trivia songs that mention trains/ railways

[secretlondon]

Underworld - Dark Train (from the Trainspotting soundtrack)

 

[Henffordd]

How come no one has yet mentioned the great Duke Ellington - "take the A-train"?

 

[Greenheart]

Across the Border by ELO : I gotta get that southbound train tonight...

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

Suprised no ones mentioned the, albeit tenuous, song of Don't stop Believin' by Journey

Just a small town girl
Livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train going anywhere

Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train going anywhere

Post 22.

 

[Falcon1200]

On the eight twenty one,

Although for many years I thought it was A21, ie road rather than train!

Surprised no-one has mentioned the brilliant prog rock combo Big Big Train, who apart from their name have several rail-related tracks ; Their double album English Electric Full Power includes The First Rebreather (about the building of the Severn Tunnel), The Permanent Way (with a spoken section by John Betjeman) and East Coast Racer (about Mallard). There is also a band photo taken in Eastleigh Works!

 

[Greenheart]

Spanish Train by Chris de Burgh:

There's a Spanish Train that runs between Guadalquivir and old Seville..

 

[Trainguy34]

Post 22.

And this is why I don't normally post at 11pm!

 

[Geswedey]

Jethro Tull
Cheap Day return from Aqualung

On Preston platform
Do your soft shoe shuffle dance
Brush away the cigarette ash
That's falling down your pants

Life's a long song

As the Baker Street train spills your pain
All over your new dress
And the symphony sounds underground
Put you under duress

Well, don't you squeal as the heel
Grinds you under the wheels

Life's a long song
Life's a long song
Life's a long song
But the tune ends too soon for us all

Journeyman from Heavy Horses

Spine-tingling railway sleepers
Sleepy houses lying four-square and firm
Orange beams divide the darkness
Rumbling fit to turn the waking worm
Sliding through Victorian tunnels
Where green moss oozes from the pores
Dull echoes from the wet embankments
Battlefield allotments, fresh open sores

[Verse 2]
In late night commuter madness
Double-locked black briefcase on the floor
Like a faithful dog with master
Sleeping in the draught beside the carriage door
To each Journeyman his own homecoming
Cold supper nearing with each station stop
Frosty flakes on empty platforms
Fireside slippers waiting, flip, flop

[Chorus]
Journeyman night-tripping on the late fantastic
Too late to stop for tea at Gerard's Cross
And hear the soft shoes on the footbridge shuffle
As the wheels turn, biting on the midnight frost



[Verse 3]
On the late commuter special
Carriage lights that flicker, fade and die
Howling into hollow blackness
Dusky diesel shudders in full cry
Down redundant morning papers
Abandon crosswords with a cough
Stationmaster in his wisdom
Told the guard to turn the heating off

[Chorus]
Journeyman night-tripping on the late fantastic
Too late to stop for tea at Gerard's Cross
And hear the soft shoes on the footbridge shuffle
As the wheels turn, biting on the midnight frost

Inverness sleeper

Wide awake down at Euston Station
For the 8.50 train to get me out of here
Can you feel the beat of those engines humming
Can you hear the howl
As the long black night appears?
Inverness sleeper
I lay with you till dawn
THE FIREMAN'S SONG
(D. Bilston)

Whenever you see a train go by,
Or hear an engine's whistle cry,
Think of the man on the old footplate
Shovelling coal, the drivers mate.

cho: A loco fireman is me grade,
Boiling water is me trade,
The driver thinks he runs the show,
But if I'm not there the train won't go.

Heaving coal for a hungry fire,
Sweating cobs to get steam higher,
Of the colliers harvest that I burn,
With toil and sweat, me wages earn

The driver sits there like a god,
A decent mate but an idle sod.
Though I'll be shovelling on me knees
Still he'll sit there at his ease.

The pick and shovel are tools of me trade
And two strong arms to swing the blade,
Hands with palms as hard as leather,
And nimble feet as light as a feather

One day a driver I will be,
Of the pick and shovel I'll be free,
Until that day I'll shift the coal,
Raising stream so the train can roll.

 

[norbitonflyer]

The Ballad of Casey Jones

 

[Rover]

Last Train to London - ELO on the "Discovery" album

 

[Henffordd]

Chattanooga Choo-Choo - nicely used by Mel Brooks in Young Frankenstein - "pardon me, boy, is this the Transylvania station?"

 

[Acey]

Graffiti on the Train-Stereophonics

 

[Gloster]

The commemorative blue plaque on the wall of the station building is at Widnes.

