Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)

Subject: Lyr Add: NOTHING LIKE A TRAIN(?)
From: GUEST,AnneMC
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 06:13 AM

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.

Subject: RE: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: Muttley
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 04:33 AM

It's not a rewording of Rogers and Hammerstein's "Nothing Like a Dame" is it???

"There is nothing like a train - - - nothing in this world:"
etc!!

:-)

Mutt

Subject: RE: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 04:53 AM

I always think the R&H should be reworked to "I've got nothing like a brain..."

Can't help with your query though, Anne. If you like songs about trains Stanley Accrington's 'Last train to Bacup' is good as well.

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: GUEST,AnneMC
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 05:40 AM

No, think it is an original not a rewording of Rogers and Hammerstein.

ANNE

Subject: RE: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: GUEST,Simon Burley
Date: 09 Jun 10 - 06:38 AM

Dear Anne,

I love this song too and am trying to find out who made it and if I can get it on CD. Did you ever find out?

Thank you,

Simon

Subject: RE: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: GUEST,callum conway
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 11:33 AM

has any one found it yet im looking as well

Subject: RE: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 30 May 13 - 03:38 AM

Refresh, until I have time to post the complete and underwhelming answer to this conundrum......

Subject: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 30 May 13 - 12:23 PM

I got this today from Doc Cox, formerly reviled as Ivor Biggun, my eminent colleague in the remarkably unnoticed Trembling Wheelbarrows, east Suffolk's premier comedy band in our price bracket. The record (or DVD, anyway) finally set straight.

'It seems that some poor misguided sod wants to know who writ it. I know that one or two people did perform it in the London area, mostly odd refugees from Lime Grove and a bloke who played the guitar on the KENT & EAST SUSSEX line. But it was me wot rote it when I was a sound assistant at the Beeb.
I originally did it for a BBC-film-sound-recordist and Scout Leader (in the days when you could be a scout leader and not raise a snigger) called Brian Biffin. He was a leading light on the K and E.S. and had shot some footage of tank engines, whatever they are. He made me a list of train-type phrases ("Welsh Steam Coal" was one I remember) and I put 'em to a Johnny Cash-type tune with lots of assistance from another sound engineer whose name I think was Robin. He did all the clever musical bits. I just strummed and sang.
We recorded it in "down time" at a dubbing studio in Lime Grove, on about four tracks. The early evening "Nationwide" programme took a liking to it, a film editor grabbed some stock-shots of steam trains and they made a short music video. It was screened several times, because it was their "standby" film, to fill screen-time whenever
anything went wrong in the studio, and on "Nationwide" a LOT of things went wrong in the studio.

Wally Whyton phoned me up out of the blue and offered to copyright it via his new publishing company, but I'd already promised the K&ES that they could have it for free and sell it on 8mm film and later, on those new-fangled VHS cassettes.

Then it disappeared into the ether. After all, it WAS from a scratchy old film. The "Nationwide" lash-together was in black-and-white but the version that Brian Biffin did was in colour, albeit grotty 8mm 1970's colour. That must be the one that has ended up on the DVD.
I know that MUTTLEY and DAVE THE GNOME have probably forgotten about it by now, but perhaps you could be so kind as to mention that it was A TREMBLING WHEELBARROW who dun the song, and mention Brian Biffin as the film-maker?'

Subject: RE: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: AnneMC
Date: 05 Jun 13 - 03:11 AM

Many thanks for the update, Roger.

Subject: RE: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jun 13 - 02:27 PM

Found it - a shorter version though.

https://soundcloud.com/krodgerson/hello-diesel-goodbye-steam

Subject: RE: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 18 - 05:13 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WVNCJF1LlA&t=8s is the clip you're looking for.

Regards

Erik-Jan

Subject: RE: Origins: UK train song -Nothing like a Train (?)
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 11 Aug 18 - 06:45 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WVNCJF1LlA