Poster for orphan train

Children line up outside of the orphan train, c. 1920 (Patrick-Sheets-Trickel Collection, Trenton, MO)

Children on the orphan train, October 15, 1908 (from the Minneapolis Journal)

Photo courtesy of: Library of Congress

Children's Aid Society

This photo comes from "ORPHAN TRAINS & THEIR SPECIAL CARGO: The Life's Work of Rev. H. D. Clark"

Children in a New York City orphanage, c. early 1900s(Boston Sunday Globe)

Orphan Train, by Julie Miller, sung by Leann Womack

Come all you broken hearted, come and lay your burden downCome kings and queens, come royalty surrender up your crownCome empty-handed come with nothing of your own to claimCome naked, poor, come like a child to ride the orphan train

Chorus: Come ride, ride on the orphan trainPut your ear to the track, you can hear your nameCome ride, ride on the orphan train, it'll take you all the way home

The way is narrow, it is steep that brings you to the doorBut love awaits there to embrace your heart forevermore (Repeat Chorus)

Come you abandoned, you forsakenFriendless and alone, come refugees left homesick forSome place you've never knownHere princes, paupers, criminals and saints are all the sameNo more or less than God's beloved child aboard this train

(Repeat Chorus twice)

It'll take you all the way homeIt's gonna take you all the way home

Claude Monet French (1840-1926) Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877 Oil on canvas 59.6 x 80.2 cm

Steel Rails, Lyrics and music by Louisa Banscomb, Sung by Alison Krauss

 Chorus:Steel rails, chasing sunshine round the bendWinding through the trees, like a ribbon in the windI don't mind not knowing what lies down the trackCause I'm looking out ahead, to keep my mind from turning back

It's not the first time I've found myself alone and knownIf I really had you once, then I'd have you when I'm goneWhistle blows, blowin' lonesome in my mindCalling me along that never ending metal line

Chorus

Sun is shining, through the open boxcar doorLying in my mind with the things I've known beforeI've lost count of the hours, days, and nightsThe rhythm of the rails keeps the motion in my mind

Chorus

Cause I'm looking out ahead, to keep my mind from turning back

Alison Krauss & Union Station

From a Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson  

Faster than fairies, faster than witches, Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches; And charging along like troops in a battle All through the meadows the horses and cattle: All of the sights of the hill and the plain Fly as thick as driving rain; And ever again, in the wink of an eye, Painted stations whistle by. Here is a child who clambers and scrambles, All by himself and gathering brambles; Here is a tramp who stands and gazes; And here is the green for stringing the daisies! Here is a cart runaway in the road Lumping along with man and load; And here is a mill, and there is a river: Each a glimpse and gone forever!