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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.”
Jan 22, 2018 · When the Union Pacific reached Utah, management put out a million-dollar call for Mormons to work on the railroad, and these hard-working and habitually sober people comprised a sizable contingent of gandy dancers—free of the vices subsequent chroniclers have assumed went with the territory when working on the railroad.
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.
Jun 6, 2023 · Jack Delano photo. A Brief History. Since the railroad industry took its first uncertain steps during the 1820's, leading to the Baltimore & Ohio's chartering in 1827, virtually all track maintenance was performed by manual labor for the next century.
Jan 7, 2008 · Most of these gandy dancers —the label applied to railway line workers who maintained railroad tracks and kept the rails straight—were African Americans who adapted the work call to railroad work.
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3 days ago · June 1, 2024. They say the crews of men who built the railroad tracks running through northwestern Wisconsin would dance. As the legend goes, their hand tools were manufactured down in Chicago by the Gandy Tool Company, and these guys would use some kind of song or a call to synchronize their drudgery. So the tools and the fancy footwork earned ...
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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.
