trivia songs that mention trains/ railways

[Weary Walker]

From an Essex group, "The Onion Band" we have their self penned song "Change at Thorpe-le-Soken"

Ralph McTell wrote and performs "The Brighton Belle" about his grandfather who was a driver on the said train.

The Oysterband recorded "Euston Station"

Singer-songwriter Cyril Tawney had a song bemoaning how badly Plymouth was treated by London, British rail etc.
"Second-class citizen", the lyrics include: "We're not worth a Pullman, just ask British Rail"
And a verse starting
"I go up to London for the job that I do.
Not just on weekdays but Saturdays too
And that's where the ten shilling levy comes in
You're a holiday maker they say with a grin"

 

[weepingwillowb]

Two by Savoy Brown - Train To Nowhere and Hellbound Train.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Cosher Bailey's Engine by Ewen McColl.

 

[43096]

The band Blyth Power took their title from the Class 56 name. One of their songs is "Signalman White".

 

[Trackman]

Madness - (Waiting for the) Ghost Train.
I rt

Per Shop Boys’ Rent video has some shots at Kings Cross:

And West End Girls at Waterloo.
Also, it had the line:

"From Lake Geneva to the Finland Station" refers to the train route taken by Vladimir Lenin when he was smuggled by the Germans to Russia during the World War I, a pivotal event in the Russian Revolution

 

[Gloster]

The Last Man at Largin a briliant Cornish folk song commemorates the Largin box.

A Youtube link to a performance. I first heard this on a CD of Cornish folk songs about 15 years ago. Sadly the CD became defective and I was quite pleased to find a performace on Youtube.

A certain amount of artistic licence there: all you could see from the box other than the railway installations was trees and rhododendron bushes. It was said that half the signalmen talked to the trees and the other half to themselves: that never worried me as I have been talking to myself for years.

 

[Calthrop]

A to me, glorious American song -- country-and-western kind of stuff -- Milwaukee Blues.

One Tuesday morning and it looked like rain,
Around the curve came a passenger train;
On the lineside sat old Bill Jones --
He's a good old hobo and he's trying to get home.

[Chorus, after every four lines -- reprise re fourth line: as --
Trying to get home, trying to get home --
He's a good old hobo and he's trying to get home.]

Way down in Georgia on the tramp,
Roads getting muddy and the leaves get damp;
Gotta get a freight train to leave this town --
They don't allow no hobos hanging around.

Left Atlanta one morning before day;
The brakeman said, you gotta pay --
Got no money, but I'll pawn my shoes:
I gotta go west, I got the Milwaukee blues.

Now Jay Gould's daughter said before she died:
Daddy, fix the blinds so the bums cain't ride --
If ride they must, let them ride the rods;
Put all their trust in the hands of God.

Casey Jones said before he died,
Well, there's two more roads I'd like to try --
Fireman said: what can they be?
Oh, the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe.

(This verse can be adapted ad infinitum, to suit the audience / locality. I like the Isle of Wight version --
Fireman said: what can they be, then?
Oh, the Isle of Wight Central and the F.Y.N. )

Old Bill Jones said, before I die,
There's two more drinks I'd like to try --
Fireman said: what can they be?
Oh, a cold drink of water, and a cup of tea.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The Runaway Train....the 1949 version by Vernon Dalhart.

 

[Weary Walker]

From the musicals:
Many of the songs from the various versions of Starlight Express

From Cats; "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat"

From Guys and Dolls; "Adelaide's Lament"
When they get on that train to Niagara
And she can hear church bells chime
The compartment is air conditioned
And the mood sublime
From Forty Second Street; "Shuffle off to Buffalo"
To Niag'ra in a sleeper,
There's no honeymoon that's cheaper,
And the train goes slow.

 

[weepingwillowb]

Chicken Shack - When The Train Comes Back

 

[D1537]

Some songs by the mighty Half Man Half Biscuit...

Frequent Electric Trains takes its name from the sign on the hydraulic lift tower at Hamilton Square station, in songwriter Nigel Blackwell's native Birkenhead.
The Coroner's Footnote tells the tale of a suicide under a train, and the last couplet is "It’s a pity he didn’t spare a thought for / the poor b****** driving the train"
National S***e Day contains the lyric "I finally managed to reach the station only to find that the bus replacement service had broken down / after wondering to myself whether or not it should actually be called a train replacement service"
Time Flies By (When You’re A Driver Of A Train) is a mickey-take of the song of the same name from the children's TV programme "Chigley".

​

 

[Merthyr Imp]

Along with the well-known 'Excerpt From a Teenage Opera' there was another song from it also sung by Keith West called 'Sam':

Sam had a nice profession
Well it was really more an obsession
He didn't have a single possession
Just affection for a steam machine
Its simply Green-- her name is Glory
The village folks they often wonder
Where Glory gets her fire and thunder
Magic things Sam must conjure
Museum on the Rails--
A legend of Old Tales--Glory

("Everybody on the train")
They climb aboard, wipe their feet
Would you kindly take your seats
Sam pulls a cord
And a whistle is absorbed
Sam calls to ev'ryone
"Let's have fun--This could be our last run!"
He didn't know how right he was
A shock for him was in the post--now!
A letter headed Railway Company
Found its way to his house on Monday
Read: 'Your route is uneconomical
Very sorry, we got to be logical
And when the month ends
Glory is redundant'.

