Railroad cart

[Victoria Neufeldt]

I'm behind on the ADS-L postings, but trying to catch up.  Here's my input
on a name for those manually operated cars used on the rails:  I remember
them being called 'jiggers'.  That's the only name I ever heard, growing up
in Saskatchewan, Canada.  I just checked the Dictionary of Canadians and
found this use there, as sense 2 of the entry _jigger_.

Victoria

Victoria Neufeldt
Editor, DSNA Newsletter
727 9th Street East
Saskatoon, Sask.
S7H 0M6
Canada

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerome Foster" <funex79 at CHARTER.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 1:11 AM
Subject: Re: Railroad cart


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jerome Foster <funex79 at CHARTER.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Railroad cart
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> 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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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