# Favorite Rail Songs!



## Green Maned Lion

My personal favourite is Arlo Guthrie's version of "City of New Orleans".


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## Bill Haithcoat

My favorite, just recently mentioned on another poll is "On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe". A close runner up would be "The Wreck of old 97".


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## GG-1

Aloha

Almost feel ashamed as I can't think of a single tittle, and I work in the entertainment field. :huh:

Eric aka GG-1


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## Guest

1st City of New Orleans

2nd Johnny Cash "I Hear that Train A'Comin"... prob. not the exact title.


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## MrFSS

GG-1 said:


> Aloha
> Almost feel ashamed as I can't think of a single tittle, and I work in the entertainment field. :huh:
> 
> Eric aka GG-1


Eric - How 'bout - "I've Been Working on the Railroad, All the Live Long Day."

Everyone knows that song!


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## Green Maned Lion

Guest said:


> 1st City of New Orleans
> 2nd Johnny Cash "I Hear that Train A'Comin"... prob. not the exact title.


Whose version? Arlo Gurthrie's version is good, but Steve Goodmans version is.... well, its definitely different and I think it sounds awful.


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## Guest

City of New Orleans

...sung by Arlo, Johnny Cash, John Denver, Willie Nelson and on and on.

Here's an interesting Cash version with him singing it on a moving train:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?tu_r62SAkU&feature=related

As to which one is my favorite, hum me a few bars and I'll see.


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## Guest

Well, I flubbed that link. That video was on YouTube.

Here it is somehwere else:

http://video.aol.com/video/music-johnny-ca...orleans/1345862


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## WhoozOn1st

Some may recall a topic called "Rock And Roll Railroad," which covered this subject.

But since it's here again, my fave is "Raw Trash Cannonball." To the tune of Wabash Cannonball, it was written by Alan Scott Glasgow, 1970 or so. Robert Mendelsohn was the San Francisco councilman who came up with the idea.

Well the citizens of Brisbane were getting mighty sore

So San Francisco's garbage was outlawed from their shore

Oh where shall we dump it was the cry from one and all

And thus was created the Raw Trash Cannonball

This train she leaves the depot with the setting of the sun

And makes her way across the bay for the Feather River run

Through Livermore and Stockton, dear god don't let her stall

The smell's terrific on the Western Pacific, the Raw Trash Cannonball

Listen to the rumble, the whistle and the bell

And if by then you're still not sure you can tell her by the smell

The vultures circle overhead while the soaring seagulls squall

So hold your nose as on she goes, the Raw Trash Cannonball

Then on to Lassen County with a thousand tons a day

Near the little town of Herlong, where the garbage will decay

Let the railroad pay the county while the buzzards have a ball

Sing another refrain to that garbage train, the Raw Trash Cannonball

Listen to the rumble, the whistle and the bell

And if by then you're still not sure you can tell her by the smell

Let the vultures circle overhead while the lonesome seaqulls squall

So hold your nose as on she goes, the Raw Trash Cannonball

Here's to Robert Mendelsohn, may his name forever stand

And long be remembered in the dumps throughout the land

When his earthly race is ended, and the curtains 'round him fall

We'll carry him up to Herlong on the Raw Trash Cannonball

There was a contest to name the trash train. Raw Trash Cannonball didn't win, nor did El Crapitan or Excess Express. Don't know what name won, but I'll bet it didn't have a great song like this to go with it.


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## WhoozOn1st

Here's another good one, by the Carter Family. Kind of obscure.

ENGINE 143

Along came the FFV, the swiftest on the line

Running o'er the C&O road, just 20 minutes behind

Running into Seville, headquarters on the line

Receiving their strict orders from the station just behind

Running into Hampton, the engineer was there

George Allen was his name, with curling golden hair

His fireman, Jack Dixon, was standing by his side

Awaiting for strict orders while in the cab to ride

Georgie's mother came to him, a bucket on her arm

Saying "My darling son, be careful how you run

"There's many a man who's lost his life in trying to make lost time

"But if you run your engine right you'll get there just on time"

Mother I know your advice is good, and later I'll take heed

I think my engine is alright, I'm sure that she will speed

O'er this road I need to go, at the rate of a cannonball

And when I blow for the stockyard gate I'm sure they'll hear my call

Across the road she darted, against the rocks she crashed

Upside-down the engine turned, and Georgie's breast was smashed

His head was against the firebox door, the flames were rolling high

"I'm glad I was born for an engineer, on the C&O road to die"

