Railroad Lady

[FarsideCobbPH]

Does anyone know what the Railk pacs is?

[JustDucky]

It's rail packs, not railpacks, and it's simply a reference to shipping, transporting cargo, etc...essentially in crates that are loaded into box cars or whatever else. It's a rather obtuse reference to passenger trains losing popularity from what I can tell.

[MacPhin]

It's rail packs, not railpacks, and it's simply a reference to shipping, transporting cargo, etc...essentially in crates that are loaded into box cars or whatever else. It's a rather obtuse reference to passenger trains losing popularity from what I can tell.

i know that i saw buffett tell the story of this song. i think it might be on the recording of the JJW show that he used to have. jb said that it is a story of when the railroad was the fashionable and wealth way to travel and about a woman of ill repute traveling the rails to get the wealthy John's business. if it is indeed from the jjw show then he and jjw play this song. as you can tell i'm a bit fuzzy right now!

[ph4ever]

Scamp has told the story numerous times. He and Jimmy were riding on the last run of the Panama Limited which ran between New Orleans and Chicago and wrote the song about a woman they encountered on the trip. In it's heyday the Panama Limited was a luxury train with sleeper and dining cars. It was the sister train to The City of New Orleans (made famous in the Arlo Guthrie song). If I'm not mistaken by the time the Panama Limited had made it's final run in 1971, right before Amtrak took over, it had lost it's pullman status.

[TropicalTroubador]

Scamp has told the story numerous times. He and Jimmy were riding on the last run of the Panama Limited which ran between New Orleans and Chicago and wrote the song about a woman they encountered on the trip. In it's heyday the Panama Limited was a luxury train with sleeper and dining cars. It was the sister train to The City of New Orleans (made famous in the Steve Goodman song). If I'm not mistaken by the time the Panama Limited had made it's final run in 1971, right before Amtrak took over, it had lost it's pullman status.

Fixed it for you.

[ph4ever]

Scamp has told the story numerous times. He and Jimmy were riding on the last run of the Panama Limited which ran between New Orleans and Chicago and wrote the song about a woman they encountered on the trip. In it's heyday the Panama Limited was a luxury train with sleeper and dining cars. It was the sister train to The City of New Orleans (made famous in the Steve Goodman song). If I'm not mistaken by the time the Panama Limited had made it's final run in 1971, right before Amtrak took over, it had lost it's pullman status.

Fixed it for you.

Thanks - I was just thinking about who performed it. Mind's not 100% here today - heck it's not 50% here

[FarsideCobbPH]

wow thanks!

[Frank4]

You learn something new every day....I was just listening to that tune last week

[sonofabeach]

Found this on youtube. I did not realize that there's so much Jerry Jeff stuff on there now.

[jimsig]

It's rail packs, not railpacks, and it's simply a reference to shipping, transporting cargo, etc...essentially in crates that are loaded into box cars or whatever else. It's a rather obtuse reference to passenger trains losing popularity from what I can tell.

In this case it should be Railpax, as in Rail Passenger. It was basically the original name of Amtrak in the early 70's. For years the freight railroads were mandated to run passenger trains, at some point in the 60's the major carriers got together and told the US Gov't that running passenger service was going to bankrupt (some were already in bankruptcy) them and could lead to the end of freight traffic as well. The Gov't created then National Railroad Passgener Corp (NRPC) to run passenger service. Instead of saying I am taking the NRPC to NYC, it would be called Railpax, it was quickly changed to Amtrak. To this day the offical name of Amtrak is still the NRPC.

I do like the line " South Station Boston to the stockyards of Austin" as I am a conductor on the Commuter Rail in Boston.

[JustDucky]

Ah. See, I googled railpacks and got what I found (rail packs). Didn't realise it was somewhat of a pun.

[RinglingRingling]

It's rail packs, not railpacks, and it's simply a reference to shipping, transporting cargo, etc...essentially in crates that are loaded into box cars or whatever else. It's a rather obtuse reference to passenger trains losing popularity from what I can tell.

In this case it should be Railpax, as in Rail Passenger. It was basically the original name of Amtrak in the early 70's. For years the freight railroads were mandated to run passenger trains, at some point in the 60's the major carriers got together and told the US Gov't that running passenger service was going to bankrupt (some were already in bankruptcy) them and could lead to the end of freight traffic as well. The Gov't created then National Railroad Passgener Corp (NRPC) to run passenger service. Instead of saying I am taking the NRPC to NYC, it would be called Railpax, it was quickly changed to Amtrak. To this day the offical name of Amtrak is still the NRPC.

I do like the line " South Station Boston to the stockyards of Austin" as I am a conductor on the Commuter Rail in Boston.

always thought this was the case, but came on the thread late.

[jimsig]

Ah. See, I googled railpacks and got what I found (rail packs). Didn't realise it was somewhat of a pun.

If I had not worked for Amtrak I would have thought that it was Railpacks too.

[ph4ever]

Ah. See, I googled railpacks and got what I found (rail packs). Didn't realise it was somewhat of a pun.

If I had not worked for Amtrak I would have thought that it was Railpacks too.

You've got a cool job!!! Have you ever worked on any of the longer routes?

[jimsig]

Ah. See, I googled railpacks and got what I found (rail packs). Didn't realise it was somewhat of a pun.

If I had not worked for Amtrak I would have thought that it was Railpacks too.

You've got a cool job!!! Have you ever worked on any of the longer routes?

I used to work on the Northeast Corridor primarily between Boston and New Haven, CT with an ocassional trip to NYC. Never did any of the real long distance trains. I eventually transfered over to the Commuter Rail side where we run the CR for the MBTA. In 2003 Amtrak did not bid when the T put the contract up for bid and a new company (MBCR) got the contract so I now work for them.

[JustDucky]

No matter, it's a great song and one of his better tunes. Surprised it's never been played in concert (that I can recall anyway) the past 20 some years and, well, it's just ignored.

Which is too bad. It's a beautiful song and the recording of it is exceptional.

[ph4ever]

I consider it more a Jerry Jeff song than a Jimmy song. I've seen Scamp perform it countless times.

[JustDucky]

That's funny.

[freaky4tiki]

Cool stories. Thank y'all

[sonofabeach]

My favorite version of it is on Jerry Jeff's "Gypsy Songman" album that came out just a few years back. It's a little more upbeat than his original and in the song he tells the story, mentioning him and Jimmy on the train with a bottle of wild turkey.

Willie's version aint bad either.