Kenyan Railway Song!

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

How many railway lines had a specific song made for them?

The first (and probably only) famous country singer produced by Kenya was Rodger Whittaker.

As a school boy he went to boarding school - the Prince Of Wales at Kabete - via train. In those days (1950's) it was a Garratt of East African Railways and Harbours that hauled the "school" trains.

Rodgers love of trains started during this period and he later (in the 1980's) wrote a song about the railway. In the introduction to this song he says.....

“When I was a boy, the railway meant so much more to me .......... because it was the train that took us up the hills to school and brought us home again or down the hills to the coast and then brought us home again. They were the East African Railways and Harbours or for short the good old E A R & H. No boy ever had a railway quite as fine as mine.”

Here is the song....... Notice at the end he mentions the death of steam....

Chorus

Oh, the good old E A R & H would get me there on time
Those mighty engines rolling down the line
And no boy ever had a railway quite as fine as mine
Oh the good old E A R & H, (oh) the good old E A R & H

Ist Verse

Now when I was a kid I used to play
While the train would rock and roll and swing and sway
And as she pulled us up the grade slowing all the way
Oh, this is what the wheels would have to sing
We would sing along with what they had to sing
And they’d sing, no I can’t, no I can’t, (repeated)
Again they’d sing, no I can’t, no I can’t, (repeated)
That train, oh that train.

Chorus

Now when I was a kid I’d ride a train
That took me up to school and home again
At the end of school aboard that train, our only joy would reign
As down the grades the wheels would keep on saying
They’d say yes I can, yes I can, (repeated)
And they’d say yes I can, yes I can, (repeated)

Chorus

Now somehow it just don’t seem the same
They’re using diesel fuel to pull that train
The old wood burners sitting down in a museum
You don’t ride on ‘em, just go down and see ‘em
Oh it’s sad to see them standing in a museum

Chorus

[John Ashworth]

Thanks, Kevin. I had never heard that song, and wasn't aware the Roger Whitaker was Kenyan. You live and learn!

[Nathan Berelowitz]

John, please translate that song and sing it to us when you are here!! Steamin Swahili!!