The gandy dancer worked hard on the railroad tracks all day.
gandy dancer
idiomA railway laborer, especially a member of a crew which carries rails and affixes them to ties.
Origin
disputed originUncertain; see Wikipedia for various speculative etymologies.
In the early twentieth century, a gandy dancer used rhythmic chants to coordinate the heavy lifting of steel rails.
The historical photograph captures a weary gandy dancer pausing his labor, his tools resting against the iron tracks that stretched across the vast, empty prairie.