Train Songs (Summary)
David Albert
sick two weeks ago and am only just recovering). There was lots of
wonderful information, and I'd like to thank everyone who responded.
I don't include the full text of every answer (especially where there were
multiple pointers to the same song) but I think I've included at least one
pointer to every reference I received by mail, and most of the ones that
were posted on the net.
=============================================================================
From: Fred Franceschi (tech...@spacm1.spac.spc.com) The Wayward Wind, by
Gogi Grant, circa 1956.
"In a lonely shack by a railroad track, he spent his younger days,
but I guess the sound of the outward bound made him a slave
to his wandering ways"
She has a superb, haunting voice, stopped singing after a personal
tragedy soon after this song.
=============================================================================
From: kass...@ra.crd.ge.com (David Kassover)
She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes
The hellbound train
Jamie, go and ile that car
Drill, ye tarriers
Ballad of John Henry
Well, all right, the last two are about people who built
railroads, not strictly about trains.
=============================================================================
From: shelley (Shelley R. Heard)
"Green light on the Sothern" (norman blake)
"Pan American" (jimmy rogers - i think)
Wreck of old 97
My Baby Thinks He's a Train
Choo Choo ka-boogie (Asleep at the Wheel covers it)
I've been workin on the railroad, ...
Gentle on my Mind (minor reference-J. Hartford))
Old Train (I can hear your whistle blow, and I wont be climbin on again, ...)
The Man who Never Returned (MTA)
In the Early Morning Rain (Ian Tyson)
The Monkey and the Enginerer (from Reckoning - Greatful Dead)
=============================================================================
From: coll...@brutus.aa.ab.com (Duane Collicott)
Some of my favorite are _Steel Rail Blues_ and _Canadian Railroad Trilogy_,
both by Gordon Lightfoot (both are on _Gords Gold_, a greatest hits album).
Tom Paxton's _Ramblin' Boy_ is sung from the perspective of a train hobo. Check
his _Very Best Of TOm Paxton_ album.
=============================================================================
From: t...@maya.biosci.arizona.edu (Theron Friedman)
Jay Gould's Daughter
Midnight Special (how come everyone missed this one?)
Train to Kimberly (Boer war song, sung by Marais & Miranda)
Casey (KC?) Moan
The Dummy Line
Little Red Caboose (kid's song)
900 Miles (different song than 500 miles, shares some words)
Railroad Bill
Won't you come Home Bill Baily (bit of a stretch - I think one of the
verses mentions that he's a B&O breakman. )
The wreck of the old '97
Danville Girl (first couple of verses)
and the ever popular, if dubiously folk,
Gentlemen will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train
- is in the station, Darling I love you.
=============================================================================
From: w...@ivy.Unisys.COM (Bill Pringle)
The first song to sell a million copies was 'The Wreck of the Old 97'
which was about a famous train wreck.
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From: Jerry Dallal <GDALLAL%TUFTS....@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
There have been lots of good pointers to books and radio shows (although
I don't believe anyone mentioned Bruce Phillip's first Philo album,
"Good Though") so let me mention two favorites.
"Bill Mason" by Charlie Poole, a song of sabatoge (There where three drunken
rascals/That came down by the ridge/They came down by the railroad/And
tore up the rail from the bridge) and true love.
And "The Trusty Lariat" and soung and recorded by Sam Hinton and sung (since
the early 80's?) by David Jones (this is a hazy remembrance).
=============================================================================
From: @codex.com:da...@codex.com (Dan Breslau)
No one else seems to have mentioned "Midnight Special", which I'm
pretty sure was a folk song before (and after) CCR made a hit
out of it...
=============================================================================
From: vyx...@ftp.com (Vicki Streiff)
well, there are three songs that mention trains on michelle shocked's
album _Short_Sharp_Shocked_. She covers "the L&N don't stop here
anymore", and she also sings two of her own songs that talk about
trains. one is called "hello hopeville", but i'm afraid i don't
remember the other one's name.
