Not specifically what is defined as “popular music,” but still very popular with many railfans and professionals is the bulk of J .S. Bach’s organ music.
It is now free! All of it. Go to
smdt.umich.edu/bachorgan
and donwload and then enjoy, any time.
James Kibbie on historic German organs
Soul Asylum, Runaway Train:
Joe Bataan, Subway Joe:
“Mother’s Lying in a Box in the Baggage Coach Ahead” (no recording available). Also, “Hey Engineer, is this Train Goin’ South” (novelty piece about New Jersey - several dixieland band recordings).
There’s also the “Great Crush Collision March”, a novelty piece (without words) wrriten to “commemorate” the staged train wreck arranged by William Crush, General Passenger Agent of the MKT, which ended up killing a number of people when the boilers of the colliding trains exploded. The reason this piece of of some note is that is is one of the earliest published works of Scott Joplin, the famous ragtime composer. The sheet music version is not a rag, but it was undoubtedly played as a rag.
Rock Island Line:
Asleep at the Wheel has a great version of Choo Choo Ch’Boogie:
Take the A Train
Can’t forget The Godfather of Soul.
HOW ABOUT : Fireball Mail by the Osborne Bros
@ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ksixgx_mFE
Or some Boxcar Willie: Wabash Cannonball
@https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnciunYwHg
Maybe some Johnnie Cash: Orange Blossom Special [witrh some of those English train photos(?) ] @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4-uoUpN1c4
or even some more Johnnie Cash: I’ve got a thing about trains
It’s a brief, and somewhat obscure mention, and it is the subways that are mentioned, but Simon and Garfunkels “Sounds of Silence.”
Another of their lesser known songs, “Poem on the Underground Wall,” has as it’s first line: “The last train is nearly due…”
Rainy Night in Georgia. Brooke Benton. Just a mention literally, but the “scene” of the song is at a depot or yard.
Louis Prima’s version of “That Old Black Magic” is great but listen to this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5KYW441M4g
Spike was the man!
I stumbled into this one while looking for something else on You Tube, a young musician called Mean Mary, and the song is “Iron Horse.” And man, can she play that banjo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CNB5OLUPM0
She must be pretty tough too, walkin’ barefoot on that roadbed!
How about Arlo Guthrie’s “Riding On The City Of New Orleans”? Steve Goodman wrote it but Arlo made it famous.
Just an allusion, but as evocative as much of the good stuff by Bukka White, is the grade-crossing signal at the very beginning of the Quicksilver Messenger Service cover of “Who Do You Love”, one of the very best of the ‘classic’ prog-rock tracks.
I had, and have lost, the URL to a song by a bluegrass band, with a title something like ‘Evening Train’, which ended with a completely recognizable Amtrak K5LA chord on fiddle. Anyone know what it is? (it was on YouTube or another downloadable service)
And what was the Oliver song from the '60s with the three-cylinder steam locomotive effect?
Last Train to London, by E.L.O.