1973 16mm film by Jack Schrader and Tom Burton that features field recordings of work chants of Gandy Dancers including aligning songs and chants to knock out slack in the rail. Shot with a 16mm Bolex camera without sync sound, the visuasl shows men working with cross ties, aligning the track, and spiking. The film focuses on the changes brought about by mechanization of railroad building. The film is part of the Burton Schrader collection in East Tennessee State University, Archives of Appalachia. A digital beta copy is in the Folkstreams archive in the Southern Folklife Collection in Chapel Hill. Watch the entire film on Folkstreams www.folkstreams.net/film,223
I enjoyed this video today. I was a gandy dancer from 1980 to 1994. Driving spikes is the best therapy for your problems. Tamping ties, chasing sun kinks, changing ties by hand, cribbing, changing out short rail sections (30 feet) with only two or three men and putting on anchors without a machine. I have to admit though, we never chanted. I loved the guys I worked with like they were my own brothers, regardless of the color of their skin. It saddens me that many of my co-workers have passed.
Same as that , everyone was covered in it and everyone gave a hand to all . No problem about who or where from , only thing that mattered was that you pulled your weight .
As someone who occasionally has to run a spike maul for a living, I can't emphasize enough how effortless and almost elegant these guys make this look. I can promise you it's harder than it looks.
Yes sir Dan my Uncle done it for ClinchField R&R 40 years he probably in some of these videos on here, the Rail Gang was rough work and he always told me took such years to get really good drawing spikes….. these were the good ole days for sure hard work hundred precent I’d love to have done it back then.
Alex Beal, you ain't lying. I did track maintenance the old school way for a few years. Even in my early 20's my ass was kicked by the end of the day. It definitely gave me a unique perspective though I still apply to my life today. I'm proud to say I did it but at 41 today, I'd probably die in a 1/2 hr. Lol. Men that work with iron and steel are made of the same. I was pretty damn good though. Lol. Wish phones would've been more prevalent back then.
Did it in 1970 as a high school summer job $3 per hour (big money then) for the Grand Trunk Railroad laying new 1/4 mile "ribbon" steel track between Battle Creek and Vicksburg, Michigan; 110 degrees some days; carried a 20 LB long bar; ran a spike pounding machine. End of the day you were covered in grime and dust. Builds character!
The Grand Trunk railroad main line had two lines, about 12 feet apart, most of the way southern Michigan; we replaced the track on one of the lines; the other line was still active with ten or twenty freight or passenger trains per day. Laying track was so noisy you couldn't hear an approaching train whistle so you'd look at your work buddy, point at your eye and then point at the approaching 40 mph train, and walk away onto the siding: it's called "have an eye".
@@chelsieverbal2486 for some reason also I would love do to try the old ways of work with out the automatic mechine stuff
The food on the table must've been really blessed and tasty when you work this hard to provide for your family
You appreciate things more when you actually work for it. Feels good.
Amen!!
I work on the railway in England and it's still really physically demanding but it makes you appreciate everything more. We call our fellow railway men, brothers in orange
I have worked with my hands for 25 years. I work in a hot shot in the summer and a cold shop in the winter. I rebuild cars. All that manual labor makes that paycheck so much nicer. When you can step back and see touch and feel what you’ve done know that that hard work is getting someone back to work or their children safely to school makes everything so much better.
@@josephdurling2565 is the boiled meat, boiled cabbage, boiled potatos, and boiled carrots really blessed and tasty?
I was working for the Canadian National Railway's extra steel gang #101 the summer of 1972 near Prince Rupert, BC and Wainwright, Alberta. We were replacing the old railroad tracks with 1/4 mile long ribbon rails. The minimum wage then was CAD$1.50/hour and CN was paying us casual labourers CAD$2.43. I needed the money to go to school and was working 10 hours a day, 7 days/wk the whole summer. It was hard work, but I was happy !!!!
