Annotation:Old Reuben
X:0 T: No Score C: The Traditional Tune Archive M: K: x
OLD REUBEN. AKA - "Old Reuben's Train," "Reuben." AKA and see "Reuben's Train." American, Song/Reel. An old-time banjo song/tune, perhaps derived from or related to the folksong "900 Miles." It was recorded many times during the 78 RPM era (under various titles), and versions were collected in the upland South from Wade Ward (Independence, Virginia), Frank Proffitt (Reese, North Carolina, 1961), Lamar Bascom Lunsford and others. The song is a collection of verses, including some "floating" couplets, loosely organized around a railroad theme. Some of the stanzas go:
Oh, Reuben's coming down the track,
And he's got his throttle back,
And the rails are a-carrying him from home.
If the boiler don't bust
'Cause it's eat up with rust,
I'll soon be a long ways from home.
If you don't believe I'm gone,
Look at the train I'm on;
You can hear the whistle blow a thousand miles.
I'm a-going down the track;
I ain't never coming back,
And I'll never get no letter from my home.
See also the close adaption of "Reuben's Train" called "Train Forty-Five," recorded by Grayson & Whitter in 1927 (Victor 21189, released in 1928).
Interestingly, there was an innovative 1860's railroad locomotive designer and engineer named Reuben Wells. His namesake, the "Reuben Wells," is a locomotive built in 1868 that saw service in Madison, Indiana, for the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. It was made by Wells, who was the master mechanic at Jeffersonville at the time. Wells solved the problem of moving freight up an incline from river to the height above, a technological leap that was soon adopted by other locomotive builders after it had proven practicable. He constructed a heavy engine that produced more traction, his design calling for ten 44-inch drivers and the capacity to carry it's own fuel and water on one frame (the weight added to the traction). He tilted the boiler forward to keep the water in the steam engine level during the ascent and he improved the brakes. Wells served as a Trustee at Purdue University in the 1870s. What, if any, connection there is between Wells and the song is unknown.
