WebJan 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. WebOct 2, 2009 · Gandy dancer is a slang term for workers who maintained railroads in North America. For each stroke, a worker would lift his gandy (a long handled tool) and force it into the ballast to create a fulcrum, then throw himself sideways using the gandy to check his full weight (making the "huh" sound recorded in the lyrics below) so the gandy would push the …

Gandy Dancer Work Song Tradition Encyclopedia of …

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 … See more The term has an uncertain origin. A majority of early northern railway workers were Irish, so an Irish or Gaelic derivation for the English term seems possible. Others have suggested that the term gandy dancer was … See more While most southern railroad maintenance workers were African American, gandy dancers were not strictly southern or African American. … See more • Trains portal • Field hollers • List of train songs • Military cadence See more Though rail tracks were held in place by wooden ties (sleepers outside the U.S. and Canada) and the mass of the crushed rock ( See more The Gandy Dancer State Trail is a 47-mile rail trail for hiking, biking and other recreational uses, that follows the old Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie railroad grade from St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, through a bit of eastern Minnesota and … See more • Calling Track and Military Cadence Calls: How an African American Tradition Influenced Military Basic Training • Vintage gandy dancer video See more WebMay 1, 2015 · 'The Gandy Dancers: And Work Songs from the American Railroad' is a beautifully illustrated book about working on the early … other words for ravage

Urban Dictionary: gandy dancer

WebMay 7, 2024 · Gandy dancer is a slang term for railroad crews from the days when tracks were spreading across America and men hammered them in place by hand. Their movements along the track formed a ... WebFor the next four years, the Coaldale native cleaned ties and stuffed rocks under railroad sills. It was backbreaking work and only a handful of women made it through the first harsh winter. The female laborers were known as Gandy Dancers, a term coined by the Gandy Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois, in 1923. WebMar 10, 2024 · Gandy Dancer Last revised: March 10, 2024 By: Adam Burns The gandy dancer term has blossomed into folklore over the years, celebrated in several songs, … other words for ravaged