- Taumarunui
on the Main Trunk Line
- Y'
kin get tuh Ta'm'r'nui goin' North or goin' South
An' yuh pull in there at midnight with cinders in yuh mouth
Cinders in yuh whiskers and cinders in y'r eye
So yuh pop off t' Refreshments fer a cuppa tea an' pie.
- The
Hole in the Hill
-
Your jalopy and you ride the logs to the mill
For them sign posts don't lie through the hole in the hill.
- The
Rimutaka Line
- Two
miles an hour, upwards we go
Headed for the summit buried in the snow
- The
T.T. Line
- With
axe and pick, where the bush was thick, In gullies where
the sun can't shine,
We drove the tracks by the strength of our backs, When we
built the T.T. line.
- Big
Bull Yank
- Now
hear the sound of her hard exhaust, as her weight leans on the
train,
There's a heavy roar as the bridge is crossed, and she's free
out on the plain.
- Pillows
of the Dead
- We'd
just opened up our presents, when a roaring wall of mud
Poured down the gorge behind us, tossing pillows on its
flood
And a thousand shattered timbers, painted railway carriage
red...
- Minnie
Dean
- Minnie
Dean, Minnie Dean, she's gonna catch you
And take you away on the afternoon train...
- The
Okaihau Express
- The
driver doesn't worry if he takes the journey slow,
Drivin' the Okaihau Express.
He's got all day to do it, an' just forty miles to go...
- The
Posthole Song
- "Here's
five hundred prefab postholes, for a Mangaweka farmer,"
I wrote on some empty wagons in the yard...
- The
Railwayan's Daughter
- A
railwayman’s sickly, he's caught influenza
Now fifty have fever, seven are dead
The trains have stopped running, there’s no crew to man
them,
So the Railwayman's Daughter is called from her bed.
- The
Wreck of the Old 2-2-7
- Oh
they gave him his orders at Taihape station,
Saying, "Driver, you're way behind time...
- Kiwi
Express
- "All
aboard!" shouts the guard, and you struggle and sweat
To shove all your suitcases up in the net...
-
- The
Fairlie Flier
- So
firemen stoke the engine, steam down that railway track,
This train that's leaving Fairlie is never, never coming
back.
- My
Man's Gone Now
Under a tarpaulin rides a bum called John.
He was a strange man, but he is gone...
- Sergeant
Small
-
I wish that I was fourteen stone and I was six feet tall,
I'd take a special trip up north, to beat up Sergeant Small.
There
is also The Night Train to Waiuku, recorded by
Murray Grindley in 1977.
Listen on Spotify
The KB Cannonball -
Phil Garland collected this.
Listen on Spotify
The Kingston Flier by Dusty Spittle 1970s
The A-Class Tinwald Flier by Garner Wayne
Railway Bill, collected by Neil Colquhoun, in Songs
of a Young Country.
Listen
on Spotify
There
is a record track called Harry the Fell Engine,
written and read
by Merv Smith in 1960. This is not a song but a story.
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