I was a gandy dancer 76-80 we still were using the tools my grandpa used on the same railroad, logging railroad, we were buying mainline 110lb rail and replacing 80lb narrow gauge, best job I ever had, until Mt. St. helens took our track in 1980
Did you work for Weyerhauser?
I have struggled with depression most of my teenage life; the only thing that got me out of that slump was when my dad had enough, kicked my ass and got me a job at my uncles construction company doing manual labor. It's not the highest paying job, not by a longshot but I'm never happier than when I'm working with the guys.
I've never thought I worked hard in my life. One month I gained ten pounds and took a notch in on my belt. It wasn't working to me. I had a great time. I spend many day in my career bored and sitting at a bench, wasting time. I wasn't working then, but I didn't have fun.
Glad you found your peace.
Now you have a skill. And honor and integrity In working. Trust Jesus and live sir. Live.
I worked for on a MoW crew for about 2 years after college. The guys broke me in quick from filling cribs with ballast forks, spiking, anchoring, etc. I had nothing but respect for those guys and looked up to them. Camaraderie on the Railroad is a real thing. Love every minute of it.
Couldn’t agree more. Similar experience for me.
My great grandfather wandered out of the Canadian wilds at the age of 14 looking to find work on the rail road. He did this work, and the men taught him to read and then encouraged him to get a dynamite license. He used it for the Grand Trunk RR, blasting for a trans Canadian track. He fell in love with a girl and dragged her out with him into that life but it was too hard on her and their first baby died within days. He would send money and visit her often enough to have more children including my grandmother and her twin sister. At the age of 5 her mother went into the hospital for surgery to repair a fistula but surgery was as often deadly as successful and she didn't make it off the table. Dynamite Jack didn't show up after that, leaving his orphans to the dept. of social services in New York State. In his 90's he reappeared in downtown Rochester where he'd left his dead wife and spent his final years dancing on a bar, falling off the bar and breaking a leg, being put in a tuberculosis sanitarium where he finally drifted away. My Dad told the story, as did my grandmother. He blasted his whole life - never really leaving the rail road or the dynamite. He was a frontier character.
so it wasnt just hard on the body, the work was hard upon the soul.
Miss railroading , dad and I built lot of track together , loved spiking !!! Guess it was in my blood
These men really did some hard work. I admire all of them.
I appear to remember some of these gentle men's faces. I started work. On the Clinchfield in 1978. The spike maul was called a blue bell back then. Gaining the rhythm to roll it with a partner made it easier to swing it all day. The weight of it falling drove the spike and also bounced it back up to roll it for another swing. To fit in then a man held the blue bell straight armed in front of him. Holding the end of the handle, and hammer vertical, roll wrist back toward face and touch it to your nose. Then bring it back to vertical with arm still straight. If you didn't bloody your nose, you were a man.
Do you remember their names or any stories from working with these men?
Don’t they call it double jacking? Or am I thinking of something else?
@@opictia double bubble
Dave fuller thank you!
@@opictiaDOUBLE STEPPING IS A TERM I HEARD LONG AGO!!
I did this same work between 77 to 81, back in my younger days. Mostly down in the Delta of Mississippi. It would be so hot and dry in the summertime. But in the winter it could be so cold if felt like it would cut you in two. The only time they would pull a crew off for bad weather was when there was lightning in the area. If it hit that rail, it would run for miles in a short moment. Miss doing this work, it was sort of nostalgic, like the old western days.
Same for me 1999-2004 in North Dakota. And oh boy the winters up here...
Gandy Dancer work songs! Back in the 1960's, I was privileged to witness some Gandy Dancers, adjusting the curve on a new track spur, one did the calls and the rest of the crew did the work. All perfectly timed and effort to match. The calls let them know exactly what to do and when to do it, together as a team.
how they swing the maul in a circular motion is amazing!
Stumbled upon this video while explaining to my son how tracks were laid. Didn't expect to see and hear about my home of Johnson City. Wild!