=============================================================================
From: Larry Bergman <ber...@cs.unc.edu>
Wreck of the old 97
Rollin' in my sweet baby's arms
Midnight Special
Drill ye tarriers
Riding on a Railroad (Tom Rush, I think also recorded by J. Taylor)
Orange Blossom Special (instrumental, but definitely a RR song)
Wabash Cannonball
=============================================================================
From: dmo...@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (David Moses)
Here are a couple of books you may wish to look into:
Title: Long steel rail : the railroad in American folksong
Author: Cohen, Norm.
Publisher: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1981.
Subject Headings:
Folk-songs, American--History and criticism.
Railroads--Songs and music--History and criticism.
Title: A treasury of railroad folklore : the stories, tall
tales, traditions, ballads and songs of the American
railroad man
Author: Botkin, Benjamin Albert, 1901-
Publisher: New York : Bonanza Books, 1953.
Subject Headings:
Folk-lore of railroads.
Here are few I could find quickly.
>From THE HELL-BOUND TRAIN, By Glenn Ohrlin, ISBN 0-252-00190-7
The Hell-Bound Train, unknown source
Sam's Waiting for a Train, Jimmie Rodgers
>From THE EROTIC MUSE, BY ? Ed Cray ?, ISBN 8256-0105-3
The Little Red Train, unknown (on the raw side)
=============================================================================
From: ithaca!blue!ga...@uunet.UU.NET (Garry Wiegand)
One more for the master list:
To Stop The Train (In Cases Of Emergency)
as in the round. How could I have forgotten.
=============================================================================
From: Doreen Gillespie <dgi...@darwin.genetics.washington.edu>
David, have you heard of Dave Goulder? A singer/songwriter from Scotland.
He is a train fanatic, particularly of the older, narrow-guage rails. Has
an album out with only train songs. Possibly not available in this
country anywhere. If you are possibly interested, I could try to remember
to check on the title and label of that. I personally enjoy his songs,
although many are not easy to sing, as he attempts (rather well) to
imitate the train beat in his songs.
=============================================================================
From: bellcore!aries!rcmcc@harvard (Ron McConnell)
Green Light On The Southern Railway Line
Last Train From Poor Valley
Hobo Bill
from Tony Rice & Norman Blake, & Jimmy Rogers.
The others I've sent are from Doc Watson, Jimmy Rogers and Norman
Blake albums.
=============================================================================
From: thu...@lonestar.utsa.edu (Toby . Hughes)
ADD: Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Railroad Lady, Choo-choo (Please Do), Night
Train to Memphis, Golden Rocket, I'm Movin' On, Texas 1947, Waitin' For a
Train (All Around the Water Tank), Jimmy Did You Know (We Were All Gonna Ride
the Train), Ticket to Ride, Steel Rail Blues, Six-Wheel Driver, Fast Freight,
Desperados Waiting For A Train.
=============================================================================
From: da...@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Don't forget "The Wreck of Old 49"!
Let me tell you 'bout Old 49
The fastest engine on the Santa Fe line
On the fourteenth of April
She made a desperate dash...
And she got there on time and she did not crash.
=============================================================================
From: wgr...@sal.lonestar.org (wayne greene)
How about The Phoebe Snow, Panama Limited
=============================================================================
From: cool...@speaker.wpd.sgi.com (Don Coolidge)
Tom Rush,"Panama Limited" (same song?)
Bill Morrissey, "Up On The CP Line"
Burl Ives, "The Little Engine That Could"
(well, my two-year-old loves it :^)
Gordon Lightfoot, "Canadian Railroad Trilogy"
=============================================================================
From: ga...@ithaca.com (Garry Wiegand)
Trains, proper:
The MTA Song / Wreck of the Old '97
(Chattanooga Choo-choo)
Working on Trains:
John Henry
Paddy on the Railway (a.k.a. Filly-me-oo-a-re-ay)
Drill Ye Tarriers Drill
(Mole in the Ground)
(Dink's Song (a.k.a. Nora's Dove))
He-Bang, She-Bang (a.k.a. Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo)
Run, Let the Bulgine Run
Clear the Track, Let the Bulgine Run
(Paradise)
Riding the Rails:
Homeward Bound
Here's to You Rounders
Starlight on the Rails
(Last Thing On My Mind)
Metaphorical Railways:
This Train
Gospel Train
=============================================================================
From: cs01...@cs.brown.edu (Steven Silverstein)
A couple more include "500 Miles" (traditional) and Robyn Hitchcock's very
folky "I Often Dream of Trains".
