“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.
