Railroad cart

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 4/17/07, Seán Fitzpatrick <grendel.jjf at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> Thirty years ago I knew a term for the small, four-wheeled, man-powered
> carts used by railroad maintenance crews.  They often had a two-man
> rocker crank handle, although the one in this picture seems to have a rotary
> crank handles.
>
> http://preview.tinyurl.com/2l6whu
>
> Suggestions?

"Hand-car" is one name for it. OED def: "a light car propelled by
cranks or levers worked by hand, used in the inspection and repairing
of a railway line."

As featured in the movie _O Brother Where Art Thou?_:
http://www.stangarner.com/obrother.html


--Ben Zimmer

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