trivia songs that mention trains/ railways

[Greenheart]

Another one from The Monkees: What I am doing hangin round

 

[43096]

REM - Driver 8. There’s some great footage of various Chessie System traction in the video, too.

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

 

[Gomper]

Love in vain by Robert Johnson / The Rolling Stones

Well, I followed her to the station
With a suitcase in my hand
Yeah, I followed her to the station
With a suitcase in my hand
Whoa, it's hard to tell, it's hard to tell
When all your love's in vain
When the train come in the station
I looked her in the eye
Well, the train come in the station
And I looked her in the eye
Whoa, I felt so sad so lonesome
That I could not help but cry
When the train left the station
It had two lights on behind
Yeah, when the train left the station
It had two lights on behind
Whoa, the blue light was my baby
And the red light was my mind
All my love was in vain

 

[westernpunk]

The Worker
Fischer-Z
The hated journey on the train,
Always been the same,
Looking out windows,
Second class and second best,
What a waste of time,
Sleep for five stops in a row,
Prepare yourself to go,
Waterloo station,
Bought a '69 Capri,
failed the M.O.T.,
What a waste of time,
The Worker, the worker,
The worker, the worker.
Always kiss the wife goodbye,
Often wonder why,
At seven in the morning?
Think it's time we had a change,
Wouldn't that be strange,
What a waste of time.
The worker, the worker,
The worker, the worker.

 

[Rescars]

At a live event a long time ago, a double-bassist accompanied himself with a rendition of "The song of the slapdash signalman". Does anyone know the lyrics? I have never been able to find them.

 

[John Luxton]

"Ride the Rails" from Mannin Folk about the Isle of Man Railways which I think dates from early 1990s.
This is a link to a file on YouTube.

 

[McRhu]

The Glasgow Subway Song which I think was penned by Cliff Hanley.

 

[martinsh]

Don't think we have had any of these yet

Downtown Train - Tom Waits / Rod Stewart
Downbound Train - Bruce Springsteen
Rain Steam and Speed - The Men They Couldn't Hang
Railroad Days - Poco
5.15 - The Who
9am New York Subway - London Beat
Train In Vain - The Clash

In The Grand Way - John Denver
"I can still hear the lonely sound
Engines of a midnight freight train heading northward bound"

Box Cars - Joe Ely
"I'm going down to the railroad tracks
To watch them lonesome boxcars roll"

Somewhere Down The Crazy River - Robbie Robertson
"Take the blue train
All the way to Kokomo
You can find me
Somewhere down the crazy river"

And of course...

Madam George - Van Morrison
"And you know you've gotta go
On the train from Dublin up to Sandy Row
Throwing pennies at the bridges down below
In the rain hail sleet and snow
Say goodbye to Madam George
...
Get on the train, the train, the train, the train..."
etc, etc

 

[matchmaker]

The Glasgow Subway Song which I think was penned by Cliff Hanley.

Performed by Francie & Jose (Jack Milroy and Rikki Fulton)


Trust me
You know, that was a lovely song
I love to hear you sing it again
She was a madless woman
Made every fear for now
She used to pack one big holiday hampers
Three shoe cases, she stuck the Bungie in a cage, and she took the dog way up, the way she went during the subway

There's Partick Cross and Cessnock
Hillheid and Merkland street
George's Cross and Govan cross
Where all the people meet
West street shields road
The train goes round and round
You've never lived unless you've been on
The glasgow underground

They tell me that Majorca
Is a dandy place to be
Or Switzerland or Italy
Or even gay Paris
There's many lovely beauty spots
Upon the Clyde of Firth
But I would always rather travel
A doon below the earth

There's Partick cross and Cessnock
Hillheid and Merkland street
George's cross and Govan cross
Where all the people meet
West street shields road
The train goes round and round
You've never lived unless you've been on
The glasgow underground

