Early Machines

Early Spreaders

The very first Jordan Spreaders were fairly crude machines. These machines were mostly wood construction, and featured a very large wooden structure over the chassis. This structure was used to support the wings using a block and tackle system. These original spreaders were just that, spreaders and they did not feature nose blades at first. The first of these were built in various railroad shops. It is not known how long or even how many of this type of spreader was produced. Some later machines of this type also had front blades but these may have been on rebuilds or such. Atleast one Spreader of this type is preserved, and that is Canadian Pacific 402818.

Here is CP 402823 in 1967. From the John C. LaRue Jr. Collection

"Scissors Style" Spreaders

These spreaders were the first commonly used type of Jordan. This spreader featured a mostly all steel construction, and a nose plow. This nose plow was raised and lowered vertically for use in spreading ballast and light snow removal. While trying to find a name for all the various Jordan Spreaders, these spreaders ended up being called "scissors style", referring to the braces that lock the wings in the out position act like a pair of scissors and are split in the middle to fold up in the travel position. Some have called this the Model A. This line of spreaders used air cylinders to provide vertical movement to the nose plow, wing opening cylinders, vertical cylinders and the diagonal braces.

Although this model had a cylinder for opening the wings, retracting them back in had to be done manually via a chain and a small winch. This model of spreader used a new feature, the bank sloper. This was a movable piece on the rear end of the wing used for making different cut angles in ditching, and spreading snow. Also new, used in conjunction with the bank sloper was the carry wing. This bought the bank sloper forward to a brace (mounted on front framework on some machines, others had a brace) and was used to make a pocket to carry fill and ballast. Two more options on this model were the ditch casting, a steel casting made specific to a railroads contour, that was bolted to the bottom of the wing, and the trench digger, used in export machines for digging a small trench to lay cable and such. Many railroads liked to customize these models with cabs of their choice and some home built options. Later on Jordan offered major rebuild programs for this line of spreaders. This included new cylinder locking braces featuring a pneumatic lock, more beefed up diagonal braces and a longer chassis, along with other new machinery.(More on these rebuilds in the rebuilds section. Jordan also built a narrow gauge Scissors style spreader for the D&RGW. It was numbered OU and is currently owned by the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, and is undergoing a full restoration.

This is Fort Dodge, Des Moines, and Southern RR # 7, A fairly stock offering of the Scissors machine. From the John C. LaRue Jr. Collection

Here is another color view of the same Spreader. It is possible this spreader might be rebuilt with different wing brace locks as the Scissor style locks are not evident. Len Murray Photo

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