OH RAILROAD One late night, or rather one early morning, I was watching an educational station on cable tv. The program was about transportation in the modern world. The shows focus was about shipping, and its evolution. I thought it interesting how they told viewers that we should be using the aircraft to link us with far away countries... and ships and barges to move mass goods throughout the world and to major ports... and diesel trucks and trailers to transport these goods to all the remote places, and the myriad storage warehouses and stores of the world. When they mentioned trains, there seemed to me to be a different, almost hostile attitude. They spoke of trains as if they were dinosaur remnants that have outlived their usefulness. They said that in fact, the very distance between the tracks were a throwback to Roman times, and how this is the same distance a chariots wheels were apart from each other. They continued to relate that when wagons were used in Europe, they just made them to fit the ruts of the chariots... so these railways were built to the same standard. Two days later as I sat in my car waiting on a train, I noticed how the train had stacks of motor boats and diesel trucks and trailers. It hit me as ironic when along came the fuselage of a fairly large aircraft... minus it's wings. That irony is what fueled the lyrics to this song. This "relic" was carrying the very things we were "supposed" to be shipping on! I had a good laugh. When I started writing the song, I also envisioned the romance the rails have held for most of the writers of my time. I hope the song hit its mark.