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Jun 6, 2023 · The term "gandy dancer" sprang up to describe section gangs, a group of track workers previously mentioned. These men did everything from laying ties to aligning the rails. The origins of "gandy dancer" are unknown although "gandy" has sometimes thought to have originated from the Gaelic dialect while "dancer" denoted the unified motion workers ...
Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers in the United States, more formally referred to as section hands, who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines. The British equivalents of the term gandy dancer are navvy (from navigator ), originally builders of canals, or inland ...
Oct 17, 2023 · Gandy Dancers “Gandy dancers” was a nickname for railroad section gangs in the days before modern mechanized track upkeep. The men were called dancers for their synchronized movements when repairing track under the direction of a lead workman known as the “caller” or “call man.”. The name “gandy” supposedly arose from a belief ...
Jan 22, 2018 · First of all, they were all Irish. Second, they had to fight Indians every step of the way while laying track. Third, they ate and drank themselves to death on meat and potatoes and rotgut whisky instead of eating vegetables and seafood like the Chinese. Fourth, they spent the last of their money in whorehouses.
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Sep 16, 2006 · BTW, the term did not come from "The Gandy Co." or "The Gandy Tool Co." in Chicago, which allegedly made trackwork tools including ballast tampers. That is an urban legend. No one has ever been able to document any company operating under this name in Chicago, whether it made railroad tools or not.
Railroad maintenance crews were nicknamed "gandy dancers" for their synchronized movements during track repair.The term "gandy" may have originated with the company that made the workers' tools, or with the stylized steps, resembling a goose or duck, they took while repairing the railway tracks.
Aug 24, 2023 · Their heavy steel bars were called "Gandy" bars, perhaps because of the name of the company that made them. One man was the "singer" or the "call man". He would chant a song and the others would work in the rhythm of the song and tap, tap, tap, pull hard, as the song went along, almost like a dance. Thus they became known as Gandy Dancers.
