section gang

plural section gangs · alternative section-gang

1. rail transportA railroad maintenance crew.

   These [free riders] made a ragged line, like a section gang that draws aside at night back of the flares as a train comes through, only much more numerous.

   1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 9, in The Adventures of Augie March, page 168

   2 more examples

   [This dangerous portion of the line] was divided into patrols from three-fourths to one mile in length, and watchmen were put on night and day, to walk over the track after every train, to look out for broken rails, while the section gangs were held in readiness at all times to repair or replace any breakages.

   1875, Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, volume 3, page 115

   They are not permanently tramps. They have home towns to which they return, to work quietly in the factory or the section-gang for a year—for a week—and as quietly to disappear again.

   1925, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 9, in Arrowsmith, page 97