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I've heard that "Gandy" is a corruption of "handy" as in handcar, the transportation device these guys often used to go out and work on remote sections of track, so the pre-colloquialized term would have been "handy dancer", what the operator had to do to make the car move. I, for one, believe this explanation to be a fabrication, because the real Gandy was Maurice Gandy, founder of the Gandy Belt Manufacturing company,  Wallasey, England. Founded in 1873, became a limited company in 1901,  operating as Gandy Belt Manufacturing Co. LTD until 1946 , when it became known as "Gandy LTD". Gandy was the premier manufacturer of heavy duty conveyor belts in the late 19th century, their products incorporated an innovative method of coupling the ends of the belt together to form a continuous loop, that held together much better than it's competitors. Conveyor machines featuring Gandy's belt were  often refered to generically as "Gandys", and   were often employed to place ballast. A worker would customarily ride out on the end of the conveyor boom, to assist in spreading the ballast, and when forced to walk the conveyor system like a treadmill, picked up the diminutive description of "Gandy dancer" (*bows graciously*)
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