=============================================================================
From: ccs...@gdt.bath.ac.uk (Dennis Davis)
Here is a few I can think of that don't appear to have been
mentioned so far by others posting in this chain:
(1) Trains feature in a couple of of Robert Johnson's songs. These
are "Rambling on my Mind" and "Love in Vain".
(2) Jane Siberry includes a track "Something about Trains" on the
CD "Bound by the Beauty".
(3) The Notting Hillbillies have "Railroad Worksong" as the opening
track on their CD "Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time".
This is credited as being a traditional song.
(4) The song "3.10 to Yuma" is sung by Sandy Denny on the CD "The
Original Sandy Denny". This probably fits into the category of
Metaphysical Trains referred to by another poster.
Straying slightly from the original topic, "The Ballad of John
Axon" was the first of Ewan MacColl's eight Radio Ballads which
were broadcast between 1958 and 1964. This was a documentary about
a railway incident expressed in words and music. The Radio Ballads
were a much-praised series. The song "The Shoals of Herring" from
the 1960 Radio Ballad "Singing the Fishing" has become a folk
classic. I listened to a rather scratchy and abridged version of
"The Ballad of John Axon" a few days ago. It is well worth hearing
if you get the chance.
Straying even further from the original topic, the ASV record label
has nearly forty cassettes plus one CD of steam train sound
effects. These are mainly of British engines, but a few foreign
ones are also present. I don't have any, but I'd guess they might
prove a useful source of background noise while you are mainlining
on nostalgia and playing with your Hornby trainset.
=============================================================================
From: rc...@hera.uucp (27272-mcconnell)
More train songs:
Lincoln's Funeral Train
Blue Railroad Train
Wreck of Old Number 9
Wreck of the 1262
Freight Train Blues
The Train That Carried My Girl From Town
Greenville Trestle High
Brakeman's blues
Waiting For A Train
=============================================================================
From: mar...@lyra.cis.umassd.edu (Gary Martin)
Distant Trains - by Paul Sanchez, recorded both by him and by Heidi Muller
The Engineer - a poem (by e.e. cummings?) set to music by some Australians
and recorded by Michael Cooney (on his Folk Legacy album)
Mamie's Blues - by Jelly Roll Morton
Between Trains - by Steve Key (about a musician playing in SUBWAY stations)
Train to Sligo - recorded by Mary Black or Maura O'Connell (I can tell them
apart when I hear them, but not from memory on this song)
Jay Gould's Daughter - recorded by Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen
=============================================================================
From: mar...@lyra.cis.umassd.edu (Gary Martin)
Two by Kim Wallach:
Boston & Maine (chorus is "Boston & Maine, Boston & Maine, Boston &
Maine & the Soo Line")
The House Between the Tracks (or whatever she calls it), not yet
recorded, it's about a family that operates a restaurant and lives
in a house between a railroad track and a siding, so close to the
tracks that when the circus came to town "an elephant broke the
window of my bedroom with his tusk."
=============================================================================
From: mar...@lyra.cis.umassd.edu (Gary Martin)
Got another one (surprise, surprise).
Kim Wallach has one (don't recall the title) about visiting Fay
Baird in Florida and walking around the little town of Waldo:
There are only two trains that still stop in Waldo
North at midnight, South at dawn
When you hear that midnight whistle blowing
You'll know that I have gone.
=============================================================================
From: ri...@quads.uchicago.edu (nora gayle rivkis)
Don't think anyone's mentioned "To Morrow" or "Hobo's Lullaby".
