I've been working on the railroad

All the live-long day.

I've been working on the railroad

Just to pass the time away.

Don't you hear the whistle blowing,

Rise up so early in the morn;

Don't you hear the captain shouting,

"Dinah, blow your horn!"

Throughout the years Folk music, trains, and railroads would hardly exist in this country without one another. Going back to the early days of the building of the railroads, and the introduction to train travel, from the early west to the times of the Depression, the vast variety of peoples traveled on trains in search of work.  These immigrants, working class folks, told in song of the trains, tracks and places.  Some of the greatest American folk songs of all time can be traced back to the building of the railroads'. The song I've been working on the railroad, is a truly great song. For those who have ever even tried to move a railroad tie, you know what I mean. In my younger days, some 30 years ago I moved over 200 railroad ties to build walls around my property which are still solid today. I have family that worked for the railroad, on the track crew. To pull the spike, take the plate off, roll the rail and pick up the tie out of the ballast wow, unless you have done such, it is one of the hardest jobs ever.

"I've Been Working on the Railroad" is an American folk song. The first published version appeared as "Levee Song" in Carmina Princetonia, a book of Princeton University songs published in 1894.he earliest known recording is by the Sandhills Sixteen, released by Victor Recordsin 1927.

 Our nations railroads were primarily built  African-Americans and immigrants (particularly Irish immigrants). The work was hot, and grueling and was more tolerable by the presence of music. (similarly to the way field calls and African-American folk songs developed out of the slave tradition).

In the case of "I've Been Working on the Railroad," the telling line is "...all the livelong day." These men really did back-breaking work beyond the hours of labor now acceptable in our society.

Did you know?  The refrain that talks about someone being "in the kitchen with Dinah." This is from another folk song published in London in the 1830s. According to Wikipedia, "It was published as 'Old Joe, or Somebody in the House with Dinah' in London in the 1830s or '40s, with music credited to J.H. Cave." (This note was credited to the Mudcat Cafe, which is an excellent source for lyrics and the history of songs.)ound the plates all by hand.

The train rail had its beginning in 1768  when the Coalbrookdale Iron Works [England] laid cast iron plates on top of the wooden rails, providing a more durable load-bearing surface. These were later used by Benjamin Outram at his foundry in Ripley, Derbyshire. Here the first time standardised components were produced. It was these first time componets that led to the name "platelayer" for workers on the permanent way. The advantage was that a considerable variation in wheel spacing (gauge) could be accommodated. However, wheels would bind against the upright part of the plate, and mud and stones would accumulate. On the Little Eaton Gangway in 1799, where Outram used passing loops on the single track, moveable plates were provided, called "pointers", which became shortened to "points".

 May, 1831, the first here in The U.S. the first 500 rails, each 15 feet (4.57 m) long and weighing 36 pounds per yard (18 kg/m), reached Philadelphia and were placed in the track, marking the first use of the flanged T rail. Afterwards, the flanged T rail became employed by all railroads in the United States. Col. Stevens also invented the hooked spike for attaching the rail to the crosstie (or sleeper).

Track ballast This is the foundation that the rail and ties lie upon. These forms are the trackbed upon which railroad ties (US) or railway sleepers (UK) are laid.[See picture above] It is packed between, below, and around the ties. It is used to facilitate drainage of water, to distribute the load from the railroad ties, and also to keep down vegetation that might interfere with the track structure. This also serves to hold the track in place as the trains roll by. It is typically made of crushed stone, although ballast has sometimes consisted of other, less suitable materials. The term "ballast" comes from a marine shipping term for the stones used to weigh down a ship.

Rail tracks are the iron rails that guide a train. Used on railways (or railroads), which, together with railroad switches (or points), guide trains without the need for steering. Tracks consist of two parallel steel rails, which are laid upon sleepers (or cross ties) that are embedded in ballast to form the railroad track. The rail is fastened to the ties with rail spikes, lag screws or clips such as Pandrol clips.The type of fastener depends partly on the type of sleeper, with spikes being used on wooden sleepers, and clips being used more on concrete sleepers.Usually, a baseplate tie plate is used between the rail and wooden sleepers, to spread the load of the rail over a larger area of the sleeper. Sometimes spikes[picture below] are driven through a hole in the baseplate to hold the rail, while at other times the baseplates are spiked or screwed to the sleeper and the rails clipped to the baseplate.

