Train Song Lyrics

[TrainClown]

I just love a good train song, so I thought I would start this thread. Do you have a favorite train song? Go ahead and post the lyrics here.

City of New Orleans....... lyrics by Arlo Guthrie in 1970

Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail.
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
All along the southbound Odyssey,
the train pulls out of Kankakee,
rollin' along past houses, farms and fields.
Passin' towns that have no name,
freight yards full of old black men,
and the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.
Good morning, America. How are you?
Don't you know me, I'm your native son.
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
and I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car
Penny a point, no one keepin' score.
Pass the paper bag, that holds the bottle.
You can feel the wheels, rumblin' 'neath the floor.
And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers
Ride their Father's magic carpet made of steel,
Mothers sing their babes to sleep
rocking to the gentle beat
and the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.
Good morning, America ...
Night time on the City of New Orleans,
changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.
Half way home and we'll be there by morning,
through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea.
But all the towns and people seem
to fade into a bad dream,
the steel rail still ain't heard the news.
The conductor sings his song again,
the passengers will please refrain.
This train's got the disappearin' railroad blues.
Good night, America ...

 

[TrainClown]

Here is another. In honor of the man in black.

Johnny Cash

Folsom Prison Blues

I hear the train a comin´it´s rolling round the bend
and I ain´t seen the sunshine since I don´t know when,
I´m stuck in Folsom prison, and time keeps draggin´ on
but that train keeps a rollin´ on down to San Anton..
When I was just a baby my mama told me. Son,
always be a good boy, don´t ever play with guns.
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
now every time I hear that whistle I hang my head and cry..
I bet there´s rich folks eating in a fancy dining car
they´re probally drinkin´ coffee and smoking big cigars.
Well I know I had it coming, I know I can´t be free
but those people keep a movin´
and that´s what tortures me...
Well if they´d free me from this prison,
if that railroad train was mine
I bet I´d move just a little further down the line
far from Folsom prison, that's where I want to stay
and I´d let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away.....

 

[mhdishere]

C.W. McCall did a bunch of train songs, including a re-do of the City of New Orleans. For those of you who don't know, C.W. McCall was they guy who sang "Convoy" back in the 70's.

He had one song about the Gallopin' Goose:

On a cold November mornin'
Back in nineteen-thirty-seven
With an early snow a-fallin'
On the three-foot tracks at Ames
Came a mighty strange contraption
Known to trainmen as a motor
But to folks in Colorado
She was known by another name

Up the canyons south of Sawpit
Past the red Cathedral spires
'Cross the yellow mountain switchbacks
And the rapids far below
On the high and lofty trestles
Near the fabled mines of Ophir
In the silver San Juan Mountains
Came a goose a-plowin' snow

[Chorus]
With a Pierce-Arrow engine,
Runnin' hot and on the loose
Came the Rio Grande Southern
The Gallopin' Goose
With a Pierce-Arrow engine
Runnin' hot and on the loose
Came Number Five, The Gallopin' Goose

'Twas a four-door auto-mobile
On a dozen wheels of iron
Sixteen feet of rockin' boxcar
Spot-welded to her tail
Loaded down with mercantile
Ten bags a' high-grade ore
Two mothers nursin' babies
Seven miners an' the mail

Up the side a' Sunshine Mountain
By internal gas combustion
Eight Pierce-Arrow pistons pullin'
Fifteen thousand pounds a' lead
At the snowshed on the summit
The conductor said his prayers
He'd acquired a busted driveshaft
On the pass at Lizard Head

[Chorus]
With a Pierce-Arrow engine
Runnin' hot and on the loose
Came the Rio Grande Southern
The Gallopin' Goose
With a Pierce-Arrow engine
Runnin' hot and on the loose
Came Number Five, The Gallopin' Goose

[Musical interlude here.]

