Railroad cart

[Jerome Foster]

Might it be "GANDY DANCER" ? oR IS THAT THE GUY WHO RODE THE CART?

jFOSTER
----- Original Message -----
From: "Benjamin Zimmer" <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 1:32 PM
Subject: Re: Railroad cart


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Railroad cart
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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