Singin' the Blues or any other durn thing ya want.

[Delmonico]

Judging from that black smoke, they oughta put it back to a coal burner. Probably be cheaper to run now that way than burning oil...................Buck

Don't ussually run that smokey it had a problem with the cold, warmed up enough after that is was much better.

They can't go back to coal, a lot of cities would not let it go through.

[Scattered Thumbs]

Yep, build just before WWII, was built as a coal burner, changed to oil after WWII.  The Big Boys were bigger and a couple back east were about the same, these were for fast freight and fast passangers service across plains where they could open it up.  The Big Boys were just to haul coal from Utah to Cheynne, more power, but much slower.  This one is a 4-6-6-4, the Big Boy was a 4-8-8-4.

The 4-6-6-4 is called the Challenger.

ST (who likes steam locomotives)

And...Just to  keep on tracks. 

Look a-yonder comin'
Comin' down that railroad track
Hey, look a-yonder comin'
Comin' down that railroad track
It's the Orange Blossom Special
Bringin' my baby back

Well, I'm going down to Florida
And get some sand in my shoes
Or maybe Californy
And get some sand in my shoes
I'll ride that Orange Blossom Special
And lose these New York blues

"Say man, when you going back to Florida?"
"When am I goin' back to Florida? I don't know, don't reckon I ever will."
"Ain't you worried about getting your nourishment in New York?"
"Well, I don't care if I do-die-do-die-do-die-do-die."

Hey talk about a-ramblin'
She's the fastest train on the line
Talk about a-travellin'
She's the fastest train on the line
It's that Orange Blossom Special
Rollin' down the seaboard line

[litl rooster]

another Train song.


   

I'd play the Red River Valley and he'd sit in the
kitchen and cry And run his fingers through
seventy years of livin' And wonder Lord has every
well I drilled gone dry We was friends me and this
old man We're like desperados waiting for the
train like desperados waiting for the train

He's a drifter and a driller of oil wells and an
old school man of the world He taught me how to
drive his car when he's too drunk to And he'd wink
and give me money for the girls And our lives was
like some old western movie Like desperados
waiting for the train like desperados waiting for
the train

From the time that I could walk he'd take me with
him To a bar called the Green Frog Cafe And there
was old men with beer guts and dominos Lyin' bout
their lives while they'd play And I was just a kid
they all called his sidekick Like desperados
waiting for the train like desperados waiting for
the train

One day I looked up and he's pushin' eighty And
there's brown tobacco stains all down his chin
Well to me he's one of the heroes of this country
So why's he all dressed up like them old men
Drinkin' beer and playin' moon and forty-two Like
desperados waiting for the train like desperados
waiting for the train

And the day before he died I went to see him I was
grown and he was almost gone So we just closed our
eyes and dreamed us up a kitchen And sang another
verse to that old song Come on Jack I swear this
time it's comin' And we're like desperados waiting
for the train like desperados waiting for the
train Like desperados waiting for the train like
desperados waiting for the train

[Ozark Tracker]

Might as well add this one right now,    The long version


On one cloudless morning I stood on the mountain,
Just watching the smoke from below,
It was coming from a tall, slim smokestack
Way down on the Southern railroad.

It was 97, the fastest train
Ever ran the Southern line,
All the freight trains and passengers take the side for 97,
For she's bound to be at stations on time.

They gave him his orders at Monroe, Virginia,
Saying, "Stevie, you're way behind time.
This is not 38, but it's Old 97,
You must put her into Spencer on time."

He looked 'round and said to his black greasy fireman,
"Just shovel in a little more coal,
And when I cross that old White Oak Mountain
You can just watch Old 97 roll."

It's a mighty rough road from Lynchburg to Danville,
And the line was a three-mile grade,
It was on that grade that he lost his air brakes,
And you see what a jump that she made.

He was going down the grade making 90 miles an hour,
When his whistle began to scream,
He was found in that wreck with his hand on the throttle,
He was scalded to death by the steam.

Did she ever pull in? No, she never pulled in,
And at 1:45 he was due,
For hours and hours has the switchman been waiting
For that fast mail that never pulled through.

Did she ever pull in? No, she never pulled in,
And that poor boy must be dead.
Oh, yonder he lays on the railroad track
With the cart wheels over his head.

97, she was the fastest train
That the South had ever seen,
But she run so fast on that Sunday morning
That the death score was numbered 14.

Now, ladies, you must take warning,
From this time now and on.
Never speak harsh words to your true loving husband.
He may leave you and never return.

