As a small boy, I thought they were “prison convicts” as they worked up and down the railroad spur in front of our farm house that is until I heard them chant a diddy that went something like this: “I got a girl in New Orleans, Prettiest girl you ever seen.”
That’s when I asked farm neighbor A.J. Neel about those black men who seemed to work and sang in rhythm as they used big sledge hammers to “lay tracks” or “pull up tracks.”
“They’re known as Gandy Dancers,” informed A.J. Neel, the smartest man who lived on our farm road because he read books.
“The workers used the rhythms of motion and song to make the long work days of laying track, go smoother,” A.J. added. “They’re not prison work gangs…but their work on laying tracks is tortuous hard work.”
Momma Whittle almost “freaked out” upon learning that her seven-year-old son had walked out on the railroad tracks not only to get a closer look at these talented men, but to “talk” to them and admire their singing and work.
Later in life, Momma decreed: “That was probably your first ‘news interview’ of life.”
I wasn’t afraid of those men, because I often conversed with “hoboes” who frequently got off the railroad to eat “a square meal” out the back door of Momma’s kitchen. Some were obviously emotionally disturbed, while others were just ordinary “Joes” who were maybe down on their luck in wake of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Later, as a newspaper columnist, I researched “Gandy Dancers” who helped maintain railroads throughout America, including the important railroad line between Nashville and Chattanooga in the late 1800s and early 1900s before mechanization and computers replaced them.
The term “Gandy Dancers” originated at the Chicago-based Gandy Manufacturing Company, makers of railroad tools.
In 1996, African-American railroad worksong singers John Mealing and Cornelius Wright of Birmingham were honored as recipients of National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowships, the government’s highest honor in folk and traditional arts.
Former Murfreesboro/Smyrna resident Mark S. Womack helped greatly in describing the Gandy Dancers and the huge economic impact that railroad has had on the Middle Tennessee economy.
“I certainly do remember the Gandy Dancers, and their ‘lining’ the tracks, as several men would align themselves along each rail, and each would be equipped with a long steel bar, called a ‘lining bar.’
“When extra heavy work was involved, larger “worker gangs” were brought in,” Womack detailed. “Many lived in camp cars (on side spurs of the railroad.) Camp cooks were part of the work gangs.
“Five or six men would be alongside each rail, with their bars in place,” Womack described. “The foreman would be 40 or 50 feet down the track, and would give hand signals to the men with the bars. The foreman would squat low, so he could give a ‘good eye’ to the track guage (distance between the rails). I well remember the cadence sung out by the men, as the foreman’s directions were followed.”
Railroad history preservationist Womack described his “late night” shift at the Smyrna Railroad Dept.
“To get to and from my railroad job in Smyrna in 1942, I drove a Model “A” Ford back and forth to Murfreesboro,” Womack accounted. “It was my first car, which I bought after learning I had been assigned to that shift. I bought it from Robert Overall, a Murfreesboro car dealer for $125. The work shift was from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. every night.”
He remembered “the Gandy Dancers” too.
“I certainly do remember them. Actually, the term ‘Gandy Dancer’ was given to a track laborer, known as a ‘section man” or “section hand,” Mr. Womack detailed. “A ‘section’ in that context meant a length of track of about 10 miles.”
The day-to-day maintenance of the tracks “was under the leadership of a man known as the ‘section foreman,’” Womack described. “His work gangs would consist of five to six men. The section men lived in company-owned houses, in a row, at the headquarters of each section. Some line workers were housed in railroad cars.”
“There was such a section in Smyrna, and another at Murfreesboro,” he shared. “I remember other sections located at La Vergne, Rucker, Christiana and Bell Buckle.”
“Gandy Dancer” workers were transported in the 1940s by a “motor car.” Prior to motorized, “man-power” was required to pump the work cars.
“Often, the motor cars pulled a tool car,” Womack noted. “The Gandy Dancers would go to specific points, while seated with their backs to one another, and feet dangling toward the track bed. The motor car, along with tools, was housed at section headquarters.”
Gandy Dancers could often be seen working on tracks up and down the railroad lines leading from Nashville, through Smyrna, Murfreesboro, Christiana, Bell Buckle, Tullahoma, Cowan and Chattanooga.
Their work was hard labor, but in the Great Depression, any job was considered a great find.
Writer’s Note: My wife’s father, Norene native Homer “Pop” Moser, had a lifetime career of railroading on the line between Nashville and Chattanooga. |
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