy, What’s a Train?
Danville Girl
Down By the Station
Drill Ye Tarriers
East Texas Red
Engineer Brooks
Fast Freight
Fireball Mail
Five Hundred Miles
Follow Your Love
Folsom Prison Blues
Freight Train
Freight Train Blues
Get on Board Little Children
Golden Rocket
Hell Bound Train
Hey, I’m on the Railroad Again
Hobo Bill’s Last Ride
Hobo’s Lullabye
I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow
I’ve Been Everywhere
Jimmy Brown, the Newsboy
John Henry
King of the Road
Life’s Railway to Heaven
Little Red Caboose
Midnight Special
Monkey & the Engineer
Morning Town Train
Mountain Quail
Mystery Train
Nine Hundred Miles
Northspur Station
Orange Blossom Special
Pat Works on the Railroad
People Get Ready
Pistol Packin’ Papa
Railroad Bill
Railroading on the Great Divide
Ramblin’ Boy
Rock Island Line
Runaway Train Came Over the Hill
Salty Dog Blues
San Francisco Bay Blues
Sentimental Journey
She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain
Sixteen Tons
Southbound Passenger Train
Steam Chant
Take the A Train
Take This Hammer
Tennessee Central #9
The Little Engine That Could
The Silverton
There’s Many a Man Killed on the Railroad
This Train
This Train is Bound for Glory
To Morrow
Trusty Lariat
Wabash Cannonball
Waitin' For a Train
Way Out There
Whoopie! What a Ride
Workin’ on the Railroad
Wreck of FFV
Wreck of Ol’ 97




web sites with samples:

http://www.mcneilmusic.com/railroad.html





web sites that might be useful? Mostly selling music.

http://home.mindspring.com/~mhyatt2/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004U0YQ/002-2102962-2063244?v=glance&n=5174
http://www.trainsinger.com/




And (for everyone with the tenacity to read this far) I just found this web site:

http://www.spikesys.com/Trains/songs.html

This appears to be a fairly comprehensive list.

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Posted by james saunders on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 9:21 PM
I listen to modern rock helps me work faster Smile [:)]

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Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 10:25 PM
I like playing music when I'm working on engines or cars at the workbench. It's usually an old Chicago or Eagles record (yes, I actually use records), but I play a CD sometimes, too. It's easier to play CDs since I now have an old Sony CD player back there.Big Smile [:D] Most recently was Blood, Sweat & Tears, who has a similar sound to Chicago.Big Smile [:D] Having music playing seems to help time move faster, as well as keep me from getting bored.Big Smile [:D]

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Posted by mikesmowers on Thursday, August 3, 2006 9:57 AM
Thanks everybody for the info, I will start downloading them soon. These should make a good CD   Mike
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, August 3, 2006 10:05 AM

Thats a really nice list there larack.  Tuck that on a computer and let it play repeat random you could have plenty for a op session or a building session.

 

Personally I listen to classical. 

Dvorak (New World...always thought that this would have made a great piece for Fantasia showing the construction and passage of the Transcontinetal Railroad)

Grofe (Grand Canyon, Niagra and Mississippi Suites)

The Simpsons (Monorail, Mason Darier)

Berloiz (Symphony Fantastique)

Beethoven (pretty much whatever I can find)

PDQ Bach (Abduction of Figaro)

Holst,

Gilbert and Sullivan (Pirates, Pinafore, Mikado, Yoman, etc)

 

 

 

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Posted by Pruitt on Thursday, August 3, 2006 10:46 AM
"Heartbreak Express" by Dolly Parton is a real high-energy, toe-tapping song. Add that to your list.
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Posted by NS2591 on Thursday, August 3, 2006 11:44 AM
I listen to Country alot of the times when I'm building my layout, I can't say that same for operating becuase I don't have enough layout done to operate yet. When I work at the Club We listen to Oldies. Just becuase thats what the owner of the radio likes, and its something we can all stand
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Posted by MerrilyWeRollAlong on Thursday, August 3, 2006 12:22 PM
I occationally listen to the movie soundtrack to "Silver Streak".
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Posted by AntonioFP45 on Thursday, August 3, 2006 2:46 PM
Modern Jazz does it for me.  Chuck Loeb, Bryan Culbertson, Paul Brown, Joyce Kooling.............upbeat, and soothing.  Surprised me that a lot of teens here in Florida are tuning in as well.  Even my "rocker" nephew likes it now.

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Posted by AmanaMedic on Thursday, August 3, 2006 7:09 PM
 jon grant wrote:

Why not play music from the era you are modelling. If you model Transition era, play 40s and 50s music. If you model more modern times play something appropriate - I play rock music whatever the period, but that's me. 

 

If you are going to do a CD, remember copyright laws.

 

Jon

That is exactly what I'm planning on doing. I'm eventually going to build a layout, roughly/loosely based on Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the '88 to '93 era. I've got "i-tunes" on my computer, and have been pulling off what I was listening to back then. I already have speakers up in the RR room, and figure when all is up and running (sometime this century), it'll be like going back to a much, much simpler time in my life.

Cheaper than therapy!

Oh, .99 per song, only going to my computer...so no copyright issues, and the "artists" get their cut too.

Chris Umscheid

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Posted by MIKE0659 on Thursday, August 3, 2006 9:22 PM

You have to include the Doobie Brothers song, Long Train Runnin', in that list.

We've never put any music on while operating, just while building or goofing off in the train room. While operating, we all have radios stuck in our ears and it is cool just listening to that since several of our guys work for railroads. It gets to sounding just like the scanner chatter you hear while chasing the prototype.

Until one of the guys forgets and puts his radio on voice activated and picks up a hard cookie to eat. It sounded like somebody crushing rocks and brought things to a standstill while we all started laughing.

Beware the VOX switch on those radios!

I don't think music would interfere with operations, we have just never put any on.

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Posted by ryebot on Thursday, August 3, 2006 11:21 PM
How about "Canadian Railway Trilogy" by Gordon Lightfoot?

Usually I listen to  the scanners when I'm modelling:

http://www.railroadradio.net/index.php


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Posted by aloco on Friday, August 4, 2006 8:41 PM
I got my first train set back in 1974, and I listened to the radio whenever I played with it.   Today I have a replica of the loco and cars that came with that set, and whenever I run it I play a cassette full of top 40 pop/rock tunes from 1974 -1975.   That's about the only time I listen to music when I'm railroading.

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