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GUEST,AnneMC Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?) (12) Lyr Add: NOTHING LIKE A TRAIN(?) 21 Aug 07


Heard on English railway DVD called "Trains Remembered - Volume 1," but no attribution to any artist on DVD or jewel case. Anyone know who the artist is, correct title for song, additional lyrics?
AnneMC


NOTHING LIKE A TRAIN(?)

1. The train that I'm riding is sweaty, smelly and dry.
It's like the bus but it runs on rails and the fares are twice as high.
I can't even open the window to get some fresh air to my nose,
Except of course in the dead of winter when I can't get the windows closed.

CHORUS: So it's hello, diesel, goodbye, steam.
You've had your day, old friend. You're an old has-been.
Electricity and no more coal,
No smoke and white steam and the mighty engines roll,
Steamin' down the levels, will we ever see their like again?
Singing round the bank and, yes, there's nothing like a train
...a steam train.

2. When I was a young boy on a ... trip to Crewe
Lean against the wall with a thermos flask and I watched the trains go through.
Smell the steam and coal and the smoke, and look for the sparks and flames
Smell the smell of the lubricating oil. I'll never see them again.

3. Give us back the old black fives and take away the trains
That smell like tractors and look like buses and sound like aeroplanes.
When did you last see a semaphore signal or a gantry over the train,
Or roasting coal in the firebox setting the world aflame. CHORUS

4. Come to the country, see what you'll see:
People polishing tank locomotives, people like you and me,
People stoking boilers, people tapping wheels,
The steam building up in the country, the Kent and Sussex fields.

5. And it isn't just for history, it isn't for fun,
It's just to show the whole darn world how a railway should be run, (x2)
... on steam ... on steam ... on steam... on steam.


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