Drill Ye Heroes, Drill!

DESCRIPTION: Working on the northern railroad the, crew proceeds from Gambo in the east, westward to the Hall's Bay Line, to Codroy on the west coast of Newfoundland. The crew are named.
AUTHOR: John Devine ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: railroading work moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 781-782, "Drill Ye Heroes, Drill!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4436
RECORDINGS:
Ken Peacock, "Drill Ye Heroes, Drill!" (on NFKPeacock)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (theme, tune and references there)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Drill ye Tarriers
NOTES [207 words]: The song follows the workers along about 400 miles of the 550 mile length of the defunct Newfoundland railroad. The passage today would be closely approximated by driving Trans-Canada 1.
Certainly derivative of "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" both as to theme and tune though only a few lines are carried over. Ironically, one of the common lines is the "you're docked for the time you were in the sky" though the point is lost since the preceding explosion has been dropped. Further, the senses of hard times and of a tall tale have also been lost. - BS
Because the song says the rail to the west coast was actually built, this must refer to the second stage in the history of the Newfoundland Railway. The line through Gambo was built in the 1890s by the Reid Newfoundland Company. The earlier attempt, in the 1880s, had featured similar working conditions but never made it much beyond the Avalon Peninsula. For more on the Newfoundland Railroad in general, see the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie," "The Bonavist Line," "Downey's Our Member," and "The Loss of the Bruce." I wonder if John Devine, said to be the author of this piece although the claim is not reported by Peacock, might not also have written "The Bonavist Line." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea781

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