My Dad came from Tennessee,/Kentucky at the State line. The "track" from Chicago to Louisiana passed by Fulton, Kentucky. It was a proud day; as my Aunt Barbara Rogers Rice, Court Clerk, for (Fulton, KT.) Told me, she was proud, to see the rail road FINALLY go through...NORTH TO SOUTH!
I can spike with the best of them but these guys are real railroaders. Man they are tough
Imagine laying rail in the 1800's no machines at all.
My great-great grandfather was a "gandy dancer" for the Central-Hudson in Bergen, NY. He was killed in 1898 when he was struck and killed by a train who's approach was masked by the sound of another train on a different track. The guys working with him tried to get his attention but were unable to get to him in time. He was 38 when he died and his five children ranged in age from 13 years to 9 months. His three sons all grew up to work for the Pittsburgh, Shawmut and Northern Railroad. One was a conductor, my great grandfather eventually became Timekeeper of the Junction in St Marys, PA and I am not sure what the third one did. A rich and interesting history running along those old rails.
The look on those men’s faces when they see the steel driver at 9:00 taking their jobs. Speaks volumes.
Get a grip. Creative editing. Nobody should feel nostalgic for back-breaking, mind-numbing hard labor.
@@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb someone has to do it. The back breaking mind numbing labor jobs keep you typing away while someone is putting in the hours.
@@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb I don't believe that it is being "nostalgic" to speak of such. For me it is respect, awe and gratitude for those individuals and the millions of others like them who actually built this country and its infrastructure doing this back-breaking work. It is only "mind-numbing" to those who probably were already numb to begin with from playing video games. Doing difficult physical work refreshes the brain and brings a feeling of accomplishment for a job well done to a person. On summers during high school and college, I worked as a laborer, roofer and carpenter. I worked with Oscar as a laborer who was probably in his 70's. I was in pretty good shape physically from being involved in sports, but I couldn't keep up with him when I was 50 years younger than him and probably at the prime of my physical ability. He'd done work like this his entire life as a "real life" teamster working in the underground copper mines when they used real horsepower rather than steam, gas or electric equipment. If these folks didn't do this work who would? Obviously you haven't experienced having to labor like this, yet you are criticizing those who have labored to built the creature comforts you enjoy today. As Marx wrote - "Labor is the source of all wealth." What wealth have you created today?
I been working on track for 10years in Australia I've never ever seen such a good team work respect to you guys real railworker........old school rock......
From the 50's to the 90's My Father was a Switchman. First worked for Rock Island Rail Road til they went out of business in 1980. He went to work for the Soo Lines. Laying those lines....friggen hard work. I went into Construction....helped rebuild a large section of one of the largest inland Refinery's Phillips 66. My biggest experience close to laying rail lines was when I was a Roustabout Foreman, First Women to be a Roustabout Foreman, broke out in the Texas Panhandle Oil Fields. Laying oil n gas lines for miles upon miles...all kinds, sizes of pipes from metal, pvc to rolled plastic. Learned how to do plastic welding....was highly requested for the superb job I & my crew did. Out in the elements...hard way to make a living....that'll get ya sum experience...make ya grow up fast...and at times...make ya grow older much quicker. Take my hat off to those workers...the conditions.....quite barbaric....flat out amazing what they accomplished. Great to hear these songs...talk about Real Treasure...!! Love being fortunate come across the channels these are posted on. Internet is such a Gift....making obtainable from comfort of home.....when we used to have to travel to various libraries, request things in.....etc...etc...all taking consider lengths of time. So we are really fortunate to be able to hear these songs thanks to internet & the uploaders. Thank you, folkstreamer....for blessing us & helping to save & share this incredible and rare history
This video brings tears of joy, pride in hard work and song. The way men used to do an honest days work.
