Last Train, The
1 Hardcover/1 CD (see all formats)

"Titcomb’s poignant words celebrating the glory days of rail travel complement Wendell Minor’s warm and powerful illustrations in the included hardcover book. Told from the point of view of a boy whose grandfather and father worked for the railroad, the rhyming text evokes a bygone era with images of brakemen, porters, firemen, and a “cigar box full of memories” revealing train tickets and union cards. Arlo Guthrie’s short introduction sets the mood for Titcomb’s reading, with evocative background sounds of steam engines, train whistles, and faraway voices atmospherically setting the mood for this tribute to American railroading. Following his reading, Titcomb sings the lyrics (his song became this picture book) backed with full instrumentation. A final track includes just the song. Although aimed at a younger audience, this package might be used with intermediate-grade students to spark discussion on U.S. rail history and music. Titcomb’s affecting reading of the author’s note concludes the audio."

"Based on Gordon Titcomb's song of the same name, THE LAST TRAIN is an elegiac tribute to a different era, when trains rumbled across the countryside and a man could work for the railroads all his life. Titcomb narrates gently, his subtle rural accent appropriate to the text. Authentic background sounds of train whistles and chirping country insects add atmosphere. Wendell Minor's detailed paintings are a gorgeous and evocative accompaniment-a spread about the MIDNIGHT FLYER, rendered in beautiful deep blues, shows the train speeding across the pages, engine smoke trailing behind and a wash of nighttime stars overhead. Listeners will especially appreciate the bonus at the end of the recording: Titcomb singing his song. Young train lovers will be fascinated."

"Gordon Titcomb reads and sings this love song to "the big iron horses" that years ago rolled into little railroad stations. From the first lonesome wail of the freight train whistle, listeners are transported back to those small towns joined together by steel tracks that seemed to go on forever. The railroad men-engineer, ticket seller, brakeman, fireman, and porter-are honored for their part in the mystique of the train, as a young boy might have remember them. A gold watch, a ticket punch, and a faded Union card are wonderfully evocative, "Gone now, like a dream/that slowly faded in the night,/Are the faces of this once familiar sight." Wendell Minor's watercolor paintings wonderfully capture splendid trains rolling through the night as well as the sadness of boarded-up train stations and rusted tracks. Arlo Guthrie's introduction and the author's note enclose lyrics, first read with music and sound effects, and then performed. Page-turn signals are optional. Echoing the rhythm of the rails, Titcomb's rendition of the "The Last Train" is as haunting and evocative as the great train songs he acknowledges. Sure to please train lovers everywhere."