Railroad cart

[Charles Doyle]

Gandy dancers are the men who work rhythmically in crews straightening and correctly spacing rails, which have moved slightly (i.e. significantly!) out of place from the force and vibrations of trains running on them.

"Hand car" or "hand cart" sounds right to me. But what were the motorized ones called? It's my recollection that they were still "hand car(t)s."

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:11:04 -0700
>From: Jerome Foster <funex79 at CHARTER.NET>
>>
>Might it be "GANDY DANCER" ? oR IS THAT THE GUY WHO RODE THE CART?
>
>jFOSTER

>
>> 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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