Trains....

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Cute. Very British. Thats was the band that got angry at "Winchester Cathedral" because it didnt do anything to stop the lead singer's "baby" from "leaving town"... as I recall from the Sixties.

There is atleast one German pop song about trains.

https://youtu.be/kv8_EZrNhpY

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Ah, Kraftwerk. Minimal lyrics but it's definitely all about trains, sonically and lyrically, and it's un-American.

The evidence mounts. Here's another extremely British train song which blows the whistle (see what I did there?) on a problem that's rarely talked about in polite society, so consider yourselves trigger-warned. It's a rather authentic parody of Flanders & Swann, so the effect of the humour might be confined to a niche market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEv6dqVPLSM

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All I can say to the above is... !

Much of the music of mid 20th century America celebrated passenger train travel - because that was the heyday- When the Pullman company rain the trains like luxury hotels on wheels. Dinner in the diner...nothing was finer.

Interesting vid from that era...more racially integrated than usual for that era, it shows the White Glenn Miller and his band backing up the Black stars... Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers. The later do a a softshoe that practically turns into an 80's style breakdance.


https://youtu.be/JTwy8ruyY40


https://youtu.be/0ZLPJuy9oyQ


https://youtu.be/c8uxrypkqv4

For over a century, until about 1905, improving steam engines and trains was the closest thing to a job at NASA they had.
The Negro staff in the Pullman cars were not home much, but they were some of the best-paid men in the ghetto.

Pretty good addition to this thread …. Real enjoyable music .. amazing the RR effects you can create on musical instruments .

Yes. Steam was 'the rocket science' of the Victorian Age.

And Mr. Pullman had a stroke of genius- right after the Civil War - you had a demand for better train travel (sleeper cars, and food service), AND you suddenly had a pool of labor to do the job: the newly freed house slaves in the recently defeated South.

So, as you said, he employed many Blacks when they needed jobs. And paid them relatively well. And together labor and management offered a great service that was a big part of American life for the century from 1868 to 1969.

But the mostly Black Pullman staff was horribly exploited nonetheless. The Pullman Company, and the railroads they served pretty much embodied everything ...Great AND bad about America. The nation in microcosm.


https://youtu.be/b885Mr4-PZg

https://youtu.be/il0Yk75PlqA?list=RDil0Yk75PlqA

I heard a "worst day of my life story." A boy about ten, on his birthday, got the news that his school was burning down. He got dressed for winter and went to wait for a ride from his Uncle to see it. Then, there was a train wreck in town and the Uncle forgot his first errand and went to help there, leaving the boy shivering all day and not seeing any of the action.
Now that I know what a steam dome is, I had a closer look at a photo of a locomotive in the family album. One of those lumps behind the smokestack is me. Safety rail? What's that? The good old days. . .

I read about a small boy who fell off a bridge and right into the open hatch of an empty freight car of a train passing by.

He got an unwanted free ride through a couple of towns before another little kid told his parents "hey, someone is screaming for help from that train car over there!".

My drive into town parallels an infrequently used RR track. Yesterday, I noticed a train coming with steam pouring out the smokestack. Smokestack? Steam? My brain was struggling to make sense of this. As the engine approached, there were people inside at the window and even someone almost hanging on out side. They all waved at me and tooted the horn. WooooWoooo!

I waved back.

The train was named the Sugarland Express. It was maybe 5-6 cars long. Perhaps a tourist thing?

It made me smile.

too bad you couldn't get a pic of that at the time. that is a moment to remember.

Awesome. I road the steam train in Lancaster Pennsylvania.

Ya gotta burn sumpin to boil water ...to make steam. First they used logs, then they used coal, and finally they used petroleum towards the end of the age of steam. So its smoke from the fire that comes out of the smokestack. Its steam vapor that comes out of the whistles, and probably other "safety valve" mechanisms.

In places like Switzerland for a short period of a few years when shortages hit due to the war and the period after, they were running a few of their steam locomotives heating the water using electric water heaters and the locos were collecting the current using roof mounted pantographs as the lines also ran electric locomotives and railcars.
It may not have been the most efficient way to run steam locomotives, but for them it worked as they had no coal in the country but a lot of their electricity was generated for free (And still is) as due to the powerful flow of their rivers, from the early years hydro electric power stations were built as their countries geological and climatical surroundings were ideal for such forms of power generation, most of which are still in use to this day!

Other common fuels used in powering steam locomotives depending where one was were peat (In Ireland and a few other places) or in some countries, the waste material from sugar beet in sugar plantations where theirsteam locomotives were usually fitted with roofs over their tenders or loco bunkers to keep the fuel dry in the event of often monsoon-like rain.
Steam locomotives in theory being external combustion engines can in theory be run from a great number of fuels though obviously some fuels lend themselves as a more efficient way of gaining heat than others.

In advanced steam locomotives the chimney is far too short to generate the necessary draft. After the steam has driven the pistons, it is fed through a nozzle aimed up the smokestack to get the smoke going. A jet pump in a deep water well works on the same principle. You can observe the puffing easily at low speeds. Also, at low speed, the valve gear is adjusted to have more residual pressure left when the valves open, giving a stronger "chuff" sound.

So its both smoke and steam that goes out the smokestack. And thats why the combination is in rhythm with the speed of train...slow chuffing at first, and then just steady smoke/steam as it speeds down the rails.

Wish I was there , ! It is such a rare sight to see a Steam Locomotive in Operation for very many Years, Anywhere

Once Many Year back , Got to ride the Narrow Gauge Steam engine at Roaring Camp , California . Next to a Redwood Forest Camp grounds, The Triple Canopy Trees were as incredible as the Steam Engine ride.