Trains.com

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Post That Train Song Thread

15457 views
208 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 8,016 posts
Post That Train Song Thread
Posted by Track fiddler on Monday, May 23, 2022 8:44 PM

Post a song that's about a Train, or relevant to the Railroad Industry.  It's a plus if it has a train/railroad video that goes with it but doesn't necessarily have to.

It might be a fun thread and either it will fly or go down like a lead zeppelin.  Thought it would be worth a try to see how it goes.

As always, Thanks for your participation.

 

Okay, I'll start it off.

https://youtu.be/Nu4EeyiPf2g

 

 

TF

  • Member since
    May 2020
  • 1,056 posts
Posted by wrench567 on Monday, May 23, 2022 9:03 PM

The first one that comes to mind. Arlow Guthrie, City of New Orleans. Something we sang when real young Big Rock Candy Mountain. I added it to the list because of the hobo. Ozzy Osbourne, Crazy Train. Blackfoot, Train Train.

  I know there's more but I'm having brain cramp now.

    Pete.

  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 8,016 posts
Posted by Track fiddler on Monday, May 23, 2022 9:21 PM

John posted City of New Orleans in another thread earlier today but it's a great song so I'll post it again here.

 

There ya go Pete.

https://youtu.be/fF1lqEQFVUo

 

 

TF

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: 4610 Metre's North of the Fortyninth on the left coast of Canada
  • 9,229 posts
Posted by BATMAN on Monday, May 23, 2022 9:44 PM

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 8,016 posts
Posted by Track fiddler on Monday, May 23, 2022 10:20 PM

GordonBow  Good one Brent

I heard this one on Spotify last weekend and had never heard it before.  I thought it was Paul Simon but it wasn't.

https://youtu.be/lvJpgn7fVGY

 

TF

 

  • Member since
    May 2020
  • 1,056 posts
Posted by wrench567 on Monday, May 23, 2022 10:35 PM

 Here's the Big Rock Candy Mountain. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JqowmHgxVJQ

  From the movie, Oh Brother Where Art Thou. Man of constant sorrow.

  Pete.

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, May 23, 2022 11:05 PM

Dixie Flyer by Randy Newman is excellent.

It is on his 1988 album Land Of Dreams.

It is worth finding.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: 4610 Metre's North of the Fortyninth on the left coast of Canada
  • 9,229 posts
Posted by BATMAN on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 12:17 AM

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: 4610 Metre's North of the Fortyninth on the left coast of Canada
  • 9,229 posts
Posted by BATMAN on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 12:26 AM

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

  • Member since
    April 2015
  • 469 posts
Posted by Enzoamps on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 1:32 AM

I loved this 65 years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYKbCN-zWjs

 

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 1:35 AM

Conjunction Junction by Bob Dorough?

Trains Make Me Lonesome by George Strait?

Rock Island Line by Lonnie Dunegan?

Blue Train by John Coltrane? (Instrumental Jazz)

Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight And The Pips?

Casey Junior from the Dumbo soundtrack?

Train #10 by Tim McGraw?

New Train by John Prine?

Gone Dead Train by George Thorogood?

16 Wheels by Spot 1019?

Peace Train by Cat Stevens?

Train Of Love by Johnny Cash?

Downbound Train by Bruce Springsteen?

Charlie On The M.T.A. by The Kingston Trio?

On The Atchison Topeka And The Santa Fe by Johnny Mercer?

The Train Song (Gonna Love You Like A Freight Train) by Deanna Carter?

You Never Even Called Me By My Name by David Allen Coe?

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 8,016 posts
Posted by Track fiddler on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 7:11 AM

Good morning

SeeYou190

Dixie Flyer by Randy Newman is excellent.

It is worth finding.

Found it.  A perfect mello tune over coffee this morning.
 
 
 
 
 
TF
  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 8,016 posts
Posted by Track fiddler on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 7:25 AM

Enzoamps

I loved this 65 years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYKbCN-zWjs

There ya go.

 

 

TF

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 569 posts
Posted by drgwcs on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 8:00 AM

Wreck of the old 97-quite a few I believe recorded it. It is only natural to say this as I call Danville, VA home. The line was rerouted later but one of our club members at the Danville Model Railroad Club has a part of the old right of way a few miles north of where the wreck happened in his backyard- Has found Link and pins etc.

Have a copy of this poster for it hanging at my office at church

 

  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 8,016 posts
Posted by Track fiddler on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 8:26 AM

wrench567

 Here's the Big Rock Candy Mountain. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JqowmHgxVJQ

  From the movie, Oh Brother Where Art Thou. Man of constant sorrow.

  Pete.

 

There they are.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JqowmHgxVJQ

https://youtu.be/9d2aBkiwXwg

 

 

TF

  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 8,016 posts
Posted by Track fiddler on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 8:43 AM

drgwcs

Wreck of the old 97-quite a few I believe recorded it. It is only natural to say this as I call Danville, VA home. The line was rerouted later but one of our club members at the Danville Model Railroad Club has a part of the old right of way a few miles north of where the wreck happened in his backyard- Has found Link and pins etc.

