Search results
Six retired gandy dancers showed up in various cars: John Henry Mealing, Abraham Parker, Cornelius Wright, Jr., Arthur James, Henry Caffey, and Willie Henderson. The Heart of Dixie Railroad folks were great, having arranged for CSX to supply railroad tools, and providing ice water and lunch.
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.
Sep 9, 2024 · The gandy dancer was a slang term used to describe section gangs, railroad men who performed the physical task of the tracks maintained.
These section crews were known as gandy dancers. They worked for companies like the Southern, L & N, and Seaboard, doing what was considered the most physically demanding and the lowest paying jobs on the railroad. By the 1940s, the mechanization of track work reduced the need for such section gangs.
They recount experiences in the segregated South, describe organized labor and occupational safety standards, and demonstrate railroad calls that survive today as expressions of religious faith, social protest and sexually explicit poetry. A film by Barry Dornfeld and folklorist Maggie Holtzberg. Film by: Barry Dornfeld, Maggie Holtzberg-Call.
Nov 13, 2008 · Gandy Dancers were railroad workers, almost exclusively African-American, who used music -- including spiritual, nonsensical, and raunchy songs -- to coordinate their track work.
People also ask
What is a gandy dancer?
What was a gandy dancers demonstration lining track?
Are Gandy Dancers still employed?
Who were gandy dancers in Alabama?
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."
