'So over the mountains and over the plains
Into the muskeg and into the rain'
- 'Canadian Railroad Trilogy' by Gordon Lightfoot (1967)
- 📷 Rogers Pass, British Columbia, taken by Bill Edgar

'Hey now baby
Won't you take me on your train?
We leave tomorrow
And we won't come back again'
- 'Train In G Major' by Lindisfarne (1971)
- 📷 Low Fell, England, 1967, taken by Trevor Ermel

'I wish I was a headlight, on a northbound train'
- 'I Know You Rider' by the Grateful Dead, recommended by Larry S
📷 Ken Bull

No train song today. Just a self-congratulatory shout out to me, Spencer Vignes, who runs this twitter/x account, and who turns 55 this very day. Not a bad number, 55.

'The tucker box is empty now, the heart of Kelly's country cleared
And the gangers on the southern line, like the steam trains have disappeared'
- 'Mountains of Burma' by Midnight Oil (1990)
📷 John Cosford

'This is the night mail crossing the border
Bringing the cheque and the postal order'
- 'Night Mail' (1936), words by W H Auden, music by Benjamin Britten

'Rap before rap.' - Prof Derek Attridge of University of York on 'Night Mail'.

'I actually found them very frightening. Consequently, unlike most children of a pre-teen vintage, I did not want to be an engine driver. However, it left an indelible print on my mind.' - Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull recalls the steam trains of his childhood
📷 G F Bloxham

'Terry meets Julie, Waterloo station, every Friday night'
- 'Waterloo Sunset' by The Kinks (1967)
- 📷 Waterloo station, London, mid-1960s, taker unknown

'The ghost of a steam train, echoes down my track'
- 'Town Called Malice' by The Jam (1982)
- 📷 Carnforth, England, 1968, taken by Trevor Ermel

New video up on the YT channel at youtu.be/fPnuUfFUFmc?si… - Night Train from our 2021 Stripped Back album. Filmed and edited by Colin Speller, it includes me, HRH Lord Ralphy and lots of heritage railway stuff. What's not to like? 🙂

Here's a 2018 photo of the ruined house at Burra, SA, that features on the cover of Midnight Oil's Diesel and Dust album. I took this from the trackbed of the abandoned broad gauge Peterborough railway which was in use until the late '80s.
Train Songs Central
google.com.au/maps/@-33.6395…

Punk rock warlord/train song fact. In 2005, the UK-based loco hire firm Cotswold Rail named two of their class 47 engines after Joe Strummer and Captain Sensible of The Clash & The Damned respectively. Joe & the Captain are seen here passing Clay Cross, England.

📷 Phil Sangwell

Train Songs Central Speaking of the Aurora, have you heard ‘Southern Rora’? It was actually written for the launch of the train in 1962. And, it was played over the station sound system at Sydney Central as the last ever Aurora departed on August 2 1986. I was on board.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=lCUmyd…

'The Southern Aurora was late again
As I waited at Central to take you home'

A belated happy birthday to Pete Garrett of Midnight Oil, one of music's genuine good guys, who turned 71 yesterday.

'Runaway train never going back
Wrong way on a one-way track'

Happy birthday Dave Pirner, Soul Asylum frontman & writer of one of the great train songs in 'Runaway Train', born on this day in 1964.

'I remember the sound of the passing train
As it rolled through the night in the pouring rain
And the touch of a hand and the way she said 'Goodbye'.'

Remembering Gerry Rafferty, born on this day in 1947

📷 Ogle Winston-Link

Blur are trending, so it would be rude not to.

'Midnight, and I'm a-waiting on the twelve-oh-five
Hoping it'll take me just a little farther down the line'
- 'Queen of Hearts' by Dave Edmunds, the best rocker ever to come out of Wales, who turns 80 today
📷 Phil Hastings

'I'm leaving on the fast train
Don't ask me when I'm coming back again'

Any takers for this week's name that song?

'When there's nobody else around
On a train, on the way from town
And you feel like you can't be found
And you can't let go'
- 'Hi Hello' by Johnny Marr (2018)
- 📷 Manchester, England, 1965, taken by Trevor Ermel (with Old Trafford floodlight visible in the background)