Basically,it’s a generic song about West Texas post WWII.
Now the line"Mad Dog Runaway Red and Silver Streamline"sounds to me like theyr’e in Panhandle&Santa Fe*Territory.
(*Until the mid 60’s,by Texas law,any railroad operating in Texas had to either have the word Texas in their name or have corporate HQ in Texas.Which is why the SP in Texas was titled Texas and New Orleans and Santa Fe was Gulf Colorado&Santa Fe from Galveston to Gainesville and Fort Worth to Sweetwater and Panhandle&Santa Fe from Sweetwater to Amarillo.).
Or he coulda been in the Panhandle and saw either the Rock Island"Choctaw Rocket"or FW&D"Texas Zephyr".
I’ve got a little grandnephew who’s 1.5 years old.Everytime I’m in Costco;Best Buy;Wal Mart;Target;etal.,I’m tempted to buy him a Johnny Cash CD and a Tom&Jerry DVD.
Also being from the top of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, and a semi-professional Blue Grass musician, I’m surprised that “Orange Blossom Special” was so late in being added to the list, Also noted the absence of “Fireball Mail”, “Reuben’s Train” and “This Train”. (Semi-professional because I had to keep my day job 'til I retired…LOL) JWH
I can’t believe I had to get to page 3 before someone listed “Wabash Cannonball”! As for “Orange Blossom Special”, go to You Tube, write “James Last, Orange Blossom Special”, and enjoy! James Last in a German Bandleader, enormously popular in Europe, and the video of his orchestra members enjoying themselves playing this song, and the audience dancing in the aisles, is a real hoot.
I can’t believe no one remembers the original poster’s question, which was a challenge to come up with railroad songs that were NOT about STEAM trains, only diesel or electrics!!
How about a couple of Eagles tunes, “Train Leaves Here This Morning” and “Midnight Flyer.” Also, “Down in the Track” by the Doobie Brothers, “Slow Train Coming” by Bob Dylan, and “Railroad Town” by Neil Young.
I’ve been a Deadhead for a long time and the Grateful Dead have quite a few railroad related lyrics in their songs and the ones by other artists that they covered:
“Casey Jones”
“Big Railroad Blues”
“Chinacat Sunflower”
“I Know You Rider”
“Dark Hollow”
“He’s Gone”
“Jack Straw”
“Promised Land”
"Tons of Steel
“Big Railroad Blues”
Jerry Garcia and his band also did a great cover of “Mystery Train”
Guys, Try this out for what I think is one of the better if not the best railroad song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idrIyyEAT8U It’s Merle Haggard’s “Silver Ghost.” The album that this song was on is a very rare album called “My love affair with trains.” They sold less than 10’000 of this album. The song is about a haunted train. Not only is it a great song but the story and lyrics is also very good. Give it a try, I think you guy’s will like it too! 73 Royce
Bruce Springsteen “I’m on Fire” - The song is about “relationships” but the music, some of the lyrics, and some of the vocals are definitely train based.
Peter Buffet “Empire Builder” - A new age song without lyrics that sounds like a train.