[litl rooster]

   here's one more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17KOZMIhz1g&feature=related

[Leo Tanner]

Thanks Roo,
     I've been a huge Brian Setzer fan since the first time I heard em.  I'll see if I cant find some old highschool pictures of me with the greased hair and cuffed jeans.  The Stray Cats played a small venue around the corner from my house twice an I never missed em.  The metal heads and teeny boppers didn't get it, but I sure did.  Good stuff


Leo

[Texas Lawdog]

Ridin' on tha "City Of New Orleans" with 3 conductors and 25 sacks o' mail.

[Tensleep]

I like Johnny Cash's verison of this

Now this here's a story about the Rock Island Line
Well the Rock Island Line she runs down into New Orleans
There's a big tollgate down there and you know
If you got certain things on board when you go through the tollgate
Well you don't have to pay the man no toll
Well a train driver he pulled up to the tollgate
And a man hollered and asked him what all he had on board and said
I got livestock I got livestock I got cows I got pigs I got sheep
I got mules I got all livestock
Well he said you're all right boy you don't have to pay no toll
You can just go right on through so he went on through the toolgate
And as he went through he started pickin' up a little bit of speed
Pickin' up a little bit of steam
He got on through he turned and looked back at the man he said
Well I fooled you I fooled you I got pigiron I got pigiron I got old
pigiron
Down the Rock Island Line she's a mighty good road
Rock Island Line it's a road to ride
Rock Island Line it's a mighty good road
Well if you ride you got to ride it like you finally get your ticket
At the station for the Rock Island Line

Looked cloudy in the west and it looked like rain
Round the curve came a passenger train
North bound train on the southbound track
He's alright a leavin' but he won't be back

Well the Rock Island Line she's a mighty good road
Rock Island Line it's a road to ride
Rock Island Line it's a mighty good road
Well if you ride you got to ride it
Like you finally get your ticket
At the station for the Rock Island Line

Oh I may be right and I may be wrong
But you gonna miss me when I'm gone
Well the engineer said before he died
There were two more drinks that he'd like to try
The conductor said what could they be
A hot cup of coffee and a cold glass of tea

Well the Rock Island Line she's a mighty good road
Rock Island Line it's a road to ride
Rock Island Line it's a mighty good road
Well if you ride you got to ride it
Like you finally get your ticket
At the station for the Rock Island Line

[Tensleep]

Then there is this one from Marty Robbins

Way out west an Arizona cowboy tends the herd
The dessert lies beneath a sky of blue
Far away, in brightest day, a ghostly sound is heard
The phantom of the rail comes into view

Hear that lonesome whistle callin'
On his lonely ear is fallin'
Loud and clear, just hear that lonesome wail
But it's just the ghost, the phantom of the rail

Little did he know the train was wrecked in '84
After it had crossed the Great Divide
Every year it tries again to make it just once more
If only to the California Line

Hear that lonesome whistle callin'
On the barren dessert fallin'
Loud and clear, just hear that lonesome wail
But it's just the ghost, the phantom of the rail

Clickity-clack along the track, it's boiler showin' red
As on it comes along the rusty rails
People that are ridin' in the cars have long been dead
Lost in time along the Phantom Trail

Hear that lonesome whistle callin'
On the barren dessert fallin'
Is it real to feel the very ground beneath him shake
As on it comes, the only run it ever makes

Cross here comes the phantom, as his eyes in wonder gaze
His pony shys and heads in for the brush
And as it comes upon him terror grips his heart, amazed
Leapin' to avoid it's onward rush

Hear that lonesome whistle callin'
On the barren dessert fallin'
Thought he saw the engineer, thought he heard him once more wail
As on he went, forever bent, on stayin' on the ghost train rail

[Leo Tanner]

I like Johnny Cash's verison of this

I believe Ledbelly wrote it.  Rumor has it that the original was a metaphore fer the underground railroad and that pigiron was reffering to the escaping slaves. 
     Lonnie Donnegon's version was popular, but I agree with you on Johnny's bein the best.


Leo

[Leo Tanner]

My ex wife used ta listen ta what was considered "modern rock" in the late 80's an early 90's.  I couldn't stand 99 percent of it, but this one sticks out in my memory as bein perty cool.

Had a dream...

     I was riding on a train that wasn't bound for glory
     Riding on a train, the train was bound for hell
     Riding on a train that wasn't bound for glory, that's for sure
     Riding on a train that's bound for hell

     The engine with human blood was damp
     The headlight was her brimstone lamp
     And then for fuel I shoveled in bones
     and the furnace roared with a thousand groans

     The tank was filled with lager beer
     The devil himself was engineer
     The passengers were a mixed up crew
     Churchmen, atheists, Baptists too

     The rich in broadcloth, poor in rags
     Handsome girls, wrinkled hags
     Black men, yellow, red and white
     Chained together, fearful sight

     The train rushed on at an awful  pace
     The sulfer fumes burned hands and face
     Wilder and wilder the country grew
     Faster and faster the engine flew