Down the three-percent to Rico
In the valley of Dolores
They still talk about the Southern
An' her flock of flyin' geese
From the roundhouse at Ridgway
To the depot at Durango
All the tracks are gone for scrap iron
And the ganders rest in peace

Up the canyons south of Sawpit
Past the red Cathedral spires
'Cross the yellow mountain switchbacks
And the rapids far below
On the high and lofty trestles
Near the fabled mines of Ophir
In the silver San Juan Mountains
There's a legend in the snow

[Chorus]
With a Pierce-Arrow engine
Runnin' hot and on the loose
Came the Rio Grande Southern
The Gallopin' Goose
With a Pierce-Arrow engine
Runnin' hot and on the loose
Came Number Five, The Gallopin' Goose

 

[Vic]

Wreck of Old 97

There are a number of variations on this one.

The Wreck of Old 97

Verse 1.
Well they gave him his orders
At Monroe, Virgina
Saying "Steve you're way behind time.
This is not the thirty-eight
But its Old Ninety-Seven.
You must put her into Spencer on time.

Verse 2.
He turned around
To his fireman Black Billy
Said "Shovel in a little more coal."
And when we cross
That wide and distant mountain
We gonna watch Old Ninety-Seven roll.

Verse 3.
Its a mighty rough road
From Lynchburg to Danville
And its lined on a three mile grade.
It was on that grade
That he lost his airbrakes
Lord! See what a jump he made.

Verse 4.
He came flyin' down the grade
Making ninety miles an hour
When his whistle broke into a scream.
Oh they found him in the cab
With his hand on the throttle
He was scalded to death by the steam.

Verse 5.
Well there came a telegram
Into Washington Station
And this is how it read
That brave you engineer
That drove old Ninety-Seven
Is laying in Danville dead.

Verse 6.
Now all you Young Ladies
Better heed and take warning
From this time now and learn
Don't speak harsh words
To your true lovin' husband.
He may leave you and never return

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Willie Nelson, sorry all I remember is the chorus

She's a railroad lady
just a little bit shady
spending her days on the train

Once a pullman car traveler
now the switchman won't have her
and she's just trying, just trying
to get home again

Yeah I know, cruel. But blame Willie and TC, not me

 

[TR-Flyer]

Hi guys:

We had a discussion about songs awhile back. Check this link: http://www.the-gauge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4097&highlight=train+songs

for some other tunes.

Regards,
Ted

 

[ezdays]

Originally posted by TR-Flyer
Hi guys:

We had a discussion about songs awhile back. Check this link: http://www.the-gauge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4097&highlight=train+songs

for some other tunes.

Regards,
Ted

Ted,

Yeah, I missed that thread, just about a month before I came on board. So to add to the list, here is one of my favorits by a popular but long gone, Patsy Cline:

LIFE'S RAILWAY TO HEVEN

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, and tunnels
Never falter, never fail
Keep your hand upon the throttle
And your eyes upon the rail

Blessed Savior, Thou will guide us
Till we reach that blissful shore
Where the angels wait to join us
In that great forevermore

The Grand Canyon Railroad uses it in their TV ads. Kinda chokes ya up every time they run it.

Don

 

[jim currie]

Tyson that song was called railroad lady

here is one of mine by Leadbelly
The Midnight Special
chorus
let the midnight special shine its light on
me let the midnight special
shine its ever loving light on me

yonder comes my woman,how do you know?
I can tell her by her apron and by the dress she wore.
umbrella on her shoulder, piece of paper in her hand,
goin' down to the captain,says,i want my man.

chorus

when you go to houston, you better act right,
you better not gamble, and you better not fight.
or the sheriff will arrest you, and he'll carry you down,
you can bet your bottom dollar, your jailhouse bound

chorus

 

[MCL_RDG]

One hit wonders!!!

Here's a few lyrics I penned quite early in my youth, when I was undiluted by today's standards-
(and playing in a punk band, I think I have a recording of it somewhere in the vault.)

A Train
Words and music by Mark R.
Copyright 1972

Ya better not ride the A train alone.
You might not make it home.

They'll have to pick you uP,
Put you on a gurney.
Strap you down for a cross town journey.

Ya better not take the A train alone.
You might not make it home.

Thank you, thank you, please ladies and gentlemen- no applause~~~~~~~~~~ Throw money!!!

Mark

 

[TR-Flyer]

Hi again:
Tyson, The song Railroad Lady was written by Jimmy Buffet and Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy recorded it on his "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean" album.

