13 Train Songs to Stop You in Your Tracks

All aboard for another Plethora of Pop music writing challenge

Jump aboard for some great tunes. Photo of author from author’s private collection.

I love trains. The delays and congestion caused by planes and automobiles do my head in. So, wherever possible, it’s trains all the way for me.

Besides, my dad was a train driver for over 40 years. Someone once rode up front with Dad and filmed what became the video clip for an electronic song called “Tom’s Train”. (My dad is Tom.) I’m not sure what happened to the song, maybe it was never released, but train footage is cool and has been used in many a music video.

When Pierce McIntyre challenged us to write about 13 songs with a “planes, trains and automobiles” theme, I decided to skip the planes and automobiles and focus on the trains.

At first, I thought I’d come up with 13 rockin’ rhythm and blues train songs. There’s something about that guitar that thumps along and conjures up a time when countries like the US and Australia were crisscrossed with a network of trains full of people off to seek their fortunes.

Then I realised that there are also great train songs in other music genres — folk, funk, new wave, reggae, soul. It was really hard to narrow my list down to just 13 train songs, so expect part 2 at some point.