Then a strange sound in the night
Made the people wake with fright
A Green Machine with a yellow light
With Sam on top--steams out of sight
Leaving behind puzzled minds
*
Penny: Where is he off to?
Keith: He doesn't really know.
Penny: Is he angry?
Keith: No, just very, very upset.
Penny: Will he come back?
Keith: We'll have to wait and see.
*

Dear old Sam we miss you so
We wish you would come back
All we want for Christmas
Is old Sam in Santa's sack [...]
(repeat, repeat)

 

[Sultan1056]

I don't think we've had anything from The Beatles yet (and I had to look this up)

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ("Picture yourself on a train in a station")

Then there's also 'Ticket to Ryde' -

but maybe that is actually about Hovercraft travel

Another one from the Beatles:
One After The 909

 

[Weary Walker]

Gordon Lightfoot: Canadian Railroad Trilogy

John Townsend: Rick Rack
Rick rack, rickety rack, see the train coming down the track
When I grow up I'll be an engine driver
If I can't do that I'll be a deep sea diver

Show of Hands: The Train

Richard Thompson: Train Don't Leave

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Off the top of my head from my own collection:

Steamhammer - Riding on the L & N.....written by Hampton/Burley, a blues classic also covered by John Mayall, Dr Feelgood and 9 Inch Nails
- Hold that Train

Jonathan Kelly Great Northern Railroad (mentions the final years of steam on the GNR(I)

 

[westernpunk]

love train the o jays
Love train holly johnson

Train in vain the clash

 

[Merle Haggard]

A case when a railway song influenced the railway.

In 'Chattanooga Choo - Choo' the narrator was directed to 'Track 29' for the eponymous train.

The Parcels Sector introduced a new service, the details of which I have forgotten, called 'Track 29' in 'tribute' and had dedicated sales reps (who routinely borrowed our office phone and probably got sick of us humming the tune when they walked in...).

 

[Trackman]

Another one from the Beatles:
One After The 909

How about 'Back in the USSR' was it about HS4000 Kestrel?

 

[AY1975]

Another song that I don't think has been mentioned is The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News:

"You don't need money, don't take fame,
Don't need no credit card to ride this train."

 

[Rescars]

A case when a railway song influenced the railway.

In 'Chattanooga Choo - Choo' the narrator was directed to 'Track 29' for the eponymous train.

The Parcels Sector introduced a new service, the details of which I have forgotten, called 'Track 29' in 'tribute' and had dedicated sales reps (who routinely borrowed our office phone and probably got sick of us humming the tune when they walked in...).

The Ballad of Casey Jones

When Travellers Fare went into the fast food burger business, the outlets were branded Casey Jones. IIRC, the Big Caseys were rather good!

 

[MadMac]

Mule Train by Frankie Vaughan.

Frankie Laine, methinks?

City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie
City to City - Gerry Rafferty
Down In the Tube Station At Midnight - The Jam
Tons of Steel - Grateful Dead
Midnight Flyer - The Eagles
Last Train to Clarksville - The Monkees
Banks of the Ponchartrain - Nanci Griffith

Also Grateful Dead’s “Casey Jones”.

 

[Merle Haggard]

When Travellers Fare went into the fast food burger business, the outlets were branded Casey Jones. IIRC, the Big Caseys were rather good!

And I remember, travelling on a train leaving Euston, overhearing another passenger being critical of Casey Jones 'yet another American burger company, they're everywhere"

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Frankie Laine, methinks?

Oh dear, it was the other Frankie that I mentioned who I remember singing about "The Green Door" so very many years ago.....

 

[Rescars]

And I remember, travelling on a train leaving Euston, overhearing another passenger being critical of Casey Jones 'yet another American burger company, they're everywhere"

Imitation as always being the sincerest form of flattery! Portion of SNCF fries, anyone?

 

[Mr. SW]

Duffy: Warwick Avenue.

What about

Bachiana Brasileira - Villa-Lobos, The Little Train of Caipira

More Classical...

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/vcydvs/compositions_about_trains/

 

[Weary Walker]

Touchstone wrote and recorded "Calamity at Wivelsfield" about the train crash of 1899

From trad the song Paddy Works on the Railway
"I was wearing corduroy britches, digging ditches.
Pulling switches, dodging hitches,
I was working on the railway."

 

[Railcar]

M.T.A. by The Kingston Trio. In Boston, Mass.,Charlie boardds the train, but he hasn't got a nickel for the exit fare and has to stay on the train. Every day his wife hands him a sandwich as the train goes rumbling through.
The idea of an 'exit fare' sounds equivalent to 'tapping out' using sn Oyster Card in TfL-land

 

[John Luxton]

Has anyone mentioned Dinah won't you blow / I've been working on the Railroad?

I have a version of this on CD somewhere from the Holman Climax Male Voice Choir of Cornwall.

I've Been Working on the Railroad - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[MadMac]

The late, great Ronnie James Dio had one called “Evil on Queen Street”: history has not recorded if it’s Glasgow or Cardiff…..

 

[westernpunk]

The late, great Ronnie James Dio had one called “Evil on Queen Street”: history has not recorded if it’s Glasgow or Cardiff

dont think these have been mentioned
Sugarbabes overload

Train comes, I don't know its destination
It's a one-way ticket to a madman's situation
Train comes, I don't know its destination
It's a one-way ticket to a madman's situation

The bangles manic monday

Have to catch an early train
Got to be to work by nine
And if I had an aeroplane
I still couldn't make it on time

'Cause it takes me so long (Oh, oh)
Just to figure out what I'm gonna wear
Blame it on the train
But the boss is already there

David bowie where are we now

Had to get the train
From Potsdamer Platz
You never knew that
That I could do that
Just walking the dead