įollowing is a list of nearly 800 songs by artists worldwide, alphabetized by song title. The number of train songs that have appeared since then is impossible to determine, not only because of the difficulties in documenting the songs but also in defining the genre. Another song written for the occasion, 'Rail Road March' by Charles Meineke, was copyrighted two days after Clifton's, one day before the July 4 ceremonies. 'The Carrollton March', copyrighted July 1, 1828, was composed by Arthur Clifton to commemorate the groundbreaking of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The earliest known train songs date to two years before the first public railway began operating in the United States. While the prominence of railroads in the United States has faded in recent decades, the train endures as a common image in popular song.
Trains have been a theme in both traditional and popular music since the first half of the 19th century and over the years have appeared in all major musical genres, including folk, blues, country, rock, jazz, world, classical and avant-garde. Sheet music for the first-known train song Ĭommemoration of the groundbreaking for the Baltimore & Ohio RailroadĪ train song is a song referencing passenger or freight railroads, often using a syncopated beat resembling the sound of train wheels over train tracks.