Doesn't have any lyrics but Pat Metheny's "Last Train Home" is one that i connect with emotionally. Don't know why, must be that long lonesome sound.

Always liked the lyrics, especially as they fit into the concept album so well, of Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull. Won't print them here but you can find them at: http://www.cupofwonder.com/aqualung.html#LocomotiveBreath

Music has that full throttle almost out of control feel to it that the song demands.

A friend of mine pulled together 11 CDs of train songs for me, yeah, that's right, 11, and my wife had already pulled together 2 for me to listen to when i'm travelling to train shows. It's amazing how deeply into our culture trains had embedded themselves prior to the electronic/airplane age.

Regards,
Ted

 

[brakie]

Here is a song that I like.Its called The Pan American and has been sung by many artist.

I have heard your stories about your fast trains
But now I'll tell you 'bout one all the southern folks have seen
She's the beauty of the southland, listen to that whistle scream
It's that Pan American on her way to New Orleans

(Chorus)
She leaves Cincinnati heading down that Dixie line
When she passes the Nashville tower, you can hear that whistle whine
Stick your head right out of the window and feel that southern breeze
You're on that Pan American on her way to New Orleans

If you're ever in the southland, and want to see the scenes
Just get yourself a ticket on that Pan American Queen
There's Louisville, Nashville, Montgomery, the capital of Alabam'
You right pass thru them all when you're New Orleans bound

(Repeat chorus)

You're on that Pan American on her way to New Orleans

 

[brakie]

Of course my one of my all time favorite train songs sung by Hank Snow
Board!

That big eight-wheeler rollin' down the track
Means your true-lovin' daddy ain't comin' back
'Cause I'm movin' on, I'll soon be gone
You were flyin' too high, for my little old sky
So I'm movin' on

That big loud whistle as it blew and blew
Said hello to the southland, we're comin' to you
When we're movin' on, oh hear my song
You had the laugh on me, so I've set you free
And I'm movin' on

Mister fireman won't you please listen to me
'Cause I got a pretty mama in Tennessee
Keep movin' me on, keep rollin' on
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll
And keep movin' me on

Mister Engineer, take that throttle in hand
This rattler's the fastest in the southern land
To keep movin' me on, keep rollin' on
You gonna ease my mind, put me there on time
And keep rollin' on

I've told you baby, from time to time
But you just wouldn't listen or pay me no mind
Now I'm movin' on, I'm rollin' on
You've broken your vow, and it's all over now
So I'm movin' on

You've switched your engine now I ain't got time
For a triflin' woman on my main line
Cause I'm movin on, you done your daddy wrong
I warned you twice, now you can settle the price
'Cause I'm movin on

But someday baby when you've had your play
You're gonna want your daddy but your daddy will say
Keep movin' on, you stayed away too long
I'm through with you, too bad you're blue
Keep movin' on

 

[zeeglen]

A folksinger/songwriter friend of ours is setting this poem (about a young girl who saved a passenger train) to music - really looking forward to hearing him perform this when he is finished. He is mainly into traditional Celtic and Sea Shanties, but is starting to add train songs to his repertoire. -glen

from http://www.millermicro.com/poems.html

This story is true; Kate Shelley was "The Iowa Heroine" who crawled across the Des Moines River Bridge in 1881 to save a Chicago and North Western passenger train. But she was nearly forgotten when a young reporter, not yet known as one of America's great authors, wrote this tribute in 1930. This poem does not appear in MacKinlay Kantor's poetry collection, "Turkey In The Straw", and it isn't even listed by the U.S. Library of Congress. I am indebted to Charles Irwin of the Boone County Historical Society in Boone, Iowa for providing an old, typed copy, and am pleased to share it with you.

You can read more about Kate Shelley at:
http://www.desmoinesriver.org/kshelley.html
http://wbaxter1.tripod.com/sirwebsolotswebsite/id11.html
http://www.uiowa.edu/~humiowa/rd10-1.htm
http://showcase.netins.net/web/bikebarn/rail/kate_shelley.html
http://www.atmos.ucla.edu/~cwhung/kate.html




THE BALLAD OF KATE SHELLEY
by MacKinlay Kantor (1930)


The rails that run by Honey Creek are eaten up with rust,
And no one walks the greasy bed hid in the roses' dust;
But yet at night a slender ghost may stalk the quiet sky--
And bats will shiver as they see Kate Shelley going by.