It amuses me that, in typical ‘small’ town style, they were so keen to get a plaque on their staton/in their town that they ignored most of what was known at the time. Simon did a gig in Widnes and was then driven by the promototer/club owner to a station to get a train back to London. Warrington Bank Quay (the one Simon remembers it as being), Runcorn and even Ditton Junction were more likely. But, hey, let’s celebrate something with a plaque…

 

[McRhu]

Albert Hammond. Free Electric Train (or was it "I'm a Train").

 

[Ashley Hill]

I’m not sure who Vieon are but their song InterCity popped up on my YouTube suggestions. Excellent tune and a video that uses BTF film stock of 1970s HSTs. It even features a Valenta sample at the start!

 

[D6130]

Dirty Old Town by Ewan MacColl:
'I saw a train set the night on fire'.

Numerous railway-related songs by Dave Goulder.

A niche West Yorkshire railway song by Otley-based folk singer Dave Vermond:

'The old 333'. (watch/listen on YouTube).

Not, strictly speaking a song, but a contemporary Scottish pipe tune:

'Steam Train to Mallaig'

 

[Ashley Hill]

Or if you fancy something creepy here is a video someone has posted on YouTube featuring Jimmy Saville (thankfully only in sound). It’s samples of the This is the Age of The Train. It’s quite awful.

 

[Gloster]

Freight Train by Helen & the Horns.
Freight Train by lots of artists as there at least three different songs with this title.

 

[D6130]

Numerous rail-related songs - mainly involving hobos - by Woody Guthrie and his son Arlo.

 

[Hellzapoppin]

Mean old train. Papa Lightfoot.
Great blues bopper. If you're in to blues boppin of course.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Back in the 1950s, I remember an American song something like "The railroad runs through the middle of the house".

 

[Gloster]

Back in the 1950s, I remember an American song something like "The railroad runs through the middle of the house".

In the Middle of the House was an American novelty song released there and here in 1956. There were three UK versions, all of which were in the charts in November 1956; one was by Alma Cogan.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

In the 1960s, there was a Trinidadian calypso called "Last Train to San Fernando" that was sung by Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys.

The folk group The Oldham Tinkers put a tune to a poem that was written by Stanley Accrington, called "The Last Train to Dobcross". I think there might still be a YouTube of them singing it at an event at the Greaves Leisure Centre in Oldham

 

[D6130]

Back in the 1970s, Ashton-under-Lyne based folk group 'The Fivepenny Piece' recorded a song called 'Stalybridge Station '.

 

[ThirteenArches]

Couple of obvious ones seem to have been missed:

Are Ye Right There Michael? (Percy French)
Freight Train (run so fast) (Elizabeth Cotten)

 

[Magdalia]

Freight Train (run so fast) (Elizabeth Cotten)

I remember the Nancy Whiskey cover of this, it was a favourite of my parents. Until now I didn't know that the song was composed a long time before that.

 

[Leon Tallis]

Willie Nelson’s cover of ‘City of New Orleans’ is my favourite.

 

[nr758123]

Back in the 1970s, Ashton-under-Lyne based folk group 'The Fivepenny Piece' recorded a song called 'Stalybridge Station '.

A Mossley-based punk band called Cabbage also did a song about the railways of the area. I'm not quite sure what the opposite of a eulogy is, but "A Network Betrayal", dating from 2017, is the opposite of a eulogy to the Manchester-Huddersfield stopping service passing through Stalybridge and Mossley.

“Well, well welcome to those who joined us in Stalybridge today
Please have all tickets and travel documents ready for inspection”

I had thought this was a bit too obscure, but Cabbage have their own wikipedia entry so maybe not.

 

[AY1975]

Down in the Tube station at Midnight - The Jam

There was a song from a 1970s children's TV show (can't remember which one, think it may have been Camberwick Green although that was on in 1966 according to Wikipedia) that went something like: "Time flies by as I'm waiting for my train, all the little people waiting at the station, waiting for a train to their destination".

 

[Ashley Hill]

Down in the Tube station at Midnight - The Jam

There was a song from a 1970s children's TV show (can't remember which one, think it may have been Camberwick Green although that was on in 1966 according to Wikipedia) that went something like: "Time flies by as I'm waiting for my train, all the little people waiting at the station, waiting for a train to their destination".

The show was Chigley. Half Man Half Biscuit did their own version of it too.
The urban punk band Eastfield have also recorded many railway themed songs such as Port Talbot Transport Police and 47002 amongst others.