MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles Red Wing poet and teacher Robert Hedin, whose assembled a literary history of the train titled "The Great Machines: Poems and Songs of the American Railroad."

The history of the American railroad is etched in our national consciousness. The steamtrain not only powered this country to new heights as an industrial power, it has also captivated some of our best writers. The anthology contains lyrics from songs and spirituals written over the last 150-years, as well as the work of poets ranging from Walt Whitman to Sylvia Plath.