Today 99 percent of the railroad ties in the US are still wood and each ones weighs approximately 200 pounds. A typical wood railroad tie is 8-1/2 feet long, 9 inches wide, and 7 inches thick, and made from a variety of hardwoods (such as white pine and cedar).

The earliest railroads in the United States were built of wooden rails capped with thin strips, or "straps," of iron to provide a running surface for the wheels. These were called "strap-rails." Iron rails 18 feet in length were imported from England as early as 1831, and by 1845 or 1850 most railroads were being built of iron rails. The first Bessemer steel rails manufactured in the United States were rolled at the North Chicago Rolling Mills on May 25, 1865, and by 1880 about 30 per cent of all tracks in the United States was laid with steel rails. At the end of another ten years, 80 per cent of the country's mileage was equipped with steel rails, and by the late 1890's steel had almost completely replaced iron.

What are the different parts of the rail called?

• The part of the rail which rests on the ties or the tie plates is the base. The top part of the rail upon which the wheels roll is the head. The part between the base and the head is the web.

What is the standard length of rail?

• The present standard length of rail is 39 feet. Some railroads use 45-foot rails; some use 60-foot rails at street crossings. A few years ago the standard length was 33 ft., and before that it was 30 ft.

Has the weight of rail been increased in recent years?

• Due to the gradual installation of heavier rail in replacements, the weight of rail in track throughout the United States was increased from an average of 82.89 pounds per yard in 1921 to 95.30 pounds per yard in 1940.

How much does rail weigh?

• Rails ranging in weight from 50 to 152 pounds per yard are in use on the railroads of the United States. On trunk line railroads, rail weights range from 85 or 90 pounds upward. At the beginning of 1941, there were 106,121 miles of main-line railroad equipped with rail weighing 100 pounds or more per yard.

How are rails joined together in the track?

• Rail ends are joined by means of two pieces of steel called angle bars, firmly held in place by bolts which pass through the rail web.

How are rails secured to the ground?

• Rails are securely spiked to the crossties and the ties are firmly embedded in ballast or embankment.

What is the name and what are the purposes of the thin plates of steel between the rails and the ties?

• Called tie-plates. Their purposes are to provide the rail with a uniformly firm foundation and to prevent the rail from cutting into the ties under the heavy impact of trains. They prolong the life of the ties.

How many crossties are there in railway tracks throughout the United States?

•  1,070,000,000 crossties in railway track throughout the United States. In addition, about 25,000 miles of track are laid with switch and bridge ties.

How many crossties are required for a mile of railway track?

• The number of-crossties in the average mile of railway track at the beginning of 1941 was 2,994. The average, spacing was, therefore, 21.2 inches, center to center.

What is meant by "tie treatment" or "treated ties"?

• Crossties, switch ties and bridge ties which have been saturated with creosote, zinc chloride or other preservatives to prevent decay or destruction by insects are called "treated." The treatment more than doubles the service life of the ties. Bridge timbers, piling, poles and other woods are also treated in this manner before use.

When the right-of-way of a railroad is cut through a hill, knoll or slope to provide a road-way, the excavation is called a cut.

What is a railroad embankment?

• A solid bank of earth, rock or other material built above the natural ground surface to form the roadbed of the railroad is called an embankment or fill.

What is meant by the bonding of rails?

• In signal operations, electrical current passes through the rails. The narrow gaps between the rail ends are bridged by welding copper wires to the rails. This is called the bonding of rails.

What is "continuous rail"?

• Rails of standard length which are welded together at the ends to form a single rail hundreds or thousands of feet in length are known as "continuous rail." Among the advantages claimed for continuous rail over standard length rail are a smoother track, longer service life, reduced maintenance cost and greater safety.
• Pictures are of the railroad tools I personaly own. Research materials listed on entrance page. Pictures above are my own and Public domain. Some research materials are from From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia used with permission through TheGNU Free Documentation License