Train conductor Bob McDonough becomes Internet hit after leading Yale University’s Yale Glee Club in beautiful rendition of ‘Carol of the Bells’

Video becomes an instant hit, amassing more than 1.3 million views in just two days

(Bob McDonough/Facebook)

The Internet has fallen head-over heels for a train conductor who broke away from his usual on-board duties to play a different kind of conductor when he realised a well-known Yale University choir was on his train.

While heading back to Connecticut from a concert in New York, Bob McDonough, from the town of Clinton in Connecticut - and a conductor with Metro-North Railroad - decided to lead the Yale Glee Club (YGC) in a pitch-perfect rendition of the popular Christmas song ‘Carol of the Bells’.

Filmed by club member Greg Suralik, Mr McDonough posted the video onto his Facebook which has been shared almost 26,000 times and viewed over 1.3 million times, overall, in just two days.

Watch the amazing video here:

At the start of the two-minute clip, the conductor can be seen interrupting the group - who groan in disappointment - as they sing the festive carol ‘Here We Come A-wassailing’. He tells the students: “No, no, no. You already did that one. I’m the conductor, let me conduct.”

Raising his hands after the group laughs and cheers, the YGC begins to sing a beautiful choral rendition of the 111-year-old festive favourite ‘Carol of the Bells’.

Reflecting on his moment in the spotlight, Mr McDonough wrote: “Not only did I have ‘The Yale Glee Club’ riding my train into NYC on Friday but, later that night, they were on my train back home to New Haven.

“I told them I was a conductor, so I must conduct and, somehow, they bought it .Did I mention they go to YALE? Thank you to Greg Suralik (Class of '17) and Nolan Crawford for recording and emailing your videos to me.”

On their Facebook page, the YGC said: “Thank you to everyone who has watched, shared, and loved what started off as a spontaneous moment of joy on a commute home.”

From its earliest days as a group of 13 male students from the Class of 1863 to its current 80-voice chorus of women and men, the YGC - Yale University’s principal undergraduate mixed chorus and oldest musical organisation - says it has “represented the best in collegiate choral music.”