Train Crummy

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Louis in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Hi, Louis. Welcome to the show.

How are you doing? What can we help with?

Hey, thank you. Thank you.

Okay, I’m a retired freight train conductor, and we have some slang that we use on railroads, and we got one particularly. They don’t use them anymore, but we had what used to be called a caboose, and it was always referred to as a crummy. And I used to ask the guys, and I used to look at different railroad books and things, and I could never find a definition or an origin of why the caboose was called a crummy. And that’s my question. Why is a caboose called a crummy in railroading?

Did you know that, Michael?

Yeah, and what would have been the origin of the word? I knew the term existed, but I’m not sure that we have an origin for crummy.

No, we know that it’s at least 100 years old is a bit of railroad slang. Most people outside of railroading don’t know crummy can mean caboose. Or it used to refer to the brake van, or is that the same thing as the caboose?

Yeah, they used to call it van, way car, or hack, things like that. So the caboose is where the employees spend their time, right? Do you have bunks there and maybe a place to sit and eat to store your stuff, like lockers?

Yeah, when I came on board, we would be in there sometimes nine to ten hours on a run before we got to a crew change. And so, you know, you had all the facilities there. You had basically living facilities there. You could eat, sleep, or whatever on it. And so myself, I thought one time it was called crummy because a lot of times the crude that we would relieve on it would leave the thing in such a mess that I started saying, boy, this thing sure is crummy.

You know what, Lewis? That is the strongest theory that I’ve read about this. That is exactly why. That because they leave food everywhere. Crumbs. Fleas or lice and dirty clothes. Chicken bones on the floor.

Yeah, exactly. Chicken bones. Tobacco. Has there ever been a better sign of a pig than a chicken bone? I’ve got to tell you.

Yeah. Now, you didn’t do that, did you, Lewis, for the next year?

Oh, no, no. I always tried to leave it clean because I hated getting on one that was dirty. And so I’d always try to leave it clean. And I’ll just throw one more at you. The slang for the maintenance of weight guys back then used to be, those are the fellows that maintain the tracks and the ties and stuff. They were called gandy dancers.

Gandy dancers. I’ve definitely heard that one. Did you ever do that work?

Nope, nope, nope.

That’s hard work.

Back then it was.

It’s easy now.

They’ve got machines and stuff.

Right.

These are the fellows that kind of, if the rails kind of get out of alignment or need a few more wax.

Yeah, they have a crew and a work train used to come through, and they would repair the ties, put new ties down, new rails down, things like that.

Yeah.

There’s a brilliant documentary.

It’s about a half hour long.

You can find it at folkstreams.net about gandy dancers.

And they’ve got some of the old-timers singing the songs while they’re working out.

Yeah, they used to do that.

It’s really interesting.

Yeah, because they’ve all got to work together, so they have to find that rhythm.

So they’re all pushing on the rail with these really long, heavy rods at the same time, just kind of easing back and forth, pushing that rail over.

Right, hence the dancing, right?

Yeah, exactly, because they’re literally dancing as they’re all together in unison, easing back and forth, pushing those rails into place.

Yeah.

Well, I do thank you all for the information.

And like the one for Crummy, I’ve read in every book, it said no one could find out the origin or where it came from.

Well, we’re not much better than that, but I like your theory, and a few other people who study slang think that your theories hold some water as well.

All right?

All right.

Well, thank you so much for your help.

Thanks for listening, Lewis, and thanks for calling.

I really appreciate it.

Thanks for that first-hand report.

Bye-bye.

All right.

Bye-bye, Lewis.

The Gandhi part of Gandhi Dancer is a little more of a mystery.

Supposedly it comes from the Gandhi Manufacturing Company of Chicago.

There are some tools that say Gandy Manufacturing Company of Chicago, but it’s possible that company came after the term.

After.

The term existed and they just took the name.

So we don’t really know for sure.

Gandy dancers.

Gandy dancers.

But that sounds like an interesting life, right in the crummy, right?

Getting out once in a while to do a little Gandy dancing.

I’d like to be the first group.

Yeah, the first group.

Yeah, but we love it when people call us about their workplace slang.

So we invite you to do that, 877-929-9673.

Or send it an email to words@waywordradio.org.