Kate Shelley from a quiet house, Kate Shelley in the storm...
She took a lantern in her hand to keep her spirit warm;
The clouds came up and thundered haste and Honey Creek was foam;
The waters laughed with blackened breath below Kate Shelley's home.

"O daughter, go you to the door, I hear a whistle call,
Crying within the valley dark that shadows over all.
Your father was a section man; you are the seed he sowed..
So listen, listen in the storm and guard the iron road."

Her father was a section man; she knew the mighty wheels
That ground along the bottom land amid the tempest's heels.
She listened in the howling dark--and heard a sundered scream,
When ninety tons of steel went down into the boiling stream.

"My father was a section man--he reared me for the road.."
She climbed the gashed and sullen grade while oaken saplings bowed;
She prayed to gods of spade and pick, she prayed to tie and rail...
The river bridge was like a priest in rainy vestments pale.

The midnight coaches from the west plunged in the dripping rain;
West of Moingona ties were sound--east was a broken train.
(East in the bile of Honey Creek in one drowned, twisting curl,
Lay ninety tons of twisted steel.) Between them was a girl.

Under the river bridge was death--black fathoms frothing down.
Beyond Moingona sang the train on to a lonely town;
The engineer swayed in his cab, he could not see ahead;
"Two hours more...I leave the run and get me home to bed."

Two hours more...The whistle whined shrill in the driven rain,
Two hours more...(A broken span, a ghost where there was a train).
Across the river bridge a girl came creeping on the ties;
The wind wiped out her lantern flame, but still she had her eyes.



And still she had her Irish soul, and still she had her heart!
The spikes cut furrows in her skin and tore her flesh apart,
Two yards beneath, the river's tongue clove at the shaking span...
A wraith beside her urged her on: "I was a section man..."

Down in a pocket of the hills Moingona hid its head--
And men with muscles pillowed down, slumbering as the dead,
One light shone thinly through the night under the battled din,
A bleeding hand clutched the door--a torn shape staggered in.

No song of thanks, no valiant yell: "God! and the train is saved!"
None but wheels which tightened down when crimson lanterns waved;
Nothing but brandy held to lips by someone of the crew...
"I'll ride the cab," she said, "and show just where the boys went through."

She rode the cab and guided them. (The anxious whistle bawled.)
She rode in torn and bloody rags the ties where she had crawled.
And if the station mice were there they saw the sundered heap,
And watched the rescue party toil before Kate went to sleep.

And nine and forty years are gone; the trains no longer come
Along the crest of Honey Creek before Kate Shelley's home.
Oh, there were songs for other years when all the road was hers--
And there were men to bless her name, and gold to fill her purse.

But if you go to Honey Creek in some dark summer storm,
Be sure you take a lantern flame to keep your spirit warm,
For there will be a phantom train, and foggy whistle cries--
And in the lightning flare you'll see Kate Shelley on the ties.

 

[zeeglen]

And, of course, Harry Chapin's "Cory's Coming"

"Old John Joseph
Was a man with two first names.
But they left him in the railroad yard when they took away the trains.

Now only one run a week
Comes roaring down that line,
So all he's got to worry 'bout is time." ...


And Jimmy Rankin's (The Rankin Family / The Rankins) "Orangedale Whistle"

"The station master looked all around
Along the track both up and down
But the train could not be found,
for there was neither sight nor sound..."

 

[zeeglen]

Does anyone recognize this one?

A few years ago this tune was played on a local radio station, i heard it only once. It was one of what a local C&W radio station called a 'mandatory train tune' - whenever the DJ looked out of his studio window and saw a train on the nearby grade crossing, he played a train tune. Usually when hearing these train tunes i was on my way home from work waiting at a different crossing for the same train!

