Okay, being serious now.
These songs aren't my usual fare, but they hold a very special place in my heart. See, I'm something of a train buff. When I was a kid, I was a HUGE train buff, and my favorite train was the Southern Pacific Daylight, specifically steam locomotive 4449.
She's a GS-4 class locomotive built by Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, OH in 1941.
When I was really little, probably no older than 6, someone (probably my grandmother) bought me a VHS tape called "Daylight Express." I have vague memories of finding it in one of the gift shops at the Strasburg Railroad outside Strasburg, PA, but I honestly can't be sure. The video is a documentary that first gave a very brief history of Southern Pacific's Coast Daylight service and the 4449 herself before following the locomotive as it led a special excursion train from the locomotive's home base in Portland, OR to the California State Railroad Museum's 10th Anniversary Rail Fair celebration in Sacramento, CA in 1991. I watched that tape religiously, so much so that I probably wore it out. And I still own it even though I doubt it still works. I just can't bear to part with it, even though I haven't watched it in years. But earlier this weekend, while meandering around the wilds of YouTube, I discovered that someone had uploaded "Daylight Express" in its entirety. So of course I clicked the link, and for not quite 2 hours, I felt like a little kid again.
So what does any of that have to do with The Kingston Trio? Well, as you've probably guessed, those songs were used in "Daylight Express." "Fast Freight" played over a montage of the 4449 leading the train from the Willamette River outside Eugene, OR, up towards Lookout Point Reservoir and Oakridge, OR, while "Chilly Winds" played over the end credits as 4449 and the train make the return trip north from Sacramento back to Portland. The Kingston Trio didn't sing the songs in the film; the production studio instead brought in a band and singer that I assume to be local to them, no doubt to save on production costs, but even so, whenever I hear either song, I can see the Daylight in my mind's eye, and I feel like a little kid again.
There was a third song used in "Daylight Express," this one played over the montage of the crew working on the locomotive and assembling the consist of passenger cars, but I don't know the name. I believe the song's called, "Twas a Cold Winter's Evening," or "O'Leary's Bar," but I'm not sure, and cannot find a decent track of it on YouTube.
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