WHAT TUNES DO YOU JAM TO WHEN RUNNING TRAINS?

Either 50's on 5 or 60's on 6. Satellite Radio

Nice

Spence. Great idea. I need to get sat radio in there. We have a commercial oldies station on but that's a better idea. 

Good idea, Rockstars. Mrs Muffin and I got approached and asked if we were rock stars. "Yup" I say. "I am Lamb Patty and She is Chicken Pot Pie." 

Jupiter& The 119 Friend's of mine. The band is Rail Road Earth. Lot good stuff

Hi Nick,  Like the sound of your music!  I Love rock, especially on vinyl. I  have a turntable in the family room next to my train room.   The vinyl spans from AC-DC to Zappa.. 

Right On I was going to say Social D even before I clicked on the link.

Lets go a bit more old school Social D though

The Rev is also good

Not train but sets a mood Hank 3

Or Hank3 doing the Wreck of the Old '97

On of course anything by Utah Phillips

Grateful Dead: tons of great railroad related tunes.

Brewman - I also have Zappa on vinyl: (who you jiving with that Cosmic Debris)

Paul - I miss Frank Z - Licata

Love Zappa too have over 40 But wouldn't call it train music.

Mostly the music of postwar trains running on tubular rails. Sometimes the songs of Woody Guthrie.

Pete

Anything from one of six Terry Lee's CD's. Music For Young Lovers. Or any slow Doo Wop from the late fifties thru the sixties.

"Freebird" and "Stairway to Heaven" of course..

I usually don't, since train time is my quiet time away from the cacophony of stages and studios.

When I do, I usually listen to the blues channel or love songs channel on SirusXm, or the Classic Rock channel on my FiosTv.

When I listen to music, it's mostly Forties swing.  But not when I'm running the trains.  The train noise pretty much drowns everything else out.

Here is a video I made awhile back with Chuck Berry's "All Aboard" playing during a running session.

I play with trains to get away from music for a while....

Jeff C

The sound of gears grinding equipment clacking along and air whistles are the music to my ears. 

I have not listened to music since the 80's and I like sounds of the trains so much, who needs it.

Mostly classic rock. Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straights, Metallica, punk and country  

I just like the sounds of my trains when I operate the layout.  When I'm driving in my Jeep Wrangler I listen to oldies, 50's, 60's and early 70's.  Makes me feel young again.

Steve, Lady and Tex

Doo Wop

No music when runnning only when working, and it Judas Priest and iron maiden mostly. other than that 80s metal and power metal.

Absolutely!! Up the Irons! I also listen to symphonic metal - Nightwish, Within Temptation, etc.

--Greg

To a fellow Veteran, thanks for your service to our country.

Steve, Lady and Tex

Country from the 70's, 80's and 90's

Dimmu Borgir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jw7yk8hm_0

• Rolling Stones
• Cars
• Posion
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood
• Dire Straits
• Passion Pit
• ZZ Top
• Huey Lewis & the News
• James Coffey
• Beach Boys
• Don Heneley
• Kenny Loggins
• Loverboy
• Bananarama
• Electric Light Orchestra

  It's hard to hear when you run 6 trains at once in a basement. But when I do I prefer the RAMONES at full blast!

Neil Young on vinyl.

Brad

None really. I prefer the sound of the trains, but my wife suggests I play Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train". I think she's trying to tell me something.

50's & 60's from my collection or from my Juke Box. When I was building the layout I always thought of my Dad and how he would have loved to see the trains as they are today. The video below was taken years ago as I was building the layout.

My tune of choice when running trains is Elmer Fudd singing

"I Been Working On The Railroad" as Bugs Bunny looks on. This

is from a Old Loony Tunes Cartoon from the 40's.  

When I do listen to music it is 50's & 60's Rock & Roll, love the

Beach Boy's & that British Fab Four.  Good Topic.

Many thanks,

Billy C

New motive power first placed on the tracks....Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries! Somehow it just seems an appropriate background to the occasion.

Successful repairs/installations/completions...Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, of 'chorus'...

Fried electronics...Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, third movement (a.k.a. The Funeral March) 

Starting the trains for guests...William Tell's Overture, 'Hi-yo Silver Streak...AWAY!!!!'

etc,!

No banjo bands, polkas, bagpipes, or recordings of The Flight of the Bumblebee played on an accordion!  Not enough Merlot will tolerate that!!

KD

Man,this is is GREAT,you guys like all the good shi%!

No music, talk radio or sports events on the radio.

Depends entirely on what's on the track.  Most of the time, it's '50s stuff like Chuck Berry, or ????  But then for N&W steam...it's gotta be Southern rock to home-spun grass, and anything in between.  When running the BIG JAY, PRR 2-10-4, especially on a Sandusky Line coal drag...two songs will do. Clapton live @ the Budakan "Cocaine" or Bad Co. "Deal with the Preacher"  Running modern...say EMD SD40-2s, there's a lot of modern stuff out there that captures these machines quite well in an all out battle against the mountain.  Crank it up ! ! !

