Help! I need a poem about trains, preferably with the right rhythm, like 'Night Mail' by W.H.Auden, but perhaps shorter and more suitable for children.

Any ideas? if not, I'll have to write one myself... I need it for a teaching interview next week!

There's a lovely one by Robert Louis Stevenson

http://www.bartleby.com/188/138.html

Lots of lovely rhythm. I connect it in my head with Masefield's Cargoes...

I remember our teacher reading that Robert Louis Stevenson one to our class in primary school and explaining how the speed of the rhyme is in keeping with the speed of the train. We loved it, great choice!

This is probably too long and not what you want, either. But... It rhymes and goes down well with little people.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15791057-steam-train-dream-train

I'll check out both of those - great, thanks!

This is quite long, but can be shortened. It's by Wilma Horsbrugh

The Train To Glasgow



Here is the train to Glasgow.

Here is the driver,
Mr. MacIver,
Who drove the train to Glasgow.

Here is the guard from Donibristle
Who waved his flag and blew his whistle
To tell the driver,
Mr. MacIver,
To start the train to Glasgow.

Here is a boy called Donald MacBrain
Who came to the station to catch the train
But saw the guard from Donibristle
Wave his flag and blow his whistle
To tell the driver,
Mr. MacIver,
To start the train to Glasgow.

Here is the guard, a kindly man
Who, at the last moment, hauled into the van
That fortunate boy called Donald MacBrain
Who came to the station to catch the train
But saw the guard from Donibristle
Wave his flag and blow his whistle
To tell the driver,
Mr. MacIver,
To start the train to Glasgow.

Here are hens and here are cocks,
Clucking and crowing inside a box,
In charge of the guard, that kindly man
Who, at the last moment, hauled into the van
That fortunate boy called Donald MacBrain
Who came to the station to catch the train
But saw the guard from Donibristle
Wave his flag and blow his whistle
To tell the driver,
Mr. MacIver,
To start the train to Glasgow.

Here is the train. It gave a jolt
Which loosened a catch and loosened a bolt,
And let out the hens and let out the cocks,
Clucking and crowing inside a box,
In charge of the guard, that kindly man
Who, at the last moment, hauled into the van
That fortunate boy called Donald MacBrain
Who came to the station to catch the train
But saw the guard from Donibristle
Wave his flag and blow his whistle
To tell the driver,
Mr. MacIver,
To start the train to Glasgow.

The guard chased a hen and, missing it, fell
The hens were all squawking. the cocks were as well,
And unless you were there you haven't a notion
The flurry, the fuss, the noise and commotion
Caused by the train which gave a jolt
And loosened a catch and loosened a bolt,
And let out the hens and let out the cocks,
Clucking and crowing inside a box,
In charge of the guard, that kindly man
Who, at the last moment, hauled into the van
That fortunate boy called Donald MacBrain
Who came to the station to catch the train
But saw the guard from Donibristle
Wave his flag and blow his whistle
To tell the driver,
Mr. MacIver,
To start the train to Glasgow.

Now Donald was quick and Donald was neat
And Donald was nimble on his feet.
He caught the hens and he caught the cocks
And he put them back in their great big box.
The guard was pleased as pleased could be
And invited Donald to come to tea
At Saturday, at Donibristle.
And let him blow his lovely whistle,
And said in all his life he'd never
Seen a boy so quick and clever,
And so did the driver,
Mr. MacIver,
Who drove the train to Glasgow.

Edited by Dee at 07:38:00 on 24 June 2013

Not so much for children, but I can't resist Flanders & Swann's Slow Train, and it is actually interesting as an example of the power of words and names which the reader may not actually know anything about.

Them singing it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6OHD2uCpfU

Millers Dale for Tideswell
Kirby Muxloe
Mow Cop and Scholar Green

No more will I go to Blandford Forum and Mortiehow,
On the slow train from Midsummer Norton and Mumby Row,
No churns, no porter,
No cat on a seat,
At Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Chester-le-Street
We won't be meeting again on the slow train.

I'll travel no more from Littleton Badsey to Openshaw,
At Long Stanton I'll stand well clear of the doors no more,
No whitewashed pebbles,
No up and no down,
From Thornby Four Crosses to Dunstable Town,
I won't be going again on the slow train.

On the main line and the goods siding,
The grass grows high,
At Dog Dyke, Tumby Woodside, and Troublehouse Halt.
The sleepers sleep at Audlem and Ambergate,
No passenger waits on Chittening platform of Cheslyn Hay,
No-one departs, no-one arrives,
From Selby to Goole,
From St. Erth to St. Ives,
They all passed out of our lives,
On the slow train,
On the slow train.
Cockermouth for Buttermere
On the slow train.
Armly Moor Arram
Pye Hill and Somercotes
On the slow train.
Windmill End.....

Sorry, late to this, but TS Eliot has a lovely one in his Old Possum's book of Practicsl Cats. It's called something like Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat and it's about a cat who is in charge of the Flying Scotsman train.

It's really fun but do read it a couple of times because there are a couple of places where the rhythm is less than obvious. It works if you get the emphasis right starting out, but not otherwise.

Edited by FloraPost at 08:11:00 on 25 June 2013

Oh, yes, that's a lovely one.

I remember that "Fasters than Fairies one". I learned it off by heart when I was about 8 and still remember huge chunks. Something to be said for learning by rote. You understand why when you get to my age and the only facts and names you remember well are those you learned as a child.

There's also the hauntingly lovely/sad "Yes, I remember Adlestrop" but it might be too muted and oblique for children.