THESE ARE THE KIND OF MEN THAT WAS AROUND WHEN I WAS A KID,SO SAD THAT SO MANY HAVE GONE ON. THEY WERE WHAT IS SO HATED TODAY,REAL MEN!
I worked on a track gang. When I saw another similar video a few minutes ago I could literally smell the creosote.
It's crazy that much hasn't changed and we're still out there doing this. Love my job!
You mean you're still aligning rail using a lining bar?
Well keep them songs alive brother! The heritage of building the country should be celebrated and remembered. Keep em alive keep em alive
@@markhenry6622 90% of the time
@@markhenry6622 its easy if you have another person helping you. but its pretty seldom we have to. look up what a pettibone is, also we have a prentice truck. loaders, back hoes, skidsteers.
This is my daily job . Track for life .
Lived all my life in and around dockyards and dry docks and I I’ve heard and sung quite a few shanty’s and docin songs with the best o the sea dogs whoer in the pubs at the end of a long day but I can’t believe that I’ve never appreciated the railroads gandy dancers workin songs I can literally feel the various aches and pains and smell the smell of new rail ties and the smell of diesel grease from the crane in this video
Ahhh.. Back in the days of 39 foot rails. Thanks for posting this historic video.
Yes, and believe it or not, their video recording equipment was better than some modern day digital shit.
Great lyrics and music have always gone hand in hand with hard work. Let's hear it for the working class!
Its cool watching this im a track maintence work for a rr museum in Fl and this is my job to a tee my job combines the early style machines with the physical labor i learned from an old gandy dancer its hard but honorable work i carry a tradition on thats all but gone its a privilage and an honor to have the job that these great men did its very humbling to me great video
Worked the Milwaukee Road back in the 70s. I must say, it was hard work, but glad I had a chance to be part of it. Pounding spikes was fun, especially if you can put "cat eyes" on the spike.
When compared to mechanization and machine use, sure, manual labor to lay track and pound spikes is grossly inefficient...BUT, we've lost something in America. Jobs like this BUILT America...it gave those workers not only pride but a way of life that, once gone, can never be regained. It's only with information such as this that we can only truely see what we've lost. These men, and thousands upon thousands of men like them, worked their jobs - hard, backbreacking but WHAT a sense of accomplishment! Compare "we laid 2 miles of track today" to "I sold 8 cellphones today" or "we made 200 Big Macs" today. Not to denigrate anybody who is working at all - times have changed so much and it's difficult to remember where we came from. Besides, I've never seen an obese Gandy Dancer.
Im heart broken reading this but its the gods honest truth!! Thank you for saying it fellow American
@Carolina to the Caribbean Back when America had real men
Hard to be obese when u work hard and not get paid much
@@GentelmanPlays True. Than you for the reply.
This is amazing! I remember when men looked and acted like this.
1973! I was a "school boy" (university student) employed as a section hand for the MoPac. We worked at the Ivory Street yards at the mouth of the River Des Peres and the Mississippi River. Hot, humid, dirty. I loved every second of it. Taught me profound respect for these hard-working men. And damn! Did I study hard when I got back to school in the fall!
This is that John Henry kind of work.
Did that job during university at CN. Tough dangerous job.
Damn, wish I could spike like some of these guys. I know I had to learn how to do it when I took up the job at the local shortline railroad.
Them was some very strong men back then, mentally and physically strong
My mother's father and 2 brothers were railway builders in Finland before WW2. People said the railway builders were "railway gypsies" because they often moved because of work.
Thanks to all who worked so hard building the infrastructure that built our lifestyles!
Unbelievably good. Please, show this at all schools in the NY/NJ areas!!!
There will be a movie featuring gandy dancers soon.
Spiked a mile of ties a day back in '76. Worked for Burlington Northern in Wyoming. Loved it. I was 19
We still doing it a man done had enough of a beating 🙏💯😭
I did this during the summers for college money in the 70's. It was for a shortline RR in PA, Octoraro Railways. I got decent at spiking. The least favorite part of job was all the creosote on the new ties.