The doctor said to Georgie, My precious boy be still

Your life may yet be saved, if it be god's blessed will

Oh no, said George, that will not do, I want to die so free

I want to die for the engine I love, one hundred and forty-three

The doctor said to Georgie, Your life I cannot save

Murdered upon the railroad, and laid in a lonesome grave

His head was against the firebox door, the flames were rolling free

And the very last words that Georgie said were "Nearer my god to thee"

Raised in a musical family, we often played this song for audiences. The lyrics may have differed from the above, but there was never a dry eye in the house.


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## dan72

In my teen years, I remember the Willie Nelson version of City of New Orleans getting some airtime on the radio. I like both that one and the Gutherie versions.

Being an 80's child, I've been a big fan of the progressive rock group Genesis and on their 1991 _We Can't Dance Album_, they pay tribute to the builders of the British transcontinental line with their song _Driving the Last Spike_. The song is taken from the perspective of a worker going off the help build the railroad, wondering if he will see his family again as there the death toll building this railroad was high. It's a long song at 10:08, but one of their best ones IMHO.

The lyrics for it can be found here:

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/g/genesis/drivi...e_20058881.html

I also found a youtube of a live performance of the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSQLQlq0h_k


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## Meme

Guest said:


> 1st City of New Orleans
> 2nd Johnny Cash "I Hear that Train A'Comin"... prob. not the exact title.



Folsom Prison Blues


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## RailFanLNK

Train, Train by Blackfoot! It doesn't get much better than this song in my opinion!

Al


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## como

Meme said:


> Guest said:
> 
> 
> 
> 1st City of New Orleans
> 2nd Johnny Cash "I Hear that Train A'Comin"... prob. not the exact title.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Folsom Prison Blues
Click to expand...

And, "Hey Porter" also by Johnny Cash


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## mercedeslove

I love "City of New Orleans." It has always held a special part in my heart both good and sad.


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## the_traveler

#1 is probably City of New Orleans. I like Arlo's version best, followed by Johnny Cash's version and Willie Nelson's version the least. I don't remember the other versions.

#2 (taking the easy track :lol: ) is just about any railroad song sung by Johnny Cash!


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## JayPea

Green Maned Lion said:


> My personal favourite is Arlo Guthrie's version of "City of New Orleans".



I couldn't agree more. I've taken the CONO round-trip between Champaign and Chicago several times, and the words

"All along the southbound odyssey

The train pulls out of Kankakee...."

come to my mind every time the train, indeed, pulls out of Kanakee.


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## MStrain

Surely someone else besides me likes Glenn Miller's Chattanooga Choo-Choo??!!

"Dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer......." naturally he was singing about china and white linen service of yore, but the fake flowers in the new Cross Country Cafe are a nice touch.........


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## Bill Haithcoat

MStrain said:


> Surely someone else besides me likes Glenn Miller's Chattanooga Choo-Choo??!!
> "Dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer......." naturally he was singing about china and white linen service of yore, but the fake flowers in the new Cross Country Cafe are a nice touch.........




Sure, me being from Chattanooga. I like that. But my favorite is "On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe".


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## Trainmans daughter

I know I'll get slammed for reviving an old thread, but I just found this on You Tube and loved it. Alison Krauss singing "Steel Rails".


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## RRrich

Trainmans daughter said:


> I know I'll get slammed for reviving an old thread, but I just found this on You Tube and loved it. Alison Krauss singing "Steel Rails".



Thanks for the revive,TD. Reading this thread brought a big smile to my face as I thought of those fine songs.


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## DET63

the_traveler said:


> #1 is probably City of New Orleans. I like Arlo's version best, followed by Johnny Cash's version and Willie Nelson's version the least. I don't remember the other versions.
> 
> #2 (taking the easy track :lol: ) is just about any railroad song sung by Johnny Cash!


If you hear Cash sing a railroading song, even if it's already been popularized by someone else, the song sounds like it was written especially for Johnny.

"Come along and Ride This Train" is also pretty good, even if it's really a medley of songs about truck driving.


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## lthanlon

My favorite railroad song is "Great Big Rollin' Railroad," used as part of the Union Pacific's ad campaign in the 1970s and then in connection with the company's World's Fair exhibit in New Orleans. You can listen to the two versions here.