There's names that ring like magic
That can thrill you through and through
They seem to call you back
With an enchantment ever new
There's places far away
Are like a song that's sweetly sung
You roll them roon your mouth
And feel them sliding off your tongue

There's Partick cross and Cessnock
Hillheid and Merkland Street
George's cross and Govan cross
Where all the people meet
West street shields road
The train goes round and round
You've never lived unless you've been on
The glasgow underground

I never like the stoorie winds
The showers or the snaw
The sun can get too burny
And the sleet's no nice at all
But I don't mind the climate now
As on my way I go
The Dolce Vita's waiting there
A hundred feet below

There's Partick cross and Cessnock
Hillhead and Merkland street
George's cross and Govan cross
Where all the people meet
West street shields road
The train goes round and round
You've never lived unless you've been on
The glasgow underground

 

[WesternLancer]

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

 

[westernpunk]

IRT by snatch sorry cant find any lyrics

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City.[2] The IRT was purchased by the city in June 1940, along with the younger BMT and IND systems, to form the modern New York City Subway. The former IRT lines (the numbered routes in the current subway system) are now the A Division or IRT Division of the Subway.

 

[norbitonflyer]

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

'Steam Train to Mallaig'

Again not a song, but Honneger's orchestral piece 'Pacific 231'

 

[AJM580]

At the end of Magnetic Fields IV by Jean-Michel Jarre, there's the sound of a fast train passing. The sounds were recorded by Michel Geiss (Jarre's long-time collaborator

 

[Gloster]

Well, if you are going for orchestral music, there is Hans Christian Lumbye’s Kjöbenhavns Jernbane-Damp-Galop and Villa-Lobos’ The Little Train of Caipira.

 

[Bertone]

Orange Blossom Special- Johnny Cash

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Near the end of the song "American Pie" by Don McLean is the following verse...

"And the three men that I admire the most
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died"

 

[dgl]

Johnny on the monorail by The Buggles

Locomotion by OMD

Walking in memphis

And one that has trains in the video, Break it up by Scooter, filmed on a heritage line in Germany

 

[weepingwillowb]

Ten Years After - Speed Kills

 

[Henffordd]

Well, if you are going for orchestral music, there is Hans Christian Lumbye’s Kjöbenhavns Jernbane-Damp-Galop and Villa-Lobos’ The Little Train of Caipira.

Lumbye is a good find.

Coronation Scot?

 

[Gloster]

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Well, if you are going for orchestral music, there is Hans Christian Lumbye’s Kjöbenhavns Jernbane-Damp-Galop and Villa-Lobos’ The Little Train of Caipira.

Different Trains by Steve Reich.

MGV by Michael Nyman.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Mule Train by Frankie Vaughan.

 

[Mr. SW]

A few months ago, messaged my sisters about remembering this...

(Casey Jones Theme)

Rock Island Line by Johnny Cash
Waiting for a Train by Flash and the Pan

 

[rototunablack5]

How about:
Wreck of the Old 97 - Johnny Cash

Canadian Pacific - George Hamilton IV

Johnny B Goode - Chuck Berry
“He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack
Go sit beneath the tree by the railroad track
Oh, the engineers would see him sitting in the shade
Strumming with the rhythm that the drivers made”

Wabash Cannonball - Boxcar Willie
I Love the Sound of a Whistle - Boxcar Willie
Freight Train Blues - Boxcar Willie

 

[westernpunk]

Surprised these havnt been mentioned

Missing
Everything But The Girl
I step off the train
I'm walking down your street again
And past your door, but you don't live there anymore
It's years since you've been there
And now you've disappeared somewhere, like outer space
You've found some better place

And I miss you
Like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you, oh
Like the deserts miss the rain

or
The Boxer
Simon & Garfunkel
I am just a poor boy
Though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles
Such are promises
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest

When I left my home and my family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station
Running scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

One from my folk singing days nearly sixty years ago....

Poor Paddy on the Railway

The best version was by Luke Kelly and the Dubliners.

