World's Scariest Model Train Wrecks

This needs no words.

Train Songs

Danville Girl


There are a lot of songs about trains and train wrecks. Some are hobo songs, like Railroading across the Great Divide, by Utah Phillips and of course Wabash Cannonball, that mythical hobo train that might take you to a better place one day. I've known the lyrics to Wreck of the Old 97 since I was a lad. My father would sing it in the old station wagon as we drove off in search of some secret trout stream.

Casey Jones

Not to be confused with the excellent Grateful Dead Tune which has Casey "ridin that train, high on cocaine".

Long Black Train (a little bit of Japanese Americana)


Wreck of the Old 97


Daddy What's a Train?


Utah Phillips recorded Daddy What's a Train on his album, Good Though, from the early 70s. He takes his boy down to the old rail yards, looking for something he could show, a trace of another time. Utah laments, "Kids are different now - some of them don't even know that milk comes from a cow".

Finally, the Orange Blossom Special. This is Charlie McCoy


Do you have a favourite train song? I've only touched the surface. The Clash did one, didn't they? Then there's Leadbelly and Midnight Special. There's Train of Love, the Johnny Cash tune. Here's a pretty good list. And another. And here are some Songs and Sounds of Railroading. I wonder if we could compile nearly as long a list of songs about buses or planes? I can think of a few. There are plenty of songs about trucks and trucking for sure.

One more reason to love trains

Check out the train snow-plow video over at The Presurfer.

The Last Cambodian Train

A Train Runs Through Bangkok Market

via bifurcated rivets

Trains and Tramps

These "hobo signs" are from and excellent website called The American Hobo. It also contains the following glossary of hobo terms:
Ballast - The gravel used for rail beds.
Bay Horse - Brand name of rubbing liniment for horses. Similar to bay rum.
Bindle - A bedroll.
Blind - Front End of a baggage car.
Bridge and plank gang - A railroad maintenance crew.
Bridger - A hobo who rode both steam-powered and diesel powered trains.
Bull - A policeman.
Canned heat - Strained Sterno consumed for the alcohol content.
Catch the westbound - Die.
Cinder bull - A railroad policeman.
Consist - All the cars that make up a particular train.
Couplers - Fixtures at the ends of train cars used to connect one car to the other.
Courtesy call - A night's stay in the town jail without being arrested. An opportunity to get in out of the cold and to eat a meal.
Crummy - Caboose.
Dick - A detective.
Drag - A slow freight train.
Dumpster diving - Rummaging through dumpsters for food or other needed items.
Freddy - Flashing rear-end device on the train. It has taken the place of the caboose.
Gay cat - A person on the road who, when the going gets tough, can afford to purchase a ticket (Irwin 84).
Go in the hole - To pull onto a siding to allow another train of higher priority to pass by.
Gondola - A train car with low walls and no roof.
Gun boat - An empty can used for cooking. Usually a coffee can.
Harness bull - A policeman in uniform.
Helper - An extra engine added temporarily to a train to assist in pulling it up a steep grade.
High iron - The track in a railroad yard that serves as the main line or through line.
Hooverville - Shantytowns built of junk and cardboard by the poor. Named after Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States of America (1929-1933).
Hotshot - A fast train.
Jackrollers - Thieves who often targeted a hobo who had just received his pay.
Jocker - A man who travels the road with an underage boy.
Jungle - An encampment where hobos stayed for brief periods before moving on. "To jungle up" is to stay in a jungle.
Jungle buzzard - Someone in a hobo jungle who tries to avoid sharing in the work and expense.
Knee-shaker - A handout on a plate at the back door of a house. Eaten on the back steps while balancing the plate on one's knees.
Knuckle - A movable joint in the coupler.
Live train - A consist of railcars with engines hooked to it. A train that could move at any time.
Local - A train that makes many stops and does much work in a short distance.
Lump - A handout which is packaged to be taken along on the road.
Mission stiff - A bum that spends much time in missions.
Mixed freight - A train consisting of a variety of cars.
"P" farms - Farms where prisoners worked.
Pearl diver - A dishwasher.
Punk - A young boy travelling on the road with a younger man.
Rattler - A long train rattling along the tracks, resembling a rattlesnake.
Red cards - A membership card of the International Workers of the World (IWW).
Reefer - A refrigerated freight car.
Rods - The steel structural bars that were below the old boxcars. A very dangerous and difficult place for hobos to ride.
Rule of the match - An insulting gesture of handing a match to someone. It is the same as saying. "You are not welcome around this jungle fire. Go build your own someplace else".
Scoping the drag - Looking for a good ride on a freight train as it slows down.
Seam squirrels - Lice.
Sit-down - A meal given as a handout with the offer to eat it in the comfort at the kitchen table.
Specks - Fruit with spots beginning to form. Farmers and groceries were often willing to give it to hobos.
Stack train - A train made up of topless, low-sided cars which carry large containers sometimes stacked two high.
Streamliners - Railriders that travel with light gear and on fast freights.
Walking dandruff - Lice.
Wobblies - A short name for the International Workers of the World (IWW)
Yard dick - A railroad detective.

The essay, by Colin Beesley is excellent.

Deathly Lyrics:The Wreck of the Old 97

Deathly Lyrics:The Wreck of the Old 97

I've posted recently about train derailments - they seem to be happening all the time. Here's an article about a real train wreck and the song written about it. I've known the tune, Wreck of the Old 97 since I was a tot. My dad and I used to sing it together in the car on the way to trout streams.

Derailed...

NEWS. TALK. SPORTS - 570news.com - Derailment cuts Via Rail service in Toronto-Montreal corridor until Tuesday

I wondered if it was just my imagination or....has there been a lot of train derailments in the past year. I did a search for derailment and found headlines like:
Monday's train derailment third this year.
Mudslides, derailment hamper CN rail traffic.
Fire from 15-car train derailment in Oneida nearly extinguished.
Sunday Train Derailment.
Metro-North to study derailment issue near GCT.
Train derailment causes spill.
Authorities in Pa. report freight train derailment.

and on and on and on...2336 results picked up.

Have trains always been this dangerous?

Flying Under Radar / Roots on the Rails / Roots on the River

Flying Under Radar / Roots on the Rails / Roots on the River

Too bad these cowboy trains are expensive....a round trip from Tucson to Mexico's Copper Canyon on the Sierra Madre Express with Tom Russell and friends would be a gas.