=============================================================================
From: mil...@triton.unm.edu (R.C. Miller)
Shadows on a Dime by Ferron (album of the same name)
=============================================================================
From: Richard Gordon <ric...@ravel.udel.edu>
Song Source
Golden ROcket Hank Snow (also Country Gentlemen
also Jim & Jesse & the Virginia Boys)
Engineers Don't Wave From ????
the Trains Anymore (A relatively recent song)
This Train (is bound for glory) Traditional SPiritual
Promised Land Traditional (a variant on Casey Jones.
recorded by several Rockabilly artists
and by The Dead)
I know you rider Every dang bluegrass band in the world
=============================================================================
From: ste...@aspen.cray.com (Steven Levine)
Working on the New Railroad
(I'm working on the new railroad with mud up to my knee...)
Railroading on the Great Divide
(...Nothing around me but the Rockies and Sky
It's there you'll find me as the year's go by
Railroading on the Great Divide)
=============================================================================
From: "Peter Rayner" <p...@splash.Princeton.EDU>
An English songwhich I call "thenorth eastern line", appears on Hart
and Priar's "summersolstice", I'll get more details if you get back to
me. Also an Australian song or songs about some of the bag-men from
theLarrikins "on the steps of the dole office door", that one could be
harder butI'll see what Icanfind, I'm mailing you more as a reminder
to myself. btw there are *lots* more I'm sure, very important part of
the19th century the railways, ah yes, another "working on the railway"
song, this time from the Dubliners, possibly called "corduroy
breeches"
As I said, a hell ofa lot more. How about a song for the collapseof
the Forth Bridge, I think with a train on it and now we're into train
disaster songs. Another Australian one of those for the Sunshine wreck
in 1908 (ish) again from the Larrikins and again harderto find.
I'm probably going to think of more of these.
=============================================================================
From: msol...@BBN.COM
MIne come mostly from the old-timey and bluegrass genres: The True and
Trembling Brakeman, The Wreck of the Old 97, On a Cold Winter's Night
(another wreck song), Orange BLosson Special (?!), Lost Train Blues, Train on
the Island, The F.F.V., Life is Like a Mountain Railway, Railroading on the
GReat Divide, Railroading and Gambling, The Train the CArried my Girl from
TOwn, In the Pines ("...the longest train I ever saw was N coaches long..."),
Last Train from Poor Valley,
=============================================================================
From: jo...@ulysses.atmos.colostate.edu (John Kleist)
Reuben's Train
Life Is Like A Mountain Railroad
The Wreck of the FFV
The Mobile Line
Railroad Bill
Orange Blossom Special
Danville Girl
The Pan American Mail
Take the A Train
Chatanooga Choo Choo
The Last Train to Clarksville
=============================================================================
----------------------------------------------__------------------------------
David Albert | / ) /
UUCP: ...!harvard!albert | / / __. , ___o __/
INTERNET: alb...@harvard.edu |/__/__(_/|__\/ <___(_/_
Frank - Hardware Hacker - Borger
>Here at last is the Train Song summary (sorry for taking so long; I got
>sick two weeks ago and am only just recovering). There was lots of
>wonderful information, and I'd like to thank everyone who responded.
I know I'm late in replying, but I didn't see Steve Goodman in
the list.
City of New Orleans
And his satirical one about Amtrak
(sung to the tune of the Chattanooga ChooChoo...
Pardon me boy, did you say you were taking Amtrak?
take my advice, start walkin instead.
Frank R. Borger - Physicist __ Internet: Fr...@rover.uchicago.edu
Michael Reese - Univ. of Chicago |___ Phone : 312-791-8075 fax : 567-7455
Center for Radiation Therapy | |_) _ It is more profitable for your con-
2929 South Ellis Avenue | \|_) gressman to support the tobacco in-
Chicago, Illinois 60616 |_) dustry than your life. - Jackie Mason
Dani Zweig
>Here at last is the Train Song summary...
