I wrote about riding the rails to Mobile in this week’s Saturday Odds & Sods. I still have train tunes on my mind and in my head. Hence this post.

Last Sunday, I posted a literal list of train tunes. They all had the word train in the title. This week, none of the tunes have the word train in the title. Does that make this a figurative list? Beats the hell outta me.

Once again, I picked my favorite version of each train tune. They’re arranged in chronological order based on the recording date.

Enough with the preliminaries, ALL ABOARD.

We begin with a song written for the 1941 movie musical Sun Valley Serenade. It poses this question: Pardon me boy, is this the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

I had this Mercer-Van Heusen classic in my head as the Mardi Gras Express left the station:

The first list was Cashless; this one is not.

A great album track from The Band featuring a typically brilliant lead vocal by Richard Manuel.

Marrakesh Express was written by Graham Nash. It’s the CSN song that sounds the most like his first group, The Hollies. Not a bad thing at all.

Mud Slide Slim is my favorite James Taylor album. This is one of its highlights as JT rides on the RR. Did he have training wheels? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Jethro Tull. Say no more.

There are oodles of versions of Steve Goodman’s City Of New Orleans to choose from. I’ve always had a bit of a crush on Judy Collins, so I landed on her 1974 version of this train tune. Yet again, the eyes have it.

It’s no secret that I’m an Anglophile. The Brits call railroads railways, represented here by the Albion Band, which is a Fairport Convention spin-off. They’re to Fairport what Frasier is to Cheers or some such shit.

This is a long list so it’s time to take a break, Driver 8:

Tons Of Steel is a rare non Hunter-Garcia or Weir-Barlow Grateful Dead song with a rare non-Garcia or Weir lead vocal. It was written and sung by Brent Myland, the best keyboard player they ever had.

The Dixie Flyer was the name of a train line that was discontinued in 1969. It’s also the title of one of my favorite Randy Newman tunes. What’s not to like about a song with Mark Knopfler on lead guitar?

What’s an Adrastos listicle without some lagniappe?

We begin with the Mercer-Arlen classic, Blues In The Night, which was featured on the Friday Cocktail Hour last May:

Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson? That goes for Louis too.

Finally, a song I planned to make part of the dozen but for some reason the train focused promo video is age-limited. That’s why I settled for this mundane clip and demoted it to lagniappe. Sorry, Dwight.