Modern-Day Gandy Dancers

Today while out railfanning with fellow rail enthusiast and Facebook follower, Gary Winsett, we ran by the AB Brown power plant at West Franklin, Indiana to see if they were any trains there to catch and stumbled upon track crews from Alltrack Inc, working on placing a new track panel on the lead going into the power plant.

We were fortunate enough to get there just in time for me to grab this shot on April 9th, 2021 of the crew working a new section of track in place right before the overpass on Lower Mt. Vernon Road, in a great spot for photographing these modern-day Gandy Dancers at work.

According to Wikipedia: Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers in the United States, more formally referred to as "section hands", who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines. 

According to their website: Alltrack Inc. was established in March of 1988 by Lee Clark, Lester Binegar, and Robert Butler to perform railroad construction and maintenance work in the Indiana area.  In January of 1998 Jim & Jon Lawyer bought the business and later moved their operations to Pendleton, IN.  Alltrack Inc. has grown in recent years to service the entire Midwest & parts of the South.

Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Nikon 10-14mm @10mm, f/5, 1/1000, ISO 180.

Modern-Day Gandy Dancers

Today while out railfanning with fellow rail enthusiast and Facebook follower, Gary Winsett, we ran by the AB Brown power plant at West Franklin, Indiana to see if they were any trains there to catch and stumbled upon track crews from Alltrack Inc, working on placing a new track panel on the lead going into the power plant.

We were fortunate enough to get there just in time for me to grab this shot on April 9th, 2021 of the crew working a new section of track in place right before the overpass on Lower Mt. Vernon Road, in a great spot for photographing these modern-day Gandy Dancers at work.

According to Wikipedia: Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers in the United States, more formally referred to as “section hands”, who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines.

According to their website: Alltrack Inc. was established in March of 1988 by Lee Clark, Lester Binegar, and Robert Butler to perform railroad construction and maintenance work in the Indiana area. In January of 1998 Jim & Jon Lawyer bought the business and later moved their operations to Pendleton, IN. Alltrack Inc. has grown in recent years to service the entire Midwest & parts of the South.

Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Nikon 10-14mm @10mm, f/5, 1/1000, ISO 180.