Thanks for the compilation, David. I had a hard time determining which
songs had or hadn't been included, so I thought the following summary
might help. I've removed most of the non-title information (see the
full posting for that) and added a few titles that were missed. I may
have lost a couple of titles in the process, and I haven't separated
out the borderline or dubious cases:
Between Trains
Bill Mason
Blue Railroad Train
Boston & Maine
Brakeman's blues
Canadian Railroad Trilogy
Casey Jones (2 versions)
Casey (KC?) Moan (sic)
Chatanooga Choo Choo
Choo-choo (Please Do),
Choo Choo ka-boogie
Clear the Track, Let the Bulgine Run
Corduroy breeches (?)
Danville Girl
Darling I love you
Desperados Waiting For A Train
Distant Trains
Drill Ye Tarriers Drill
The Dummy Line
The Engineer
Engineers Don't Wave From the Trains Anymore
Fast Freight,
500 Miles
Freight Train Blues
Gentlemen will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train
is in the station
Golden Rocket
Gospel Train
Green Light On The Southern Railway Line
Greenville Trestle High
He-Bang, She-Bang (a.k.a. Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo)
The Hell-Bound Train
Hello Hopeville
Here's to You Rounders
Hobo Bill
Hobo's Lullaby
Homeward Bound
The House Between the Tracks
I know you rider
I Often Dream of Trains
I'm Movin' On
I've been workin on the railroad
In the Early Morning Rain
In the Pines
Jamie, go and ile that car
Jay Gould's Daughter
Jimmy Did You Know (We Were All Gonna Ride the Train)
John Henry
The L&N don't stop here anymore
Last Train from Poor Valley
The Last Train to Clarksville
Life Is Like A Mountain Railroad
Lincoln's Funeral Train
The Little Engine That Could
Little Red Caboose
The Little Red Train
Lost Train Blues
Love in Vain
Maine & the Soo Line
Mamie's Blues
Midnight Special
The Mobile Line
The Monkey and the Enginerer
MTA
My Baby Thinks He's a Train
Night Train to Memphis
900 Miles
Old Train
On a Cold Winter's Night
Orange Blossom Special
Paddy on the Railway (a.k.a. Filly-me-oo-a-re-ay)
The Pan American Mail
The Phoebe Snow, Panama Limited (?)
Promised Land
Railroad Bill
Railroad Lady
Railroading and Gambling
Railroading on the Great Divide
Rambling on my Mind
Reuben's Train
Riding on a Railroad
Rollin' in my sweet baby's arms
Run, Let the Bulgine Run
Sam's Waiting for a Train
Shadows on a Dime
She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes (?)
Six-Wheel Driver
Something about Trains
Starlight on the Rails
Take the A Train
Texas 1947,
3.10 to Yuma
This Train
Ticket to Ride,
To Morrow
To Stop The Train (In Cases Of Emergency)
Train on the Island,
The Train That Carried My Girl From Town
Train to Sligo
The True and Trembling Brakeman,
The Trusty Lariat
Up On The CP Line
Waitin' For a Train (All Around the Water Tank),
Wabash Cannonball
Wreck of Old Number 9
The Wreck of Old 49
Wreck of the old 97
Wreck of the 1262
The Wreck of the FFV
Won't you come Home Bill Baily
Other:
> Title: Long steel rail : the railroad in American folksong
> Author: Cohen, Norm.
> Publisher: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1981.
>
> Title: A treasury of railroad folklore : the stories, tall
> tales, traditions, ballads and songs of the American
> railroad man
> Author: Botkin, Benjamin Albert, 1901-
> Publisher: New York : Bonanza Books, 1953.
>David, have you heard of Dave Goulder? A singer/songwriter from Scotland.
>He is a train fanatic, particularly of the older, narrow-guage rails. Has
>an album out with only train songs.
-----
Dani Zweig
da...@netcom.com
Watership Down:
You've read the book. You've seen the movie. Now eat the stew!
Greg Bullough
>alb...@endor.uucp (David Albert):
>>Here at last is the Train Song summary...
as such from the verses. Bull engines were used on the docks. Pretty short
trains, though.
>Corduroy breeches (?)
