Chattanooga Choo Choo - The Andrew Sisters

[tarheeltinkerer]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-eWtTkWmOU[/youtube]

[m0xiemama]

Sounds great. Reminds me I danced to this song in a middle school play. Haha not the best memory but a great song nonetheless.

[Henry]

Great Johnny Mercer! And geographically correct, too, I might add. "You leave the Pennsylvania Station 'bout a quarter to four, read a magazine and then you're in Baltimore [thanks to the Pennsy's magnificent electrification of the Northeast Corridor between NYC and WashDC, and the equally magnificent GG-1 electric locomotives that pulled the trains]. Dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer than to have your ham 'n' eggs in Carolina. When you hear the whistle blowing eight-to-the-bar [having changed now from electric to steam in DC], then you know that Tennessee is not very far. Shovel all the coal in, got to keep on rollin,' choo-choo-Chattanooga here we are." Brilliant! The delight of a railfan musician's heart!

P.S. One would have had to change trains somewhere in Carolina to get over to Chattanooga, probably on the L&N (Louisville & Nashville).

Chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga, woo-oo-oo!

[coyote]

And geographically correct, too, I might add.

Thanks for the info! In all the years I've known the lyrics, I never considered that part of that journey was electric.

[Henry]

The first part of the journey, from Penn Station NYCity to Manhattan Transfer, in the New Jersey "meadowlands" (now there's a euphemism if there ever was one!), was always by electric; it was the only means of propulsion to get through the Hudson River tunnels in steam days without asphyxiating everybody on the train; from there south it was by steam. When the electrification was extended to WashDC in the 1930s, then (electric) locomotives ran straight through without changing. South of DC it was steam (in later years diesel, of course).

Pennsylvania Station in New York City opened in 1910 and the head house, as the upper (street level) part is called, was demolished c. 1963, an historical tragedy of epic proportions, but that's another story. Today the trackage below grade is the only survivor of the original station complex.

[syncopeter]

I've always loved the song - at least since I was twelve - but never was aware it was so realistic. I did know about 'Route 66', but here in Europe things are so different, crossing country borders every few - or even less - hundred miles. Driving from here in mid Holland to Italy - a bit over 1,000 miles - means going through 6 different countries. Thanks to the Schengen agreement, border control has become virtually non-existent but even so one notices immediately when a border is crossed.