Have a copy of this poster for it hanging at my office at church

Really like the guitar in that song at the end of some great history on this link for ya.

https://youtu.be/6ggBWk-Q_NY

 

 

TF

  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 8,016 posts
Posted by Track fiddler on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 8:49 AM

Heres a nutter won.

https://youtu.be/PWfCbhr3Xls

 

 

TF

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,323 posts
Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 3:18 PM

There are all those Bukka White train songs, some of which use the evocative new sound of the A220 streamliner horn...

Tom Rush combined a few of these into this song (be prepared to forgive him for mistaking Washington for Chicago):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JFTjC4I-7PU

I remember first hearing that 'I'm a Train' song on the old Captain Kangaroo show.  I was horrified at it then, and I find I still am:

Look at me for the very last time/Been a life that's long and hard/Going down to the breaker's yard...

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 3:32 PM

Johnny Cash: I've got a thing about trains - YouTube

This one struck a chord with me because it was recorded a few years before Amtrak was formed saving long distance train travel in the US. It really did look like it might disappear from the scene.

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 4:00 PM

Track fiddler

John posted City of New Orleans in another thread earlier today but it's a great song so I'll post it again here.

 

There ya go Pete.

https://youtu.be/fF1lqEQFVUo

 

 

TF

 

Here is the City of New Orleans by the composer Steve Goodman.

Steve Goodman - City Of New Orleans - YouTube

There is an interesting back story to this. Goodman pitched his song to Arlo Guthrie and bought him a beer to get him to listen to the song. Guthrie told him he had until he finished the beer to sell him on the song. Guthrie liked the song but he and Goodman reworked the original lyrics into the form that is now well known. I once saw the original lyrics and they were a bit different but I can't locate them online now. 

Sadly, Steve Goodman was diagnosed with leukemia when he was just 20 years old. He survived another 16 years before succumbing to the disease but not before he left his mark on the music scene with what I think is the greatest train song of all. 

UPDATE: I just found this video in which Steve Goodman's contemporaries remember him. Arlo Guthrie tells the story of Goodman buying him a beer to pitch him the song.

John, Arlo, Kris And Others Discuss Steve Goodman - YouTube

  • Member since
    March 2019
  • From: South Lake Tahoe California
  • 188 posts
Posted by MetrolinkFan on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 4:23 PM

Here we go Runaway Train by Soul Asylum,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRtvqT_wMeY

 

And Runway Train Movie Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWef2BhqvBk

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Mpls/St.Paul
  • 13,773 posts
Posted by wjstix on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 4:34 PM

It's interesting that "Big Rock Candy Mountain" became thought of as a children's song, given it's history (particularly it's earliest versions)....

Stix
  • Member since
    November 2015
  • 52 posts
Posted by JimL on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 5:09 PM

Nebraska66 must really love Union Pacific's restored 4014.

 (can't seem to embed the video)

ROLL ON BIG BOY

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 8,676 posts
Posted by maxman on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 6:52 PM

Does the Locomotion count as a railroad song?:

See the source image

DrW
  • Member since
    January 2008
  • From: Lubbock, TX
  • 365 posts
Posted by DrW on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 7:08 PM

What about a piece of symphonic music? In 1923, Swiss-French composer Arthur Honegger wrote "Pacific 231" (most European countries count axles, not wheels; thus 231 would be 462 here), with the music reflecting the run of a steam locomotive. In 1949, French film-maker Jean Mitry added pictures to the music (today we would call this a "video"). It is really worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKRCJhLU7rs

 

 

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
  • 12,852 posts
Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 7:36 PM

You Never Even Called Me By My Name big hit by David Allen Coe - 

This also written by Steve Goodman (with some help from John Prine).

I listen to these guys alot still to this day.

Sheldon

    

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 10:01 PM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

You Never Even Called Me By My Name big hit by David Allen Coe - 

This also written by Steve Goodman (with some help from John Prine).

I listen to these guys alot still to this day.

Sheldon

 

I'm a fan of John Prine too. I always liked his offbeat style. I've left instructions for his song Please Don't Bury Me to be played at my funeral.

john prine please don't bury me - - Video Search Results (yahoo.com)

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 10:09 PM

Another great train song not yet mentioned is The Wabash Cannonball. Dizzy Dean used to sing this during baseball telecasts when the game had become boring.

Wabash Cannonball Dizzy Dean with Lyrics - YouTube

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 10:14 PM

No train song list is complete without The Orange Blossom Special.

Johnny Cash - Orange Blossom Special - Live at San Quentin (Good Sound Quality) - YouTube

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 11:36 PM

My favourite is Bob Dylan's "It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry".

The rhythm, to me, at least, is reminicent of the sway of a coach, and the beat is like the clickety-clack of steel wheels over rail joints.

It's probably not all that verbally connected to trains, but that song is in my head for all the few long-distance trains I've ridden.

Wayne

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Users Online

There are no community member online

Search the Community

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!