Pittsburgh's home town group - The Clarks (tip of the hat to forum sponser Dave)...or Led Zeppelin.

Great thread,

Daryl

You guys are not going back far enough. Here's Alberta Hunter w/some slow & easy rolling into the station music:

Bonnie Raitt, Keb Mo, Booker T, TSO, Ronnie Earl, Grover Washington Jr., B.B. King Buddy Guy. Motown

I often open another tab while looking at the forum and pull up a you tube concert.

Today is Bonnie Raitt Road tested

Buddy Holly

Everly Brothers

Jerry Lee Lewis

Eddie Cochran

Isley Brothers

Early Motown

Country Rock

Pigpen era Dead, Yonder Mountain String Band, MOE, Umps, some Cheese and Railroad Earth was just here. So I'm smiling like a Bhudah!

XM "Escape" for sure. Good music all the time with no retched commercials.

Nick and Chris,

Great taste!   Social D. is solid choice.  I also like Mike Ness's solo album. 

Bob Woodruff. (Check out his song "I'm the Train")    Sirius XM ch. 60 (outlaw country) ch. 35 (XMU) and ch. 33 (1st wave)  is what's playing while I'm working on the layout.

It's great reading about the vast range of music taste of our forum members.

My favorite thing to listen to with my trains is a baseball game, preferably an Orioles game, but any MLB game will do.

In the off season I like to listen to BBC Radio, NPR, CNN or MSNBC

Christmas time I love the traditional Christmas music on the cable music station.

The rare times I do listen to other music its Heavy Metal, "hard rock or no rock!"

Black Sabbath (my favorite)

Motorhead

Deep Purple

Dio

Ozzy

Judas Priest

Metallica

and too many others from that era and genre to list

I do like a few newer bands too

Slip Knot

Mudvayne

Power Man 5000

and others that I don't know the names of

Ozzy's "Crazy Train" and Blackfoot's "Train, train" are my favorite train songs

Great Thread, thanks for asking!

Anything by the Moody Blues.

Richard

Booker T & the MGs, Steely Dan/Donald Fagen, The Who, Genesis, Doobie Brothers and others.

When I'm running the trains, usually nothing. When I'm working on the layout, which doesn't happen nearly as much as it should, I listen to vinyl. Black Sabbath, Rory Gallagher, Robin Trower, Dave Mason, Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa, Deep Purple, etc. I listen to very few bands that started after the 70s.

When the trains are running its just the trains I hear.  

When I am working on the layout I listen to a variety of things.  Sometimes it is a train related podcast such as Notch 6 or Model Train Radio, sometimes it is a train video on the tv, and sometimes it is some classic rock, such as Zeppelin, Doors, etc..

1.FM online.  Usually the 50s&60s channel, but there are over 40 channels & no commercials.

when I'm not running anything, but working on the layout, I'll listen to Sinatra,The Bickersons,Homer and Jethro,Glenn Miller, all on vinyl.

Very good choice, I have been listening to the magnificent 7 albums (starting with Nights) for over 40 years and they are still some of the best ever, IMHO. I can still listen to these from beginning to end and fully enjoy them. There was some incredible music "back in the day". What happened? Or am I just old?

Some chooch, as well as some people, are best expressed musically. When I think of the PRR T1 Duplex, she's best expressed in a jazz format. There are a number of different players and bands that will do it. Think Spyro Gyra, Brian Auger, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, just to name a few.  Same thing true with my favorite person, and for a lot of the same reasons!

Most everything from 1957 to 1964, my favorite years in music.  

brings to mind.... a line.... senior citizens wish they were young!

I think I have seen them 15-20 times over the years. great show, even saw them twice in the same day!. they played a 3 PM and 8 PM show and we went to both.

I have a few tunes with my layout videos…

EL2558 Youtube // http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...V-PhYwww.youtube.com

Cutting edge, left all the classics for another day.

McnA6kWFpeYatchcnA6kWFpeY01778 200172801728Long Island Railroad 2001778 2001728

My taste in music is probably quite contrary to what you'd expect from a white, middle aged railroad enthusiast from the suburbs. A few examples:

Pink Floyd -Wish You Were Here

Gandy

Disco!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! terry

Oddly enough for me it's Christmas music (with my favorite group being Mannheim Steamroller) when I'm building animations or working on a layout. My favorite time of the year is Christmas and what better way to have it everyday is with Christmas music. But every now and then I may pick out something different from my giant music collection. I enjoy all kinds of music from the 50's up to today's music.

But when running trains I do not need music, I just take in the sounds coming from the rails. 

