Gandy Dancer - Trains Magazine

Did a few searches.  The Gandy outfit is variously referred to as the Gandy Tool Company, the Gandy Shovel Company, and the Gandy Manufacturing Company.  That so many names have been put forward indicates to me that it's possible the company name so often cited may actually be the result of the term "gandy dancer", as opposed to the term coming from the company name.

This may be an area where we have to agree to disagree - that's pretty much what everyone else has done.

Here's some other quotes from the web (cut and pasted, along with their links):

Strictly speaking, the origin of "gandy dancer" is unknown. Some authorities trace it to a certain Gandy Manufacturing Company of Chicago, which supposedly made tools used by track workers. According to this theory, the "Gandy" tool used to tamp down gravel in the track bed was a rod about five feet long with a projecting bar near the bottom, like on a stilt. Using the tool required placing one foot on the bar and hopping around in the track bed, a routine known, logically, as "gandy dancing."

Unfortunately, the "Gandy Company" theory of "gandy dancing" runs aground on a simple lack of evidence. No researcher has yet been able to find definitive evidence, even in Chicago business directories of the period, that any such company ever existed. So that "dancing" theory may be true, but it has yet to be proven.

Gandy Dancer

Slang term for a crew member hired to maintain railroad track and roadbed. Some attribute its origin to the Gandy Manufacturing Company of Chicago, which made track maintenance tools. The Gandy Tool, used to tamp down ballast in the roadbed, was a rod about 5 feet long with a cross bar near the bottom. Using the tool required placing one foot on the bar and hopping around on the roadbed, hence "gandy dancing."

[Q] From Peter Piecuch: “Help settle a family argument about gandy dancer. Most dictionaries define it as a railroad worker, but state that the origin is unknown. Most encyclopaedias don’t list it at all. I seem to have once read that the origin relates to the first automated track-laying machine manufactured by the Gandy Corporation of Chicago.”

[A] There’s much doubt and confusion about this wonderful expression for a member of a track-laying or maintenance crew. It is first recorded in 1918. Since then it has had various slang meanings, including a petty crook or tramp, an Italian, a jitterbug, or a womaniser or active socialite. But the original sense referred to a worker who tamped down the ballast between the ties using a special tool. This involved vigorous stamping on the tool while turning in a circle, an action which might be taken to resemble dancing.

The tool was seemingly called a gandy, but where the name came from is a mystery. It would seem it was based on some bit of railway slang now lost to us. The idea that it referred to a Chicago business named the Gandy Manufacturing Company—which supposedly supplied a variety of tools to railway workers—seems to rest on a reference in a book called

Some writers have suggested that gandy may be a corrupted form of gander, from the nodding heads of the workers using the tool, implying that the tool was actually named after the gandy dancer who used it. But this is no more than guesswork, I’m afraid.