Portola Railroad Days Pays Tribute to the "Gandy Dancer"
The Theme for the 2011 Portola Railroad Days!

The term “Gandy Dancer” is the 2011 Portola Railroad Days theme!

*Photos courtesy of the Plumas County Museum < > Photo above courtesy of David Epling

Gandy Dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines. The specific application of the term varies from one source to another. In some texts, the term is described as specific to those workers who built the track.One text states that "layers of railroad track are hardly ever called gandy dancers,"asserting, rather, that the job of the gandy dancer refers to "track examiners", ascribingtheir responsibilities as "checking ties, bolts, track, and roadbed for necessary repairs."However, most sources refer to gandy dancers as the men who did the difficult physical work of track maintenance under the direction of an overseer. There are various theories about the derivation of the term, but most refer to the "dancing" movements of the workers using a specially manufactured 5 foot "lining" bar (which may have come to be called a "gandy") as a lever to keep the tracks in alignment.

Come check out "The Spike Driving Contest" at the 2011 Portola Railroad Days!
Try it! More details coming soon!