I'm a volunteer railroader working with the Downeast Scenic Railroad based in Hancock, ME. This is my second year doing this and I've learned a lot working with the track crew. I'm still a bit of a novice when swinging a spike maul, but I know my skills have improved since I started with the DSRR. Of course, that spike maul doesn't get any lighter as the day goes on.
You do not need money?
What a trip I'm a railroader and to understand what they did at that time it would never be the same.... But hell it's a privilege to maintain what the rail gods did
Seeing these men work is the emphasis of human together strong the men who worked the rails literally have the infrastructure of America built upon thier backs and the sweat of their brow
4th generation railroader here who left the “family business”. Put some time in on spike mauls, claw bars, rail tongs, etc. & paid for a good bit of Penn State with MOW - Maintenance of Way Dept. money. Learned a small amount of this skill set on US Steel’s Union Railroad in early 90’s Pittsburgh.
These men laid the very foundations of the modern society transportation with their bare hands... thank you!
I started railroadin 2 weeks after I turned 18 with my pops. Started with tie gang and i was back shoveling big piles of ballast and grabbing the plates and setting them for the plate jack. Bangin anchors i love doing! First week i wanted to quit but second week i was ok. Im 21 now and still windmillin and anchor banging but these guys make me look amateur. The stories my dad tells me when he first started was with no machines at all just your hands and back. 💪💪
Maaan! They are like the machine gun snipers of railroad building. Never miss a nail this guy's. RESPECT
Metro North Trackmen here. This vid is great 👍. Learned something new.
Are they hiring?
I responded to a post on railroad machines. Quite an impressive machine. I posted my memory of seeing a Gandy Dancer crew when I was 10 years old. I never forgot that. Today I saw your video and realized just what I witnessed. Thanks for the video. Machines have indeed replaced history in many areas.
I worked the Tamping Crew for Burlington Northern in the 70’s. The spikers (hammer swingers) were treated like royalty. I tried it a few times and was politely told to go back to shoveling. 😁
Definitely had to earn our way to the spike maul and after you broke one on the rail they gave you an orange plastic handled one to let everyone know you were an amateur and save the shop steward handles until you learned to swing.
Great history. It should be shown in grade school. If you don't think that's hard work, try it yourself for 8-10 hours!
I use the songs when I'm trying to collect collect spikes on the railroad for folk magic. By the fourth track I had five spikes. Thank you so very much. Of course, I left the railroad spirits, a bit of whiskey and cigarettes. This is what's known as the Tropicana railroad because it's the railroad that Tropicana uses to ship at citrus up north
Should be required viewing for all phases of education in the United States, from kindergarten to post graduate level dissertation. "You don't have to work hard to achieve success" has been the greatest lie ever told to the masses. This country was great for many reasons, most importantly because this country ONCE KNEW HOW TO WORK.
Jennifer Joshua If hard work meant becoming rich, then farmer workers, miners, steamfitters, gandy dancers, and million of others would be billionaires. But, without these men, and women, then nothing would have been made, nothing of worth would have been created, in this nation. Now, we, want to get rich doing nothing productive....
+Jennifer Joshua Well said.
+Jennifer Joshua Well said.
3 years late I know, but if I could add that in the standard read of all business people, the book Think and Grow Rich, says first off that no one gets rich by working hard, they get rich by getting others to do the work.
Well even back "in the day" it was the white guys who seeked out and often got lifetime jobs at big corporations and they really didn't have to work hard at all compared to the poor whites and blacks who really did all the "grunt work" before the machine put them out of a job.
I'd like to thank all the men who with the sweat of their brow built this nation present, past, and beyond.
that's some hard men right there.
Ida been honored to had worked with every one of them
beautiful film thanks for showing
UP running through southern Nevada where I live, originally The San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake RR. Chinese immigrant labor did much of the original work, after seeing the labor in this short, but incredible documentary I'll never look at those tracks the same way again.
