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Train Songs Central

@trainsongscentral.bsky.social

330 followers 42 following 260 posts

Where the parallel lines of trains & music meet. Home of 'The Train Kept A-Rollin' - How The Train Song Changed The Face Of Popular Music' by @SpencerVignes.bsky.social - visit http://www.spencervignes.co.uk/ to find out more.

www.spencervignes.co.uk

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · Mar 7

This is @trainsongscentral.bsky.social - the only resource on Planet Earth (that we know of) dedicated to train songs and the many ties that bind railways/railroads & music.

Come on in, look around, learn a thing or two and, if you like what you see, please share/repost to spread the word.

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 23h

'From an uptown apartment, to a knife on the A train
It's not that far'

Remembering Kirsty MacColl today on what would have been her 66th birthday

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 1d

'Oh come closer baby
Let your soul relax, we're old enough to face the facts
Get off the rails, and let your train get on my tracks
But wait a minute, is that the way you always act?'
- 'I Bit Off More Than I Could Chew' by Suzi Quatro (1975)
📷 Leslie Savoye

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 2d

'Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties'

Remembering John Lennon today, on what would have been his 85th birthday

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 2d

"Near enough to London that you could almost see it if you peered hard enough down the railway line, it was just far enough away to bear no resemblance." - Tracey Thorn of Everything But The Girl on growing up in Brookmans Park, England

📷 BP station master Ernie Wicks, 1969, taken by Ron Kingdon

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 2d

"Anywhere with a tube station, however ‘end-of-the-line’ that stop may be, still feels to me like part of London, physically linked by the tunnels and rails. Things would still happen there. But beyond the reach of the underground lies a different and less certain terrain." - Tracey Thorn

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 2d

'It's so good that you're feeling pain
But you better get your face on board the very next train'
- 'Evil Woman' by ELO (1975)
- 📷 Exeter, England, 1975, taken by Trevor Ermel

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 5d

You really can't help but sing it out loud, can you?!

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 5d

'Well I really don't mind the rain, and the smile can hide all the pain
But you're down when you're riding the train, that's taking the long way'
- 'Rhinestone Cowboy' by Glen Campbell (1975)
- 📷 Oakland, USA, 1957, taker unknown

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 7d

It's 1982, in Leiden, in the Netherlands, and Freddie Mercury is about to board a train to Amsterdam where he'll have a nice cup of tea and an early night. Or perhaps not.

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 8d

'Meet a girl on a boat, meet a boy on a train
And fall in love, without the pain'

Happy birthday Phil Oakey of The Human League, who turns 70 today

📷 Chapeltown, England, early 20th century, taken from the Sheffield Star archive

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 8d

'And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died'

Happy birthday Don McLean who turns 80 today

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 10d

'On that train all graphite and glitter, undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris, well by seventy-six we'll be A.O.K'
- 'I.G.Y' (What A Beautiful World) by Donald Fagen (1982)
- 📷 Gare du Nord, Paris, date and taker unknown

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 10d

'How we worked, how we worked like the devil for our pay
Through the wind, through the snow and through the rain'
- 'Driving The Last Spike' by Genesis (1991)
📷 Victor Hand

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 14d

"Sadly much of the mystique and glamour and romance has gone, but I still travel by train when I can."

Happy birthday to Bryan Ferry who, get this, turns 80 today

📷 Trevor Ermel

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 14d

Durham.

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 14d

This weekend marks the 200th anniversary of the modern railway, and I'll be on the BBC Radio 4 Friday edition of 'The World Tonight' from 10pm talking train songs & what it is about the railways that's fascinated generations of singers, songwriters & musicians. All aboard folks!

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 18d

"My younger days was all fishing and trainspotting and there was one place where I could actually do both which was magical."

Remembering Chas Hodges of Chas & Dave fame (plus more than a few star session turns), who died on this day in 2018 aged 74

📷 Trevor Ermel

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 19d

'Take a little walk to the edge of town
And go across the tracks
Where the viaduct looms
Like a bird of doom'

Happy birthday Nick Cave who turns 68 today

📷 Trevor Ermel

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 21d

'Over the points, over the points, over the points, over the points
The six-five special's steamin' down the line
The six-five special's right on time'

Happy birthday Pete Murray, presenter of the 'Six-Five Special' TV show (among many other things), who turns 100 today

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 22d

"Real life and picture postcard views are the joys of travelling by train. You can disengage from the process of travelling in that you're not pushing the pedals, walking or driving a car. You get on, sit down and daydream." - Andy McCluskey of OMD

📷 Nigel Petre

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 28d

'Babe I'm leaving, I must be on my way
The time is drawing near
My train is going, I see it in your eyes
The love, the need, your tears'
- 'Babe' by Styx (1980)
- 📷 Liverpool Street station, London, mid-1970s, taken by Tony Bock

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 29d

Remembering Johnny Cash, the godfather of the train song genre, who died on this day in 2003 at the age of 71.

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · 29d

'Down by the railway siding
In our secret world, we were colliding'
- 'Secret World' by Peter Gabriel (1992)
- 📷 Low Fell, England, 1975, taken by Trevor Ermel

Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · Sep 8

'Rudy's on a train to nowhere, halfway down the line'

Sad news breaking overnight of the death of Rick Davies, founding member and co-lead singer of Supertramp, who had been battling multiple myeloma for 10 years. He was 81. RIP Rick, and goodbye stranger

📷 Steve Randall

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Train Songs Central @trainsongscentral.bsky.social · Sep 7

"The sound of the train whistle always had an underlying feeling of promise to it: 'Come away'. There is no other sound like it, haunting and imploring and mysterious. 'Come away'." - Chrissie Hynde, who turns 74 today (happy birthday Chrissie)

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