I am open to just about all kinds of music except for country and rap, can't tell you why....  But, while either running trains or building the layout I usually listen to hard rock and heavy metal.

Right now I'm listening to:

Black Sabbath - 13

Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators - Apocalyptic Love

Accept - Blood of the Nations

Anthrax - Worship Music

Megadeth - 13

Motorhead - Ace of Spades

Paul

When I am building layout pieces or Repairing or Customizing Engines it is Box Car Willie/ Eddie Arnold/Glenn Miller/ Scatman Crothers or Train Songs from the 40's up to say the 80's and Ragtime and Blues and Jazz

At Christmas time when running the Trains it is 1950's Christmas Music with bits of current time tunes added in.

What was the purpose of this question? I don't get it.

When working on the layout it is a mix of classic rock and 40's swing music.  We running train, it is the sound of the trains that is the music.  

Night Wish when I'm alone.  

Greg

That makes two of us...

The sounds of postwar engines and rolling stock running on tubular track is music to my ears.

Gotta be Bluegrass!

I play music for a living.  And I have three teenaged daughters.  NO MUSIC IN THE TRAIN ROOM!  Or on my boat for that matter!

Jon

While working on the layout at the Choo Choo Barn during the winter months, I listen to a lot of Pink Floyd, cranked up to get the naysayers here "cranked up".  For inspiration in my workroom at home, I actually listen to two different Walt Disnet World Park CDs.  For some reason or another the WDW CDs get my creative juices flowing. 

15 Beers Ago.  What else?

Pete

One at a time for me, I can't multitask.  It's either trains or music.

I can understand why Jon you would not play music in your train room because it is all around you every day at work, but no boat?

We love our XM Escape in the house, in the train room, in the cars, and yes, in our BOAT. My boat came with a satellite radio, but I did not use it until Sirius and XM combined and offered Escape on the Sirius channels. Now it is on all the time on the boat. Just love it!!!!!!

Being serious or facetious?  I'm surprised anyone here is familiar with a black metal band. 

--Greg

Why only when you're alone? 

--Greg

Met Opera on Saturdays, anything classical from Baroque to Copeland, to ragtime, to swing, to 50's & 60's rock, to the Roches and K.T. Tunstall any other time. The last two guarantee I'll be left alone.

Nothing.  I can't imagine playing any music loud enough to be heard over the roar of the trains.

Times change, forum participation changes, the mood of the country & hobby changes...or not.  This is of course a reliable, if not annual thread. Fascinating to see how the responses to this thread changes over time. Happy listening all! 

(& well done OGR team letting this now edgier thread run) . 

Three pages of comments and no one's mentioned Johnny Cash yet?? Ray LaMontagne's another good one, new but an old soul.  But last weekend it was re-runs of NPR's Car Talk.  Maybe mixing genres, but worked for me!

Ah, well, I take care of that at the shop (LHS)!! 

We have a tri-level (HO,O,G) display layout that I built.  The HO scenery features a bandstand under which I placed a speaker.  I have a portable CD player that I plug into the fascia to play band music.  Ellington's classic is on one of several Swing Era CD's I have (The scenery/vehicles/trains/etc. are 30's-40's-ish).  Of course, it's no surprise that the older store patrons enjoy the music more than the millenials.  Anyhow, it's a lot of fun...improves the ambiance.  Seasonally, we'll play Manneheim's classic Christmas albums among others...not very believable for the band size/instruments on the layout...but, hey, everyone 'digs' it! 

We especially have a lot of fun playing Alvin and the Chipmunks albums....we tell the kids 'That's actually the HO people in the park around the bandstand singing!', ...they stare believingly in utter wonderment!!

It's all good!

KD

Not a thing.  I listen to music all week (for work)  and go downstairs to the layout to enjoy the quiet and zone out about what the task is for the day on they layout.. 

What are your favorite groups?

50's, 60's and country from the 90's. Generally, Elvis, Motown, the Beatles, the Stones, Shania, Alan Jackson, Chuck Berry, Patsy Cline, the Doors, so forth and maybe even so on.

Gerry

Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley  

And what about a little Chubby Checker?

I'm slightly surprised that no one listens to actual hobo music, the songs of Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston (real-life hobos), or the "singing brakeman" Jimmy Rodgers ("All Around The Water Tank" - a true classic!)

Don't know of any 100,000 watt sound systems in hobo camps to make that heavy metal noise.  I do, however, admit to occasionally listening to "Tuxedo Junction" by Erskine Hawkins and performed by Glenn Miller because it is the namesake of my layout.  Also don't know of any big bands in hobo camps.

Pete

ps - The best doo wop group is The Jive Five; the best song "My True Story."

A little Chubby Checker was called Ernest Evans.

And a really good Chubby Checker was called Fats Domino.

Gerry

What could be more like heavy metal music then a fright train thundering along at its top speed?