Great Guys......great Job!! The song is very nice in to my soul!!!!
A lost artform...gandydancers, preserved for all time on U-tube! A true treasure!
Hired into The Norfolk & Western Railroad in 1981 until 1986 worked as a "Gandy" worked on The B&B, (Bridge & building dept) also as a Welders helper. Everyone HAD to know how to "Spike Ties."
B&B 💪
I Gandyed on three Rail Lines in the early to mid 1970s. The Local tram at the Anaconda Co. Smelter, The Milwaukee R/R, and the B.A.&P. R/R inthhe Bearkley pit in Butte. Yup! G-G 🤔😐🚂🚃🚆🛤🛤⚒🛠🔧
That was the song 'John Henry' being played on the harmonica @ 3:40 great documentary
What a fantastic record. Good to see. If only the british Rail track had skilled workers like them.
Now that is a hard days work !
these men may have a tough job, but theyre hearts are bigger then ours.
Reminds me of my days as a Gandy Dancer in Chicago on the N&W (former NKP)
I started working for CP Rail in early june 2022 and after training was done they put me on a small tie gang that works around southern Saskatchewan, Canada. 2 - 3 weeks in to my job as a extra gang labourer we started work on the stretch of rail that runs between Moose Jaw, SK and Assinibioa, SK. We didn't have any track units for replacing ties so we hired 2 backhoe operators to do what the tripp would do. We replaced 3 1/2 km of ties and had to spike them all by hand. Near the end of the 12 hr shift my buddies gave me some A-Cuts for workout and I had hyperfocus like you couldnt believe. My meds for my ADHD were no match to the effectiveness of those A-Cuts. Anyways I chugged it and the next spike that I went to put down with my 12 lbs spike maul went down in 3 hits. Those A-Cuts sure help alot!!!
Another CP maintenance of way employee here in northern ontario!
Awesome video thank you for posting it. My dad worked on a track gang also.
Great video. Thank you for posting. I am amazed by how those men swing those tools.
That’s a real days work. Very honorable men each one.
A lot of men bled and died to build this nation's railroads!! Is it hard work, yes! Is it dangerous work, no doubt! After all is said and done, there is nothing like watching a train high ball on a track you maintain. WE are the Maintenance of the Way!!! Track Foreman out...
ec219wtf --Which railroad? My son is a welding foreman for BNSF. He started working on a track gang (I think that is the correct title). He just had a birthday and gave him an old spike maul out of the tool crib of Burlington Northern which is now part of BNSF. He stood there for 15 minutes explaining to his mother how the maul was used and why one end was thinner then the other. Mad props to anyone who worked on track in the old days.
I remember seeing gandy dancers when i was a kid in the 60's and 70's. We lived right next to the tracks. They lived in white boxcars, with large windows cut out of the sides of the car. They were some hard working men, mostly Mexican's.
Couldn’t imagine doing that all day day in day out. Rough work
That would take some effort pounding those huge spikes into hardwood rail sleepers and doing it all day. I'm a 60 year old bricklayer who just chucked it in, but I reckon these type of jobs would be real hard yakka
Thanks for putting this up.
Marvelous. Thank you.
That guy at 5:15 - 5:27 was really whipping that hammer. Now that is surely hard work those guys were doing, hat's off to them.
These men were hard workers. All the exercise they got there blood pressures were good. Aced the railroad physicals. I tip my hat to them.
I can raise a Jack I can lay a track I can pick n shovel too. So coool!
Now this is a mans work.
The physical form of hammer swinging is exotic and circular. The cycles look goofy in a way but you know, they know thats the best way to do it. The tall up and down motion must be a thing of the movies.
The look on those mens faces at seeing the machine that will take their jobs
There is no romance or spirit about a machine, that's progress.