Anyway, it was a female vocalist singing a very pleasant yet sad blues song, part of the chorus went like this -

"I'm going down to the railroad yard,
to watch them lonely boxcars roll."

If anyone recognizes this, would like to know who sang it and the name. can't find anything with an internet search. thanks.

 

[zeeglen]

Originally posted by jim currie

let the midnight special shine its light on
me let the midnight special
shine its ever loving light on me

1st verse (if i remember right)

Oh you wake up in the morning boy,
And there's no Pork-up in the pan,
But you'd better not complain boy,
Or you'll get in trouble with the man..

 

[brakie]

You mean this for the Midnight Special as the first verse?

Well, you wake up in the mornin', you hear the work bell ring,
And they march you to the table to see the same old thing.
Ain't no food upon the table, and no pork up in the pan.
But you better not complain, boy, you get in trouble with the man.

CHORUS:
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me,
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me,
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me,
Let the Midnight Special shine a everlovin' light on me.

 

[zeeglen]

Thats it! Been a lonnnnng time....

 

[N Gauger]

The Silverton

Lyrics for "The Silverton" -- C.W. McCall

She was born one mornin' on a San Juan summer
Back in eighteen an' eighty an' one
She was a beautiful daughter of the D & RG
And she weighed about a thousand tons
Well it's a fourty five miles through the Animas Canyon
So they set her on the narrow gauge
She drank a whole lotta water, and she ate a lotta coal
And they called her The Silverton (Silverton train)

Here comes The Silverton up from Durango
Here comes The Silverton, a shovelin' coal
Here comes The Silverton up from the canyon
See the smoke, and hear the whistle blow

Well now listen to the whistle in the Rockwood Cut
On the Highline to Silverton town
An' yer gonna git a shiver, when ya check out the river
Which is four hunderd feet straight down!
Take on some water at the Needleton tank
And then ya struggle up a two-five grade
And by the time ya git yer hide passed the Snowshed Slide
Ya had a ride on The Silverton (Silverton train)

Here comes The Silverton up from Durango
Here comes The Silverton, a shovelin' coal
Here comes The Silverton up from the canyon
See the smoke, and hear the whistle blow

Now down by the station, early in the mornin'
There's a whole lotta people in line
An' they all got a ticket on the train to yesterday
An' it's a gonna leave on time
Well it's a fourty five miles through the Animas Canyon
So they set her on the narrow gauge
She drinks a whole lotta water, and she eats a lotta coal
And they call her The Silverton (Silverton train)

Here comes The Silverton up from Durango
Here comes The Silverton, a shovelin' coal
Here comes The Silverton up from the canyon
See the smoke, and hear the whistle blow

{Reapeat Chorus}

 

[jim currie]

Originally posted by brakie
Of course my one of my all time favorite train songs sung by Hank Snow
Board!
Brakie
here is another Hank Snow i like called That same old dotted line
words were taken off old vinyl think they right some were hard .

it's a friendly looking freight train that's a moving down the tracks and once again another town is looking at my back,
and another kind of woman cries begging me to stay thats a game i'm never gona play.
she calles it love but it's that same old dotted line.

i know the roll of a boxcar and the smell of george pines
the hunger of a prison cell with a woman on your mind.
and the way this world can treat you cold if you don't belong,
all high and mighty telling you that your wrong,
just because you do not sign that same old dotted line.

they say some day i'll have to pay the bill, but if it's on a dotted line i swear i never will.
now a man can live on easy street if he'll just close his eyes,
learn the art of moving on instead of telling lies,
well half a truth is still a lie no matter how it's told
you can be a menber of the fold.
all you got to do is sign that same old dotted line.

oh the preachers or the teachers and the mothers of this land,
they would like to mold and shape you and help you be a man
making plans and growing roots laying money by
and you may never live before you die.
once they got your name upon that same old dotted line.

they say some day i'll have to pay the bill but if it's on a dotted line i swear i never will.
so take your leave in passing and if you think i'm wrong
don't try to sell me anything i only need a song,
and let me have the feel of life the laughter and the tears and when i die i'll know that i was here.
just don't say i'm gona sign that same old dotted line
just don't say i'm gona sign that same old dotted line