'Oh mister undertaker, yeah
Take this coffin from my home'
- 'Graveyard Train' by Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969)
- 📷 Swindon, England, 1974, taken by Richard Dowle

'So goodnight, yeah goodnight
Goodnight train is gonna carry me home'

Remembering, and always celebrating, the life of Gerry Rafferty, born on this day in 1947.

📷 David Hayes

The latest edition of the excellent 'Deltic Deadline' magazine is out featuring, among other things, an article by yours truly about the film 'Get Carter' & its title sequence music. Do yourself a favour and buy a copy. Or, even better, become a member of the Deltic Preservation Society.

Indeed. I know that part of the world well (I live in Cardiff now) but don't remember it when the viaduct was there. Hard to believe now that it was!

'Outside they're ringing
The night train is bringing me home'
- 'Almost Saturday Night' by Dave Edmunds who turns 82 today - happy birthday Dave
- 📷 Waterloo station, London, 1967, taken by David Rostance

'Back on the train, I ask why did I come again?
Can I confess, I've been hanging round your old address?'
- 'Missing' by Everything But The Girl (1994)
- 📷 Crumlin, South Wales, early 1960s, taker unknown

'The trouble train is coming, it's full of troubled souls who have gone astray'

Happy birthday going out to Brian Setzer of The Stray Cats & beyond, seen here in full on Johnny B Goode mode strumming by the railroad track, who turns 67 today.

📷 Russ Harrington

'Look out, here she comes
Look out, there she goes'
- 'If Love Was A Train' by Michelle Shocked (1988)
- 📷 Anchorage, Alaska, USA, early 1970s, taken by Leo King

Strange yet true. The '400 miles' in the lyrics to Gerry Rafferty's 'City to City' and Big Country's 'Fields of Fire' are deliberate references to the approximate distances by train from London to both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

'Now he's just come out the movie
Numb of all the pain
Sad, but in a while
He'll soon be back on his train'
- 'Rudy' by Supertramp (1974)
- 📷 Plymouth, England, 1975, taken by Trevor Ermel

Happy birthday Agnetha Faltskog who turns 76 today

📷 Tumba railway station, Sweden, 1982, filming the video to Abba's 'The Day Before You Came'

American singer & actress Rachel Sweet takes the driver's seat of a class 40 locomotive at Edinburgh Waverley station during the 'Be Stiff' UK tour of 1978 (where all the featured acts travelled the length & breadth of the UK to gigs on a special ‘Stiff’ charter train).

'Beware the passenger
The train already left the station
We are neither at home nor at work
We are moving'
- 'Tombstone' by Crowded House (1986)
- 📷 Peterborough, England, 1978, taken by Antony Guppy

Happy birthday Lene Lovich, 77 today, veteran of the bonkers yet marvellous initiative that was the 'Be Stiff Tour’ of 1978 (where all the acts travelled the length & breadth of the UK to gigs on a special ‘Stiff’ charter train). Lene's the one pictured here, far left.

'I'm stupidly happy, I roll like a train
I'm stupidly happy, with you in my brain'
- 'Stupidly Happy' by XTC (2000)
- 📷 Cogload Junction, England, mid-1970s, taker unknown

'We won't be meeting again
On the slow train'
- 'Slow Train' by Flanders and Swann (1963) on this, the 63rd anniversary of the Beeching Report
- 📷 Rudgwick, Sussex, England, 1965, taken Graham Crummett

'At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet
And a freight train running through the middle of my head'
- 'I'm On Fire' by Bruce Springsteen (1984)
- 📷 Newport, Wales, 2026, taken by @spencervignes.bsky.social

"The one that springs immediately to mind is Paul Simon's 'Train In The Distance'. It's not even really about trains. It's about life. Wherever you are, that train means there's somewhere else." - Dennis Locorriere of Dr Hook reveals his favourite train song

📷 Antony Guppy

You know what? I've done hundreds, but somehow missed both of those. Rest assured, that will change (and I'll credit you when the time comes). Thanks!

'And the big steel rail, gonna carry me home to the one I love'
- 'Steel Rail Blues' by Gordon Lightfoot (1966)
- 📷 Grand Junction, Colorado, 1989, taken by Richard Steinheimer

It's nine years today since the book that spawned this Bluesky account had its launch party at the one & only @spillersrecords.bsky.social

Happy birthday 'The Train Kept A-Rollin - How The Train Song Changed The Face of Popular Music' by @spencervignes.bsky.social - and thank you Spillers.

'It was a wild and wet November night and the rush hour was at its height
King's Cross the venue that the finger of death was pointed at'
- 'Who Was That Man?' by Nick Lowe, who turns 77 today
- 📷 Kings Cross station, London, 1978, taken by David Hayes

'As sure as heaven's above us and hell is down below
Without a third rail to drive us, we'll have no place to go'
- 'Third Rail' by Squeeze (1993)
- 📷 London, England, 1959, taken by Dick Riley

'Life doesn't run on railway tracks
It twists and turns, it's not white and black'
- 'Railway Tracks' by John Illsley (2014)
- 📷 Stratford, England, 1976, taken by George Woods

'Did you work upon the railroad?
Did you rid the streets of crime?
Were your dollars from the White House?
Were they from the Five And Dime?'
- 'Thousands Are Sailing' by The Pogues (1988) on this, St Patrick's Day 2026
- 📷 LaCoste, Texas, 1960, taken by Roger Puta

'Now the night train is waiting to take me away
And I'm still feeling guilty cause you're wanting me to stay'
- 'City to City' by Gerry Rafferty (1978)
- 📷 Carlisle, England, 1967, taken by Trevor Ermel

"In the car I'm being talked at by the radio, or the phone is ringing. The phone doesn't work properly on the train. You've got this hour or two or three of tranquillity where you can read or write, do the crossword or just stare out of the window." - John Illsley of Dire Straits

"Is there a Mr Carter in the room?"

On this day in 1971 the film 'Get Carter' (featuring the best train song instrumental of all time in the form of 'Main Theme - Carter Takes A Train' by Roy Budd) went on general release in the UK.

'Ah the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You'd been to the station to meet every train
You came home without Lili Marlene'
- 'Famous Blue Raincoat' by Leonard Cohen (1971)
- 📷 Wood Green, 1969, taken by Trevor Ermel

"I wrote it as a form of 'I'm the last person standing, I'm the last of the good old brigade', as someone who is determined to fight against progress, to retain individuality. I will stand alone." - Ray Davies on the inspiration behind the song 'Last Of The Steam-Powered Trains'