Don't see how anyone would want to be in the kitchen with Dinah if she were a train. And the euphemistic expression of being in the kitchen with Dinah strumming on the old banjo, to my dirty old mind, has sexual connotations. It was also perfectly routine for a bell or gong or horn (or a steam whistle) to be used to call gangs in for midday rations in lots of man-labor operations; so anyone tired of swinging a hammer or shovel might be inclined to wish that the kitchen Mother (for whom Dinah is a normal enough name) would call him and the rest of the tarriers in for a break and some chow. Cf. Nelly, the Belle of Blue Lake, in Warner's "Township 19". And the earlier sad Irish tale of getting "six months hard" for "courting in the kitchen", in the song of that name. Kitchens have traditionally been a good place for hired help to make hay because the houseowner or lord of manse or whoever usually don't come by.

Just my $.02. Regards,

A