I have never heard of Railroad Gin either, perhaps it was more of a cult following in a particular state. There were quite a few bands that had good local following, but never made it over the border.
We have heaps of vinyl records still and we recently bought a record player (turntable) that plugs into your computer so that you can transfer the music to MP3 format, and you can change the settings to reduce the crackle and pop. Also bought a similar record player that burns CD's as you play the records. But once the CD has been finalised, it cannot be copied again, so you cant go mass producing them.
Bought the CD one first and then the other one, and still haven't had time to go through any of the vinyl - Oh retirement ... where are you????