IM with choo choo barn,,  heavy metal,  Pink Floyd. loud,  with a good scotch !!! 

when I'm running trains, it's a lot of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Jackie Gleason &  Stan Getz.  I also play 50's Doo Wop as well. I feel it goes w/ the postwar trains I run & helps create my version of a time machine. Plus Sinatra is just awesome  

I usually listen to this type of thing as it adds to the atmosphere.

http://www.railroadradio.net/

http://www.alabamarailfan.com/live-scanner.php

Interesting thread.  I remember in high school listening to the Pittsburgh top 40 station while working on my HO layout.  That was the early '70s.  After college, I worked in Richmond Virginia for a while and started listening to country.  Then I listened to oldies, 50's to early '70s.  Later, I realized I liked older Southern Rock.  Now I don't listen to much of anything, except my wife's piano and when our music student youngest daughter is home I hear her opera and whatever classics she is practicing.

If they aren't playing or singing, I just listen to the trains singing on the rails.

My non-electronic trains make their own music: steel wheels pounding on steel rails, clattering on switches and rail joints. My fast, lightweight battery-power transit car with steel wheels actually makes the rails "sing" at high speed.

If I wanted to add other music occasionally it might be Aerosmith "Train kept a-rolling all night long".

I use Fastrack. Who can hear anything except the trains on that? Now, with my new layout and utilizing all of the best track noise deadening tricks I can I'll figure out some music! I do have a collection of appropriate train folk songs....

"Railroad Bill, Railroad Bill, he never worked and he never will!"

WOW I'm surrounded by oldtimers.....Guess im the whipersnaper and old ball young blood... I jam out to christian metal/alternative music..this one of my favorite band.but do listen to some 70 stuff like montrose.,boston..

Moody Blues

The sound of Frankie Valli and the 4 seasons always takes me back to my youth and model trains.  My annual Christmas HO layout was always set up in our dinning room and at some point our family bought one of those new "Stereos" and it was placed right next to my layout. I played my Four Seasons album over and over as my Tyco and Fleishman trains ran around Plasticville for hours at a time. Add the smell of dyed lychen and I think I'm gonna ' cry.

Conductor Earl

yardlet6,

I saw your question to Sail Loco pertaining to favorite Doo Wop groups.

These are a few of my favorites.

The Skyliner's
The Flamingo's
The Dubs
The Innocents
Johnny and Jo
Robert and Johnny
The Duprees
The Demensions
The Metallics
The Jive Five
The Capris
The Fiestas
The Jaguars
The Rays
The Students
Ronnie and The Hi-Lites
Rochelle and The Candles
Don and Juan

Two of my favorite girl groups during this time were The Paris Sisters and The Angels.

I sometimes have doowops playing but I usually have the radio on. WBLS.

My favorite groups are:

The Ravens

The Five Keys

Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers

The Diablos

The Moonglows

The Flamingos

Clyde Mc Phatter and the Drifters

The Dominos

The Valentines

The Clovers

and other I am too lazy to put down.

Which Students group do you like? The Philly group or the Cincinnati one. Also check out "Thinking Of You" by the Jaguars.

The question didn't ask what we drink. A good scotch always goes down well before using machinery!  LOL.  But it does quite the nerves a bit prior to working for 4 or 5 hours.

The Jive Five, What Time Is It?  One of my favorite songs from that era.  We saw them at the Valley Forge Music Fair (now defunct) at an oldies concert hosted by non-other than Jerry Blavat about 35 years ago.  Anybody out there remember The Geator?  Plus, can never get enough of Billy Stewart.

Blavat has put out an autobiography. Check it out.

yardlet6,

The group named Students that I was referring to were from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello everyone.  I have to say theirs nothing like some  ALICE COOPER.  I can play just about anything from this guy and I really enjoy it.

I love Gleason's Mood Music. I have a ton of it on Vinyl  & have been able to find some of it on CD too

Now IF I was running Baldwin Centipedes (which, Praise the Father, I don't have!)  ...I'd have to put on Alice Cooper - Ballad of David Frey !    

Stanley Newcomb Kenton, Stan the Man.

MAN will this thread ever die? Just checked my email and ohh my gouge, Thank  Begeesus, I taint thee only one who listens too obscure tunes, but I don't check it too often and man this thing was full. I think the music thing freaks out some of thee more established folks though. SUUUPER glad too sea the world keeps turning. At least Im not the only one.  an you doo whop guys what about Clarence Frogmouth ?..., whats his last name ? 

Whatever is coming out of my Mr.Christmas carousel in the "amusement park area".

Clarence Frogman Henry

Me and my band with Jerry in 1967 following a personal appearance at a Philly area school the day after we lip-synched our record on his TV show.

I'm the cutie with the eye patch due to an injury, not a gimmick.  Lotta lifetimes ago.

Pete