The Rhythm of the Rails: Remembering the Gandy Dancers

I didn’t know my grandfather was a Gandy Dancer until recently. While researching what the term meant, I spoke with my father, who told me about my grandfather’s time working on the road. That conversation opened up a part of my family history I’d never fully understood — one tied to sweat, song, and steel.

Who Were the Gandy Dancers?

Gandy Dancers were the men who built and maintained the nation’s railroads. They lifted rails, drove spikes, and aligned track with heavy tools — grueling, physical work that required perfect coordination. The exact origin of the name is debated: some say it came from the Gandy Manufacturing Company, which made railroad tools, while others believe it described the “dancing” movements of the men working in rhythm.

What made them remarkable wasn’t only the labor, but how they endured it. Gandy Dancers sang. Using call-and-response chants, they kept time as they hammered and heaved, their voices turning brutal work into rhythm. The songs weren’t just practical — they were cultural, blending African musical traditions, spirituals, and blues into a living soundtrack of survival.

Labor and Segregation

In the South, most Gandy Dancers were African American, laboring under segregated and unsafe conditions. Yet across the country, railroad crews reflected waves of migration and diversity:

• West: Chinese and Native American workers

• Northeast: Italians and Eastern Europeans

• Irish laborers on early lines

• Southwest: Mexican and Mexican American crews, often called traqueros

Though divided by race and region, their shared rhythm bound them together. The songs kept spirits alive while turning overwhelming strain into synchronized movement.

Why It Matters for Lake Murray

In Episode 2 of Made in Carolina: Submerged Towns, you’ll hear an archival clip that captures the rhythm of the Gandy Dancers. It’s not just an echo of progress — it’s a reminder of the people whose hands and voices shaped the world around us.

For Lake Murray, as with many engineered lakes across the Carolinas, the story of construction can’t be told without the story of labor. The rails that brought in machinery and hauled away timber were laid by men like my grandfather. Their songs are the hidden heartbeat beneath the surface of the lake.

A Personal Note

Learning about the Gandy Dancers through research was one thing. Learning that my grandfather was one of them — through stories from my father — was another. It made the history personal. His rhythm, his labor, and his endurance are part of the larger story of resilience and progress in the Carolinas. Remembering the Gandy Dancers is remembering him.

Primary & Secondary Resources on Gandy Dancers & Railroad Work Songs

1. McCusker, Luke F. III. Railroaders and Fascination: Remembering the Gandy Dancers. Irish American Museum (Big Pivot). Retrieved 9/27/2025.

2. Wikipedia. “Gandy dancer.” Retrieved 9/27/2025.

3. Gandy Dancers (film). Folkstreams. Retrieved 9/27/2025.

4. Oelschlager, Vanita. The Gandy Dancers: And Work Songs from the American Railroad. (A children’s/illustrated introduction to the subject) Amazon+2Newberry Bookshop+2

5. Encyclopedia of Alabama. “Gandy Dancer Work Song Tradition.” Encyclopedia of Alabama

6. Appalachian History blog. “Gandy Dancers.” Appalachian History

7. “Transcript, Gandy Dancers.” Folkstreams (context and text from the film) Folkstreams

8. Florida Memory. Bound to Ride: Train Songs from the Florida Folklife (includes “Track-Lining Song – The Gandy Dancers”) Florida Memory

9. “Railroad Songs and Gandy Dancers.” St. Olaf College Music 345 web page. (Overview of how the songs emerged among African American and immigrant track crews) St. Olaf Pages

10. Talbitzer, Bill. The Gandydancers. Las Plumas Publications, 1967 (a regional/rural railroad history text) Showlett West Books

11. Myrtle, Rocky. Memories of a Gandy Dancer (memoir / railroad-stories collection) Goodreads

12. Norm Cohen (ed.). Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong. (Although not limited to Gandy Dancers, this is a key anthology / reference for railroad work songs and their cultural context)

13. John and Alan Lomax recordings / archives (especially their collections of African American work songs, including railroad songs).

14. Library of Congress Folk Life / American Folklore Divisions – “Negro Work Songs and Calls” (some of these include railroad work chants)

15. Maggie Holtzberg (with Barry Dornfeld). Gandy Dancers (1994 film).

 Option 2

Cohen, Norm. Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981.

Encyclopedia of Alabama. “Gandy Dancer Work Song Tradition.” Accessed September 27, 2025. https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/gandy-dancer-work-song-tradition.

Florida Memory. Bound to Ride: Train Songs from the Florida Folklife. Tallahassee: State Library and Archives of Florida. Accessed September 27, 2025. https://www.floridamemory.com/discover/audio/playlists/train.php.

Folkstreams. Gandy Dancers. Directed by Maggie Holtzberg and Barry Dornfeld, 1994. Accessed September 27, 2025. https://www.folkstreams.net/films/gandy-dancers.

Folkstreams. “Transcript, Gandy Dancers.” Accessed September 27, 2025. https://www.folkstreams.net/contexts/transcript-gandy-dancers.

Lomax, Alan, and John Lomax. Negro Work Songs and Calls. Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture, 1939.

McCusker, Luke F., III. “Railroaders and Fascination: Remembering the Gandy Dancers.” Irish American Museum (Big Pivot), August 2022. Accessed September 27, 2025. https://www.irishamericanmuseum.org/big-pivot-posts/railroaders-and-fascination-remembering-the-gandy-dancers.

Myrtle, Rocky. Memories of a Gandy Dancer. Self-published, 2017.

Oelschlager, Vanita. The Gandy Dancers: And Work Songs from the American Railroad. Akron: VanitaBooks, 2013.

St. Olaf College. “Railroad Songs and Gandy Dancers.” Music 345: Race, Identity, and Representation in American Music blog, February 26, 2018. Accessed September 27, 2025. https://pages.stolaf.edu/americanmusic/2018/02/26/railroad-songs-and-gandy-dancers.

Talbitzer, Bill. The Gandydancers. Oroville, CA: Las Plumas Publications, 1967.

Wikipedia. “Gandy Dancer.” Last modified September 2025. Accessed September 27, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandy_dancer.