Gandy Dancers
At one time, Greenwood County had five railroad lines running through the county. On each of these railroad lines there were section crew workmen repairing and readjusting the rails. Each workman had a lining bar that was five foot long and weighed 35 pounds. The bar was thicker on the bottom end and had a square shaft so it could fit against the rail and the end was shaped like a chisel point to dig into the gravel or ballast under the rail. The lighter top end of the bar was rounded for better gripping. The workmen would either face the rail or turn their back to the rail, put their bar at an angle into the ballast and all move forward and or pull back on the bar at the same time to realign the rail. Over time, especially on curves, rails moved so they had to be realigned. The bar was also used to lift the wooden ties, so crushed rock or ballast could be placed under the tie.
This bar was supposedly manufactured by the Gandy Tool Company located in Chicago, Illinois. There is no record of this company ever existing in Chicago. One way or another the bar was called a “Gandy.” As the workers sometimes needed more leverage on the bar, they would stand on the bar and exert more downward force. There was somewhat of a balancing act with this process or as someone said a “Dance.” So, the slang term “Gandy Dancers” was applied to the section crew workman. The workers all had to work in unison to apply maximum leverage on the rail to get it to move. The section crew workers usually referred to themselves as “section hands.” Section crew workmen were usually responsible for maintaining 10-15 miles of track. Each crew consisted of 4 to as many as 15 workers.
During World War II with the shortage of men to work as section hands, a few women took up the job. One woman said, “$55 a week as a section hand was better than $18 a week in a dime store.” The term “Gandy Dancers” was still being used into the 1960s in some parts of the country.
In 1904, a rock quarry opened with a rock crusher east of Hilltop, in Greenwood County that supplied the ballast for the Santa Fe Railroad. It employed as many as 75 men and turned out 18 carloads of ballast a day. The Benedict Branch that ran from Madison down through Hilltop, Virgil, Quincy, Toronto on to Benedict got its ballast from the Hilltop quarry. The Santa Fe line that ran south out of Emporia to Madison on to Hamilton, Eureka, Severy and Moline also got ballast from the Hilltop quarry. In 1908 this quarry was closed and the rock crusher was moved to a new quarry near Florence, for the Santa Fe Railroad ballast.
(Courtesy photo)
Gandy Dancers Repair And Readjust Rails