 

[Iskra]

A Town Called Malice, by The Jam. The song is about growing up in Woking and includes

Down In the Tube Station at Midnight is a classic and obviously is about the Tube, but railways get a mention.

The distant echo -
of faraway voices boarding faraway trains
To take them home to
the ones that they love and who love them forever
The glazed, dirty steps - repeat my own and reflect my thoughts
Cold and uninviting, partially naked
Except for toffee wrappers and this morning's paper
Mr. Jones got run down
Headlines of death and sorrow - they tell of tomorrow
Madmen on the rampage
And I'm down in the tube station at midnight
I fumble for change - and pull out the Queen
Smiling, beguiling
I put in the money and pull out a plum
Behind me
Whispers in the shadows - gruff blazing voices
Hating, waiting
"Hey boy" they shout - "have you got any money?"
And I said - "I've a little money and a take away curry,
I'm on my way home to my wife.
She'll be lining up the cutlery,
You know she's expecting me
Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork"
And I'm down in the tube station at midnight
I first felt a fist, and then a kick
I could now smell their breath
They smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs
And too many right wing meetings
My life swam around me
It took a look and drowned me in its own existence
It blended in with the weather
It filled my eyes, ears, nose and mouth
It blocked all my senses
Couldn't see, hear, speak any longer
And I'm down in the tube station at midnight
I said I was down in the tube station at midnight
The last thing that I saw
As I lay there on the floor
Was "Jesus Saves" painted by an atheist nutter
And a British Rail poster read "Have an Awayday - a cheap holiday -
Do it today!"
I glanced back on my life
And thought about my wife
'Cause they took the keys - and she'll think it's me
And I'm down in the tube station at midnight
The wine will be flat and the curry's gone cold
I'm down in the tube station at midnight
Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight

The Jam - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight (Lyrics) | The Jam Information Pages by Kevin Lock

Down In The Tube Station At Midnight (Paul Weller) The distant echo - of faraway voices boarding faraway trains To take them home to the ones that they love and

thejam.org.uk

Small Bones by The Courteeners mentions a TOC and a type of rolling stock, which is quite impressive and one of their other songs Yesterday, Today & Probably Tomorrow features a train horn, tannoy announcements and references to Euston Station.

She doesn't live that far away
Medium distance romance
Just a virgin pendolino
And she's asking me to dance

Google Search

Will they be there on Tuesday night
Running the bath and turning out the lights?
Will they be there on Thursday afternoons
To welcome you home from Euston platform
With heart-shaped balloons? No

Google Search

Bruce Spingsteen also references trains a lot.

 

[John Luxton]

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.

 

[westernpunk]

Down In the Tube Station at Midnight is a classic and obviously is about the Tube, but railways get a mention.

The Jam - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight (Lyrics) | The Jam Information Pages by Kevin Lock

Down In The Tube Station At Midnight (Paul Weller) The distant echo - of faraway voices boarding faraway trains To take them home to the ones that they love and

thejam.org.uk

Small Bones by The Courteeners mentions a TOC and a type of rolling stock, which is quite impressive and one of their other songs Yesterday, Today & Probably Tomorrow features a train horn, tannoy announcements and references to Euston Station.

Google Search

Google Search

Bruce Spingsteen also references trains a lot.

sound of the suburbs by the members has a tannoy anoucement this is stainejs this is staines

Rockabilly hotpot by lieutenant pigeon opens with a western in ful flight, i believe it Was 1037 western empress
Featured on this lp

 

[Sunil_P]

Fade to Grey - Visage

"One man on a lonely platform
One case sitting by his side"


Where's the Revolution - Depeche Mode

"The train is coming
The train is coming
The train is coming
The train is coming
So get on board
Get on board
Get on board
Get on board
The engine's humming
The engine's humming
The engine's humming
The engine's humming
So get on board
Get on board
Get on board
Get on board (Where's the revolution?)"