Drove spikes Baltimore,DC,Philadelphia and Cleveland.tunnels and tressel bridges,working those wood bridges were tricky.12 lb. hammer swing that beast 12 hrs. a day,you get fore arms a black smith envys!.....but the pay,about 2000.00 a week!
I did that NYCTA..hard work in thos smelly subway tunnels .
I see a strong analogy to the "Ballad of John Henry and the Steam Drill" here...especially come 8:50 and the arrival of the spike-driving machine. And they wonder why there's no jobs left!
Been there and done that when I was younger both before and after I went to Vietnam in the late 60's and early 70's. When you watch the men twirl the spike mall the reason they do that is so they can see the spike. They look between their arms. One thing for sure, you didn't need to go to a gym after work. The older guys who had been doing it for years looked like body builders. Tough men, many of them poorly educated but I wouldn't trade one of them for fifty protesting college kids.
Ya know it's the protesting college kids that got us things like days off and a mandatory 8 hours between shifts. Lunch breaks. Workman's comp.
@@sunshineandchaos It was a combination of unions and competition from other employers offering better benefits.
@@azbdizzy4176 who do you think the unions were, if not protestors?
@@sunshineandchaos College kids have a union? Most wouldn't last a week on a track crew.
Real men,doing man work.
A friend of mine who volunteers at a railroad museum says he's thank full they have an automatic spike driver as driving spikes is hard work he said.
As someone who has done both I'd rather do it manually. Those automatic drivers are heavy as hell and become more of a burden after a certain amount of time.
spike hammer men pretty to watch. In Australia and I guess all the rail world, this practice still remains albeit not so advertised due to the strict safety regs nowadays. Nothing more satisfying then to finish the day with a good hammer run. When men were men! Respect!
Five generations of my family worked on the L&N. Sadly my father didn't follow the family tradition.
Thanks for posting this gem of Americana. I think its particularly poignant how the film shows the manual way of driving spikes and the incoming automated way. However, strictly speaking, I think "gandy dancers" were guys who straightened existing tracks with tools something like big crowbars. I think the idea was that the trains would eventually make the tracks crooked, and the gandy dancers would straighten them out again
exactly right
Dave, The term gandy dancer didn't apply to just the men who lined the track using lining bars, it was a pet name of sorts, for all section men in the MOW Dept. I work as a section man on a smaller railroad, and out of humor have been referred as a Gandy Dancer.
+CountVonBoco Yep, applied to all who worked on the tracks either doing repair/realignment or new track. Mostly applied to those swinging spike mauls or using lining bars. Now days you don't have them because the work is done by the machines instead of the muscles of men. Sadly, it is partly what is missing in today's railroads. Section gangs took care of one area of the rail line and kept the track up to better than today's standards in many cases. If welded rail had been in use back then, there would not have been track like we have today but would have been closer to the quality of high speed rail. Because with bolted rail, spikes, and wooden crossties, the men kept the tracks in some places capable of 120 MPH.
Genesis - "Driving the Last Spike" tells the story of men like this.. How we worked, how we worked like The devil for our pay Through the wind, through the snow And through the rain Blasting and cutting through Gods country like a knife Sweat stinging my eyes, there has to be a better life But I can hear my children's cry I can see the tears in their eyes Memories of those I've left behind Oh just still ringing in my ears Will I ever go back again Will I ever see her face again 'cause I'll always remember that night As they waved goodbye to their fathers We came from the North And we came from the South With picks and with spades And a new kind of order Showing no fear of what lies up ahead They'll never see the likes of us again Driving the last spike Lifting and laying the track With blistering hands And the sun burning your back But I can hear my children's cry I can see the tears in their eyes Oh memories of those I've left behind Still ringing in my ears 'cause I'll always remember that night As they waved goodbye to their fathers We followed the rail, we slept under the stars Digging in darkness and living with danger Showing no fear of what lies up ahead They'll never see the likes of us again
🎶 Dance, dance, dance Little Gandy Dancer 🎶 - Bachman Turner Overdrive