Down by the station early in the morning; see the little puffer-bellies all in a row
It may not be the greatest railroad tune (there are no words to remember), but I sometimes listen to "Last Train Home" by Pat Metheny, while running the trains. Earl G.
I am familiar with "Big Rock Candy Mountain", I have the version from the Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, which was recorded by Harry McClintock. ITunes says the recording is from 1928.
I like the song, still I don't really think of it as a railroad song.
I agree with Marty, there are a lot of good songs on that soundtrack.
City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie.....
I'm in the same camp as Jim Sutter and favor the Wabash Cannon Ball and City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie and Roy Acuff.[also,I like a fiddle in the band for railroad songs].
Two of my all-time railroad song favorites are by blues master Bukka White. First being recorded in 1930 - "The Panama Limited". The second is "The Fast Special Streamline", recorded in 1940. Note how Bukka changed with the times. In between these recording sessions he did a little time at Parchman Farm for murder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oVD7N5tf2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CgmQvJpo4k
Also really like Blind Willie McTell's "Statesboro Blues", recorded early 1930's. At 1:49 , he describes "Big 80 left Savannah, Lord she did not stop, You oughta seen that colored fireman get that boiler hot" (!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnWxZtI3ONY
And of course Leadbelly's immortal "Rock Island Line": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qITv8uQTZA
Lonnie Donnegan, the British skiffle player (British rock n roll predecessor) did a rousing version, too, (as did Johnnie Cash, Paul McCartney, et al): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI4nRD-DRpk (see 2:17 for the crescendo)
Watching the snow fall, and looking at the full moon. Found this old tune on YT. See what happens when your cable TV goes down or you don't make a payment.
When I was a kid, we had one of these player pianos and my mother was a piano teacher. What's with that?............
Gary - Cheers from The Detroit and Mackinac Railway
Im going to throw my favorite out there, Crazy Train by Ozzy. I do like Folsum Prison Blues by Johnny Cash as well. Both of these tunes have two of the most recognized guitar riffs in music.
Teen Angel
A lot of good ones on here. I'll also give a call out to The Traveling Wilburys with End of The Line and Lonesome Travelers with The Brakeman. YouTube for one and lyrics for the other:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cwqhdRs4jyA
Lonesome Travelers
The Brakeman
They call me the brakeman on the Kansas City line
Drinkin' whiskey with my coffee, takin' my sweet time
Now our fuel is burnin' hotter than it ever will again
The misty, misty moonlight is showin' signs of rain
And the tracks keep getting colder the further west we go
The snow starts falling faster and my coffee's getting cold
Our whistle blowin' louder than it ever has before
It won't be long till Christmas, I'll be knockin' at your door
The conductor is an old friend since 1962
He married my young sister when he was twenty-two
Sometimes we talk, sometimes we don't, the silence can kill a man
But we try to stay awake, any old way we can
We carry the strangest cargo, the world has ever seen
We've got boxcars full of matches and tanks of kerosine
We drive the nine-o-two from Dallas, this train, she's safe and sound
We love the smell of diesel, because we're California bound
As we pass the lights of Vegas, I remember how it use to be
How I spent my nights there gamblin' with a waitress on my knee
One hundred miles from Fresno, I remember that old flame
And wondered if she still knows that I'm the brakeman for this train
Yes they call me the brakeman on the Kansas City line
Drinkin' whiskey with my coffee, takin' my sweet time
One More Train ...James Coffey ...TM Video's
Can't forget...Chuck Berry: All Aboard !
Gotta be this one for me.....great New York Central shots, too.....
Peter
OK... this one is really out on a rarely used siding... it is a piece of classical music, usually called "The Little Train of Caipira" by Heitor Villa-Lobos. It is a musical representation of a small, tired old steam engine carrying the peasants through Brazil.
My vote is for Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy.
Ed Kazarian
My vote goes overwhelmingly to Arlo Guthries version of The City of New Orleans !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like pretty much any train song sung by Johnny Cash. I had this as a LP record and have it as a CD now:
Also, "I'm a Train" by Albert Hammond...
I realize this song doesn't really fit the category - but Mary Chapin Carpenter's "I Am a Town" has the line "...and Southern Serves the South."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnSHWGdiBrk
At about 4:18 is the line. Love the song.
