I was born in Detroit, and raised in Racine and Milwaukee, Wisconsin - all places of heavy industry, and I don't remember any work songs from any of those industries. There were union songs, but not work songs. As some said above, the work was noisy and not conducive to singing. All of these places had lots of taverns (really wonderful taverns, by the way), but the songs in the taverns were about drinking and sports - not about work. I'm sure the same was true of the locomotive shops.

Looking at the Websites about locomotive shops, I noticed that most of them had at least one crane made by the Bucyrus-Erie Corporation of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin (film). Bucyrus-Erie makes draglines and all sorts of mining equipment, but it was the cranes that have always fascinated me. The cranes ride on rails high above a factory floor, and can go sideways on rails perched on the rails, covering every inch of the factory. This rails-on-rails design is very simple, but it does the trick. I used to drive by the Bucyrus-Erie plant twice a week, and it was a thrill to look inside - especially at night. The specific name for this type of crane is overhead crane or "bridge crane." The ones I've seen were almost always made by Bucyrus-Erie. They are very versatile, and can lift amazing amounts of weight - even entire locomotives. Bucyrus-Erie also builds gantry cranes, which straddle the area where they are working and often ride on rails on the ground.

I looked through a number of books of work songs - nothing about heavy industry.

-Joe-