Toward the middle of the 19th century one of the world's first piano compositions depicting a railway train was composed by this French composer and pianist. What was the title of the work and who was the composer?

Chant des Chemins de fer, composed by
Louis-Hector Berlioz

http://www.carringbush.net/~pml/music/berlioz/

Beautiful music Paul.

JT!

Unfortunately the Berlioz Railway Cantata wasn't what I was looking for.
The work I'm referring to is a solo piano work with the similar title of "Le Chemin de Fer".
The composer is one of those rarely performed and unjustly neglected up until a somewhat modest revival of his music in the past 20 or thirty years. Only a small handful of pianists have recorded or even tackled some of his works because of their unorthodoxed architecture.

Hint: he was immersed in the study of Bible and Talmud

Alkan.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ssmythe/alkan.htm

You got it, Mozart56.