Working at a Wyoming newspaper at the time, I often spoke with UP's public relations people. One rep told me that the UP had found that although the TV campaign did generate visibility and business for the railroad, the major benefit was that it installed a sense of identity and cohesiveness among employees. During that phone call, he spoke favorably of Burlington Northern's "

."
Despite "Great Big Rollin' Railroad" being a commercial, I always did like the lyrics. I especially like this set from the original version:

From the Great Plains of Nebraska

To the California seas

From the summits of the Rockies

To the mighty redwood trees

We're a thousand wheels of freight train

Hear the diesel engines' power

We're the Union Pacific

Doin' ninety miles an hour


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## Bob Dylan

lthanlon said:


> My favorite railroad song is "Great Big Rollin' Railroad," used as part of the Union Pacific's ad campaign in the 1970s and then in connection with the company's World's Fair exhibit in New Orleans. You can listen to the two versions here.
> 
> Working at a Wyoming newspaper at the time, I often spoke with UP's public relations people. One rep told me that the UP had found that although the TV campaign did generate visibility and business for the railroad, the major benefit was that it installed a sense of identity and cohesiveness among employees. During that phone call, he spoke favorably of Burlington Northern's "


Boy those were the days when Freights Highballed @ 90 and Passenger Trains rolled @ 100!!!! Casey Jones isn't famous cause he had Slow Orders! :lol: Nice lyrics! Theres probably more good Train Songs than any other kind!! :wub:


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## the_traveler

My favorite is "Let the Good Times Roll In the Penthouse Suite"! (Oh wait - that a specially commissioned song for me!




)


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## railiner

I like most of the above mentioned songs. Also such classics as the "Orange Blossom Special", "Rock Island Line", "Casey Jones". Also "Canadian Pacific".

Here's another cover done by Johnny Cash of a song you may not be familiar with, but it grows on you if you watch it a couple of times. The lyrics seem especially poignant for us older railfans...


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## leemell

Besides "CONO" (the Willie nelson version) I love

 by Neil Young.
*"Southern Pacific"*

Down the mountainside

To the coastline

Past the angry tide

The mighty diesel whines.

And the tunnel comes

And the tunnel goes

Round another bend

The giant drivers roll.

I rode the Highball

I fired the Daylight

When I turned sixty-five

I couldn't see right.

It was Mr. Jones,

We've got to let you go

It's company policy

You've got a pension though.

Roll on, Southern Pacific

On your silver rails

On your silver rails

Roll on, Southern Pacific

On your silver rails

Through the moonlight.

I put in my time

I put in my time

Now I'm left to roll

Down the long decline.

I ain't no brake man

Ain't no conductor

But I would be though

If I was younger.

Roll on, Southern Pacific

On your silver rails

On your silver rails

Roll on, Southern Pacific

Roll on, on your silver rails.


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## Blackshirt Husker

I have a preschooler, and so I'd have to say "Engine Roll Call" on Thomas and Friends (although he prefers the "Sounds Song" on the same show).


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## AKA

DET63 said:


> the_traveler said:
> 
> 
> 
> #1 is probably City of New Orleans. I like Arlo's version best, followed by Johnny Cash's version and Willie Nelson's version the least. I don't remember the other versions.
> 
> #2 (taking the easy track :lol: ) is just about any railroad song sung by Johnny Cash!
> 
> 
> 
> If you hear Cash sing a railroading song, even if it's already been popularized by someone else, the song sounds like it was written especially for Johnny.
> 
> "Come along and Ride This Train" is also pretty good, even if it's really a medley of songs about truck driving.
Click to expand...


WOW someone else that knows that album.


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## Dan O

City of New Orleans

Long Train Running by the Doobie Brothers

One after 909 Beatles

Peace Train Cat Stevens

Wasbash Cannonball


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## RRrich

Night they drove ol dixie down	Joan Baez


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## The Davy Crockett

I could swear there was another thread I answered this question in, but I can't find it, so here goes:

Canadian Railroad Trilogy - Gordon Lightfoot

CONY - Arlo Guthrie

I Know You Rider - Traditional - I like the versions by the Seldom Scene or the Grateful Dead best


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## Ozark Southern

How about "Kansas City". There's a line about maybe taking a plane or a train--even walking is acceptable--but no cars are ever mentioned!


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