As a railroader, that’s is a cool video. The Gandy Dancers were gone before my start date but there are many stories of Gandy Dancers floating around. As stories go, it sounds like some of them were real characters. Seems like you hear less and less about them as time goes on and the old heads retire. Thanks for posting, Hadnt seen that one!
Great post Wolfdog. I slung a lot of rail, set and tapped ties, pounded spikes all by hand. At the end of the day we ate a lot of food and drank a lot of whiskey. Hard work but it was something I loved to do.
I had a pretty good eye for lining track.lined out a lot of sunkinks by hand on the Moosonee line over the years.Lined in a lot of kicked out joints on the high side of the curves too fairly regular track mtc on the jointed rail.Didnt need 20 men singing songs-5 men was good,with the caller yelling-"HEAVE!" Foreman sighting out the spots-"TWO JOINTS AHEAD MEN-TO THE WEST".-Then-"CENTER BACK!
We only used the lining jacks when lining switches.