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Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2013 9:29:05 GMT -5
Once upon a time, railroads were the only way to travel comfortably. Many songs were written around the railroads and trains.
Does anyone else miss the sound, smell and music of the railroad era?
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Post by earleg on Nov 24, 2013 0:08:14 GMT -5
I lived near a rail yard in the mid to late '50s. We used to go over and around it quite a bit. Some times there would be an old locomotive parked there and would climb around on it. A caboose became a hangout for a bit. They would just park stuff there for a while but there never any rail workers around to chase us off.
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Post by AlanB on Nov 24, 2013 3:43:10 GMT -5
I don't know if Paul Garon & Gene Tomko's Black Hoboes & Their Songs:What's the use of walking if there's a freight train going your way (Kerr 2006. 296pps + CD) is still in print but well worth borrowing from a library. Here's the table of contents
Prefatory Remarks on Objective Chance vii Introduction 1 Origins of the Hobo 11 African Americans in the South 19 Cutting Down Timber & Hauling Coal 34 Hobo Blues 68 Railroad Bulls and Hobo Jungles 115 49 Highway Blues 143 So Cold Up North 154 Crime, Prison and Outlaws 177 Organizing Migrants 199 Settling Down 223 Conclusion 239 Notes 247 Bibliography 268 Index 277
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Post by Admin on Nov 25, 2013 5:11:42 GMT -5
Hobo jungles still exist in the States.
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Post by beat on Jan 31, 2014 23:52:52 GMT -5
Whenever I hear that someone has a "passion" for railroading -- I think of this CD Train Sounds of the 40s & 50s - Steam Locomotives Original Recordings from the family of Harold Spicer. Spicer was an award-winning photographer for the Baltimore News Post from 1939 to 1972. He frequented the Lansdowne station and Riverside Yards in Baltimore as he ran his then state-of-the-art wire recorder. This 72-minute CD preserves a time when Baltimore and Ohio, New York Central, Pennsylvania, and Western Maryland locomotives barreled across the rails of the Eastern US...
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Post by Admin on Feb 6, 2014 11:41:37 GMT -5
Thanks Beat...
There has been so much of the "roots" music that relates to the sounds, culture, etc. of the railroad industry. And quite obviously, we wouldn't have much of the blues if it were not for the existence of the railroads in the early 20th century. Hobo'ing was a way of life for many African-Americans leaving the rural south for the "promised land" of the northern factories and industries.
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