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- DictionaryGan·dy danc·er/ˈɡandē ˌdansər/
noun
- 1. a track maintenance worker on a railroad. informal North American
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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 ...
Jun 6, 2023 · Learn about the history and culture of gandy dancers, the railroad workers who performed manual labor on the tracks. Find out the origin of the term, the tools they used, the songs they sang, and the challenges they faced.
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 ...
Sep 27, 2023 · Gandy Dancers were the laborers who constructed and maintained railroads in the early 20th century. Learn about their origin, skills, tools, working conditions, and how they shaped the railroad industry and culture.
Jan 22, 2018 · Irish and Chinese laborers, in fact, are known to have worked harmoniously on the Central Pacific, on which the graders and tracklayers were usually Chinese and the foremen and teamsters Irish. The blasting feud may have been the most durable and most pernicious aspect of the gandy dancer myth. John Koster is the author of Custer Survivor.
A gandy dancer is a laborer in a railroad section gang or an itinerant or seasonal laborer. The word has an obscure origin and was first used in 1915.
