Hand-worked track trolleys

[Roderick Smith <rodsmith@werple.net.au>]

Extracted from posts to a South African newsgroup, responding to
requests for nomenclature (for a local dictionary).  What names applied
in Australia and New Zealand?

What's a handcar in SAThis will go into the dictionary); English and
Afrikaans please.
Handcar is a light railway vehicle propelled by cranks or levers, used
by workers inspecting the track It is marked as being the North American
term for this vehicle.  It sounded foreign to me (handcar).  What would
we would call it here?

The agreement was: Gandy Dancer (USA) referred to the track workers, not
to the trolley.
Gandy Manufacturing company made tools for use on railroads, especially
track tools.  The track gang men who used them were referred to as
"Gandy Dancers" for obvious reasons.

Pump Trolley / Pomptrollie were the correct terms as applied to railways
in South
Africa.

"Ganger's Trolley" was a flat trolley without the pump handles but with
a
screw-brake device which gangers used in addition to the pump trolley.
Tese flat trolleys were far more common than the pump trolley.  They
were propelled by pushing them!

I have ridden on a four-seat hand-propelled trolley of VR design: people
sat on seats, in opposed pairs, and pushed the hand back & forth in
front of them.

Did we ever have designs in which people stood?



--
Regards
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor