Obscure lyrics/Gwen Foster

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On the Yazoo compilation 'Harmonica Blues' there is a song featuring the great Gwen Foster as part of the duo Ashley &
Foster. The song is 'Bay Rum Blues' and it repeatedly uses the term 'railer's chain (or maybe 'rail and chain') as in:
'He's on his way to the railer's chain'. What does this mean? I assume, as it seems to be interchangeable with
references to 'chain gang bound', that whatever it is, it bodes no good for the bay rum drinker.
Unlike a lot of other US colloqialisms ('catty- corner', 'get your bath-water hot'(!)  'boondock',etc.) that appear
over and again in songs, this one I've never heard before. Maybe you have to come from a certain county in either North
or South Carolina to get this.
Anyone got a handle on it?(Howsabout the literary Mr.Johnny T.?)

Rick Dempster