     Loud and terrible thunder crashed
     Whiter brighter lightning flashed
     Hotter still the air became
     So clothes were burned from each shrinking frame

     There came a fearfull ear-splitting yell...
     Yell Satan: "Can't stop,  next stop's hell"
     Twas then the passengers shrieked with pain
     And begged the devil to stop the train
     Stop this train

     He shrieked and roared, and grinned with glee
     And mocked and laughed at their misery
     "My friends you've bought your seats on this road,
     I've got to get through with a complete load"

     You've bullied the weak, you've cheated the poor
     The starving tramp, you turned from the door
     You've laid up gold till your purses burst
     You've given way to your  beastly lust

     You've balked at god in your hell blown pride
     You've killed and you've cheated, and plundered and lied
     You've double crossed men and you've swore and you've stole
     Not a one in body and soul (that is virgin?)
     Body and soul

     So you've paid full fare and I'll carry you through
     If there's one don't belong I'd like to know who
     And here's the time when I ain't no liar
     I'll land you all safe in a land of fire
     And your flesh will scorch in the flames that roar
     You'll sizzle and burn from rind to core

     And I awoke with a shrilly cry
     My were clothes were wet, my hair stood high
     And I prayed as I've never until that hour
     To be saved from hell and the devil's power

     At present my vows were not in vain
     That I payed no fare on that hellbound train

[Tensleep]

Never heard that about the underground railroad...



From John and Alan Lomax who co-wrote with Lead Belly after hearing in sung by a prison work gang.

The verses tell a humorous story about a train operator who smuggled pig iron through a toll gate by claiming all he had on board was livestock.

[Leo Tanner]

Never heard that about the underground railroad...



From John and Alan Lomax who co-wrote with Lead Belly after hearing in sung by a prison work gang.

The verses tell a humorous story about a train operator who smuggled pig iron through a toll gate by claiming all he had on board was livestock.

Well I'd believe them over anyone else for sure.

       I don't remember where I read the other story, but you know how speculation leads ta rumors 'specialy when it comes ta the meaning of songs and stories.  It might have been when I was looking things up about Lonnie Donegon a while back.  In that case it was probaly written by someone across the pond.


Leo

[Texas Lawdog]

AH!  Lonnie Donegan! "Does your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight"?

[Leo Tanner]

Jack 'O Diamonds was big one fer him too.  Ta this day no one seems ta know what the heck he's singin in the last two verses when he's really wound up.  You search any lyric site and all ya get is hash marks in place of words.  Ta me that's one of the charms of most of his songs, they start out at an easy pace an then kind of crank up as it progresses.
     Skiffle is definately not fer everyone


Leo

[Delmonico]

The wreck of Old 97:



Wonder if the Blues Brothers ever learned it, they said they would.

Grandpa Jones did a good Rock Island Line, I got peeeg iron all peeeg iron.

One they used to play on Kaptian Kangaroo:


The railroad comes through the middle of the house
The railroad comes through the middle of the house
The trains all come through the middle of the house
Since the company bought the land.

They let us live in the front of the house
They let us live in the back
But there ain't no living in the middle of the house
'Cause that's the railroad track.

When a bill collector comes to the house
He knocks and bangs on the door
So we sit him right down in the middle of the house
And he never comes back no more
No, he never comes back no more.

The railroad comes through the middle of the house
The railroad comes through the middle of the house
It comes and goes through the middle of the house
And the trains are all on time
And here comes the 5:09.

The railroad comes through the middle of the house
The in and out of the middle of the house
Right smack dab through the middle of the house
Where the parlor used to be.

There's a great big door in the front of the house
There's a little old door in the back
But we can't have doors in the middle of the house
'Cause that's the railroad track.

A relative came to visit the house
He liked to scream and fuss
So we sat him right down in the middle of the house
And he never more bothered us
No, he never more bothered us.

Oh, the railroad comes through the middle of the house
The railroad comes through the middle of the house
It comes and goes through the middle of the house
Since the trains are all on time.

I'm singing this song in the middle of the house.

[Leo Tanner]

I hear it was Mr. Greenjean's favorite

[Leo Tanner]

I posted some lyrics earlier from a band my ex listened to.  This was the only song I liked from them, of course it was the only one she hated   Nothing else they did sounds like this, but if you like rockabilly, you may enjoy this one.
     The quality sucks, but ya get what ya get on You Tube.  Was suprised ta even find it on there.




Leo

[Leo Tanner]

The wreck of Old 97:



Wonder if the Blues Brothers ever learned it, they said they would.

Jake an Elwood give their humblest 'pologies fer not gettin to it.  Leastways Elwood does.  Sure Jake would concur

[litl rooster]

AH!  Lonnie Donegan! "Does your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight"?

One my dad use to sing     he only knew 2 songs Camptown Races was the other