Monday, July 31, 2017

Art Of The Rails ...





“Train I ride, sixteen coaches long
Train I ride, sixteen coaches long
Well that long black train got my baby and gone

Train train, comin’  'round, 'round the bend
Train train, comin’ 'round, 'round the bend
Well it took my baby, but it never will again
No, not again

Train train, comin’ down, down the line
Train train, comin’ down, down the line
Well it’s bringin’ my baby, 'cause she’s mine all, all mine
She’s mine, all, all mine

Train train, comin’ 'round, 'round the bend
Train train, comin’ 'round, 'round the bend
Well it took my baby, but it never will again
Never will again
Ooh, woah”
                          ~ “Mystery Train”
                       ~ written & recorded by
         American blues musician Junior Parker
                                     ~ 1953
          ~ recorded by the great Elvis Presley
                                  ~ 1955
       ~ Produced by Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee it features Elvis Presley on vocals & rhythm guitar, Scotty Moore on lead guitar & Bill Black on bass. Mystery Train is now considered to be an “enduring classic.” It was the first recording to make Elvis Presley a nationally known country music star.

I captured my artistic depiction of this wonderful tribute to the Ironton Railroad on an early October evening along the Ironton Rail Trail.

It was an Eagle Scout project of Samuel L. Raub II, Troop 57, in 2012.

The Ironton Rail Trail loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township in Pennsylvania.

The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.