David
City of New Orleans. Great song...great train song. BigRail
Again I have to say City of New Orleans. It depicts an accurate tale of the decline of the railroads in the late sixties.
Apples55 posted:OK... this one is really out on a rarely used siding... it is a piece of classical music, usually called "The Little Train of Caipira" by Heitor Villa-Lobos. It is a musical representation of a small, tired old steam engine carrying the peasants through Brazil.
Beautiful song. The composer got it right, IMO.
On The Aitchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
My favorites in chronological order:
Earliest Memory: "Fireball Mail" by Roy Acuff on a 78 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4VIOdzdHlM
College: "Panama Limited" by Tom Rush which is a more polished version combining the immortal Bukka White's original with his "Fast Streamline Special" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFTjC4I-7PU
Railroading 1: Bukka White's "Fast Streamline Special" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MivU_OX017Q
Bukka White: I was hooked and, although it's not a railroad song, this early recording of his classic "Poor Boy, Far From Home" is worthy of your attention - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_eMQ0_VgCU
Railroading 2: The corny "Up and Down the Monon" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2335WwU_-y0
Retirement and beyond: "Sing Me a Song of the Rails" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIfJ5X8yDTU
"Let me go where the Limits roll, let me feel the pulse of the wheel on the rail... carry me on to my dream."
Number 90 posted:On The Aitchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
+1
Bob
jim sutter posted:I have always loved The City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie. I also love the Wabash Cannonball by Roy Acuff.
and Roy would be workin that yo yo of his while singing.
Rapid Transit Holmes: Thank you for citing the Lomax recording of Bukka White's "Poor Boy, Long Way from Home". I have Bukka's 1964 Arhoolie Records version, but was unaware of this WPA Lomax gem. This must have been recorded at Parchman Farm when he was doing a stretch for murder in the '30's.
I would heartily encourage any and all railroad enthusiasts to give a listen to both the "Panama Limited" and "The fast Special Streamline". Bukka White captured a perfect blending of human sentiment with all that makes railroading appealing, in a perfect artistic rendering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oVD7N5tf2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHsRrq1i0lo
Let me toss one more in, Sonnyboy Williamson's superb "Bring it on Home": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHpqQaf0EK8
The Roy Acuff song -- "Fireball Mail" -- you cited has a tape of the Burlington in Colorado. It opens with an O1a 2-8-2 on a siding and, later, passing a long freight "in the hole", powered by a Burlington 2-10-4, which had been rebuilt for higher speed service, Lincoln NE-Denver. At the end of the tape, the train is about to pass under a modern steel coaling tower; believe that to be Brush, CO. Guessing it was filmed in the late'30's.
There is no "greatest railroad tune," there are only the ones that each of us likes best and even those are subject to change. Right now, for me it's "All Around The Water Tank" by Jimmie Rodgers and "Wreck Of The Old 97" by Vernon Dalhart.
Pete
I'm surprised no one mentioned Lionel's own Neil Young and his 1980's song "Southern Pacific"
Mike
Yeah, and what about "After The Gold Rush" lyrics that foreshadowed his involvement with Lionel:
"I was lyin' in a burned out basement
With a full moon in my eyes
I was hopin' for a replacement..."
Train kept a Rollin' All Night Long...
For me hands down it's City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman. Seen him in concert more than once, just a wonderful human being.
Midnight Special by Creedence.
Driver 8 by REM. I can't help but think of working on a postwar 2056 and listening to this song. 
I'm really not that up on Johnny Cash train songs but I do like some of his songs that I know.
UNION PACIFIC.....I came across these lyrics a few days ago. They were composed By Hannah and Michelle (last names forgotten) and they played it for me at IRM during my 2000 visit. Different in that it's composed from the locomotive's POV....and sung with a little bit of attitude ! The chooch in question is number 18....so you can understand where the "attitude" comes from.
........I've been rolling for a decade, up and down this real estate In an anthem of accomplishment to which no one can relate While our men in ivory towers reinvent their bag of tricks Come on out and find us on the Wahsatch - not exactly sippin' #6 ...And I...thank you, Mr. Neuhart...and I...thank you, Mr Stoddard ...and I cannot express to you the freedom that I feel.... Lemme just scream...the valleys and the plains embrace the dance - they cannot restrain me Scream....a tornado deep inside; you'll hear and feel - you'll know all about me Lemme just scream.
