This goes back early 1900s I imagine. In this NYTimes video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tly8abRH4ws (2'05'') there are five men on a railroad equipment. I tried looking for pictures and on americanrails.com, but found no clue to get to the name of that kind of workers and to the thing they are giving motion to. Any idea? Thanks
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1Gandy 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 British equivalents of the term gandy dancer are "navvy" (from "navigator"), originally builders of canals or "inland navigations", for builders of railway lines, and "platelayer" for workers employed to inspect and maintain the track.– FumbleFingersApr 4, 2016 at 15:52
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2 Answers
The vehicle is a handcar or pumpcar.
answered Apr 4, 2016 at 20:07
Navvys or Navigational Engineers
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The conventional plural spelling would be navvies (not navvys). Apr 4, 2016 at 15:17
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As FumbleFingers states, "gandy dancer" is the US term for the people. I've never heard "navvy". Apr 4, 2016 at 20:12
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^vote with an note: You could add a parallel reference to gandy dancer: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandy_dancer– lauirApr 5, 2016 at 5:06
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Recommended video accompaniment to this answer: youtube.com/watch?v=Fh0F41AvO_Q– deadratApr 5, 2016 at 7:11
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@Hotlicks Navvy was the general term used in and around Britain, especially for Irish engineers. As a large amount of Irish Navvies went to the US to work on these projects, I used Navvy.– SGRApr 5, 2016 at 7:12