Isn't this yet another alias of Paddy Works on the Railway?
>He-Bang, She-Bang (a.k.a. Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo)
Another Sea Chantey. The only real "train" reference is the "he-bang, she-bang"
which is the sound of a hammer driving spikes, and the "We're from the railroad
too-ra-loo." This is an example of how workers bring one class of labor's
experiences to another. Apparently a number of laborers went (or went back)
to sea once the transcontinental railway was finished. Again, the verses
here are entirely nautical (Out chocks two blocks heave the cap's'n 'round...
...it's a helluva way to the girls that wait at the Old Nantucket light.)
David Albert
the French department of St. Pierre & Miquelon. I have lived in France
for several years, and am intrigued by the idea that part of the country
is so close, relatively speaking, and yet so unknown. I can't even find
it listed in any guidebooks for france, and guidebooks for Canada give
it about a paragraph in the Newfoundland chapter. Has anyone been there?
Can you tell me if there are reasonable (and reasonably priced) places to
stay, and places of historical or cultural interest to visit? I might go
anyway, but I'd certainly like to know what I'm getting into before I do.
Thanks,
David Fox
Robert Schurko
"It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry"
from "Highway 61 Revisited" (1965)
"Train-a-Travelin'"
Recorded 1962 c.(1968) Warner
I hope that these are acceptable.
Regards,
Rob
j.a. fielden
THese might be on there and i don't know the proper title.
Joan Bayez The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
(my understanding this is about a particular train)
The Rock Island Line
I assume the other one I'm thinking of is one of the wreck of songs.
All I can remember is it's a Johnny Cash song.
Doesn't his folsom prison song also have a line about trains in it?
I also vaguely remember some campfire song about a "ghost train"
Sorry, I don't have more exact info.
j.a. fielden
>It would appear that 2:10 6:18 10:44 was skipped in the summary. It should
>count as a train song as the title is a train schedule and the lyrics start
>with "Please tell me if you can What time do the trains roll in? 2:10, 6:18,
>10:44"
And that horrible Sheena Easton song
"My baby takes the morning train"
Does the subway count?
Berlin - Metro
j.a. fielden
St. Pierre et Miquelon
they are very small islands. From what I remember prices weren't bad.
Typical assortment of liquor(at below U.S. prices), shops with
sweaters and assorted souvenier items.
I don't know about lodging since we stayed on the boat but there was
a christian conference of some kind on the island.
The islanders drive like maniacs which is funny considering there
is really no place to get to in such a hurry.
We did a lot of hiking but there wasn't lots else to do in the three
days we were there.
There is a bank where you can exchange money and a customs office.
If you go in July watch for the Westward and the Corwith Cramer.
They usually put in there every summer. (Sailing ships run by
the Sea Education Association).
Bruce Tindall
I think these were not included in the most recent "final" list:
"Queen of Hearts" starts off: "Midnight, and I'm waiting on the 12:05."
"Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" (Elton John) contains the line "Subway's
no way for a good man to go down."
"Train in Vain."
We're pretty far afield from folk music here, though. :-)
--
Bruce Tindall, Core Testing Manager, SAS Institute Inc., Cary NC 27513
Tara
--
| | ez007643 |------------------------------------------------------|
| Tara | @rocky. | "You can never trust a bullet hanging in the air." |
| | ucdavis. | Barbara Manning - "Someone Wants You Dead" |
| | edu |------------------------------------------------------|
ol...@kean.ucs.mun.ca
We've lived in Newfoundland for over ten years, and have always
planned to visit St. Pierre and Miquelon, but it was always "next
summer." We still haven't gone. However, I can provide some
information that may be of use.