It's true that we're from Erie, and we're thirty sisters strong and if you think we've slowed with passing years keep your nickel, 'cause you're wrong From Southern California, on east of Archer Hill The real number tell our story, and that of men who never lacked for will ! ...And I...don't ask for your forgiveness ...and I live way beyond the limits ...and I remember Jabelmann and Jeffers in the context of their dreams Lemme just scream...the mountains and the hills just shake and ring - they cannot contain me Scream....A tornado deep inside; you'll hear and feel - you'll know all about me Lemme just scream.
Scream....scream....Little sisters gone before...listen to me - you're not forgotten - listen to me....!
Lemme just scream...dyno charts and graphs might speak to men - but never will explain me Scream...a tornado deep inside; you'll hear and feel - you'll know all about me Lemme just scream !
I've been rolling for a decade.....up and down this real estate.
Performed on acoustic guitar; these two women had some help with these lyrics...or they grew up in a real U.P. family !
Different rendition of Midnight Flyer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrdGgCWcWjo
Bob Woodruff - "The best country singer you never heard"
This is one of my favorites from the 1990's
This tune was published today on You Tube, January 28, 2016. It keeps coming back to the railroad station. A big band tune. Glenn Miller Orchestra-Moonlight Serenade Intro &
"Chattanooga Choo Choo".
Music Director Nick Hilscher and female vocalist Jenny Swoish performing at The Ormond Beach Performing Arts Center.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQnQ9VOMLLU
Gary
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Music and songs can take us on wild journeys of remembrance with lots of side trips down old branch lines..
In a recent post about the Menards Power station accessory, J.Magoo mentioned the power station on the cover of Pink Floyds Animals. That power station appeared in HELP! (beetles) too. Wanting to hear both sent me on a music hunt of all kinds from the late 60s to 70s then 80s. Obscure to main stream; early video jocks & hosts; Dick Clark to David Letterman; blues, country, rock, punk, and new wave. Each branch of the journey, finally arriving at any hamming train like rhythms I remembered the thought of bands having.
( And at the center of hammer rhythm hard/blues/rock like that for me today is a band "Clutch" Two days ago I spotted a new new song "Sucker for the Witch" about his first time seeing a "goth girl"{1984-ish}*)
A little of everything, punk, new wave, rock-n-roll, and country, blues....that finally landed me between Blondie and the rockabilly revival of the Stray Cats, and train rhythms N.Young & the Shocking Pinks laid down (cry cry cry comes to mind), and a rockabilly-ish band called X (that did a great Jerry Lee /Lewis Breathless cover later+ more).
The last leg of the journey.....
Anyhow...* X had the the first girl I'd seen, who took "The Stevie Nicks look" & "punk" and mixed them into "goth fashion", about 1980, vocalist Xene., And also the center of the beginning of the goth genre was Bauhuas (Bela Lagosi's dead), that later evolved out of goth horror rock direction, becoming the 80s Love and Rockets as LA's scene crept into the "Guns" era..(Hollwood guns, LA guns, & Guns n' Roses)
..LAST STOP!... For political comparison of the age to today; and just for fun, to laugh at 80's fashion; I called up the "ball of confusion" cover they did, but saw
"The Kundalini Express" and was instantly reminded the whole Love and Rockets second album, "Express", was full of Railroad based lyrics, and rhythms. Not just this song but they are scattered on you tube with this cover and a hounds tooth pattern graphics. (All Aboard!
......that made me remember Neil's shirt from the "Pinks" on "Wondering" & then the "Cry Cry Cry" video's UP trains 
).
Maybe not everyone's cup o' tea but...
Adriatic posted:
That power station appeared in HELP! (beetles) too.
Beetles? I'm sure you meant the Beatles. Like it reads on the Lionel boxcars. 
Jim R. posted:Adriatic posted:
That power station appeared in HELP! (beetles) too.
Beetles? I'm sure you meant the Beatles. Like it reads on the Lionel boxcars.
I saw that later.
Old habits.. I collected more VW stuff.
Still have some Apple of the vinyl variety though.
In the "air cooled world" the joke goes, You will get always get attention driving a Beatle around....
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Images (1)
Caution: may be too radical for geriatric types
Ooops, this tune has already been posted but this version has video with train scenes.