Getting there: If by car, you'll have to take the (6 hour) ferry
from North Sydney in Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques in
Newfoundland, then drive several hundred kilometres to the
Goobies turnoff (I kid you not!) and follow the Burin highway
south to Fortune. This is a two-day trip, unless you want to kill
yourself driving it in one day. There are motels at Fortune and
Grand Bank (best to reserve in advance). You will have to leave
your car there; the ferry (two hours) to St. Pierre takes people,
not cars. Perhaps you can pack bikes along; that would be handy
in St. Pierre. For travel information in Newfoundland (maps,
accommodations, advice) write: Ministry of Cultural Affairs,
Tourism and Historic Resources, P.O. Box 2016, St. John's,
Newfoundland, Canada A1C 5R8. There once was an 800 number good
from the USA (1-800-563-6353) but it may no longer be in service
(budget cuts).
There's more than one ferry from Fortune; each is run privately,
and is linked to one of the main hotels on the island, so you can
expect biased information about ferries from the hotel people and
vice versa. SPM Tours works with the "Arethusa" and the Hotel
Robert/Motel Rode and the Dupont Bed-and-Breakfast (more on
accommodations in a moment). SPM Tours offers package deals for
its customers, including mini-bus links with St. John's,
Newfoundland in case you fly there directly and don't want to
drive yourself to Fortune. Write SPM Tours at 38 Gear Street, St.
John's, Newfoundland A1C 2J5 or telephone (709) 722-3892 for tour
package information. The other ferry is the "St. Eugene V" takes
only one hour to cross (around $50 Canadian return per adult),
but does not operate every day. It offers package deals with
Hotel Ile de France, as well as a two-star hotel and bed-and-
breakfasts. Write to the operators, Armement Borotra Freres, St.
Pierre, or telephone (+011-508) 41-20-78/41-24-80 or Fax 41-46-
08.
If you are flying in, you can come via Halifax. There is a small
airline that your travel agent can find out about.
When you arrive, you'll have to pass through customs. Canadians
or Americans require only some form of identification: a driver's
license will do. Passports are not essential unless you come from
somewhere other than Canada or the USA. Visitors returning to
Newfoundland from St. Pierre are limited in their duty free
allowance by Canadian regulations (check in Canada). St. Pierre
itself is small, and both town and the island can easily covered
in a couple of days; walk or bike. There are a couple of hotels,
and there are lots of bed-and-breakfasts. For full information,
write the "Agence regionale du tourisme" at rue 11 Novembre in
St. Pierre, St. Pierre & Miquelon; telephone (+011-508) 41-23-84
or fax (+011-508) 41-33-55. There's also a Centre d'accueil at
blvd. Port en Bessin (+011-508) 41-38-14. The Hotel Ile de France
is at 6 rue Maitre Georges Lefevre (tel. 41-28-36; fax 41-25-55).
Don't limit yourself to St. Pierre; you can take overnight trips
to Miquelon out of St. Pierre. Miquelon is less populated and
bigger in size; if you like beach walking, that's the place
(Miquelon used to be two islands; Langlade is now linked with
Miquelon by a narrow sandbar). The Escale Hotel in Miquelon is at
24 rue Victor Briand (tel. 41-63-09). This excursion only runs
for certain days each week; you may want to coordinate your visit
to Miquelon with your St. Pierre-Fortune ferry schedule (i.e., it
may make sense to head to Miquelon as soon as you get to St.
Pierre, and do St. Pierre after you get back to Miquelon). Also,
the weather is unpredictable (like Newfoundland, SP&M has
weather, not climate). Take sweaters, shells, and foul weather
gear just in case. Fogs can also cause unexpected interruptions
of your schedule. Be flexible.
There are a fair number of restaurants of varying qualities, and
as far as I know, American or Canadian currency is acceptable,
though I have no idea whether the exchange rate is in your favour
or against you when you use US or Canadian dollars rather than
French francs.
Good luck with your plans.
Olaf Janzen
Sir Wilfred Grenfell College
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Corner Brook, Newfoundland
A2H 6P9
Tim Walters
>Another song that was left out is "Can't Ignore the Train" by 10,000 Maniacs.
And, of course, "Into You Like a Train" by the Psychedelic Furs.
Ain't folk music great?
--
Tim: wal...@mills.edu
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"How much longer do we have to hang about waiting for the Antichrist?"
--Samuel Beckett