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O. F. Jordan Company History & Design Achievements
A Remarkable Invention
The Jordan Spreader came about in the late 1800's to early 1900's, although an exact date has yet to be pinpointed. The Jordan Spreader (often incorrectly spelled as, “Jorden”or “Jordon”) was invented by Oswald F. Jordan, who worked as a road master on a New York Central subsidiary Canada Southern.
The first spreader as as well as a few subsequent units were assembled in their shops. These original spreaders were crude, being made out of wood and featuring only a pair of wings on each side. After seeing the success of his machine, Jordan purchased a plot of land in East Chicago, Indiana, and set up his shop. Right after this, however, Jordan sadly passed away. An associate of Jordan's, Walter J. Riley; took control of the company and would successfully ran it until 1960.
Design Changes
Jordan's original wooden Spreader design was upgraded to all steel and featured a new front plow and wings with sturdy folding locks, called the "Knuckle Braced" series.
The next line of spreaders to come about was the "Standard" series. These featured central pneumatic controls mounted on a riveted chassis. This model line of spreader had options including different nose blades ranging from small ballast blades to full sized snowplows capable of 16 foot drifts of snow. These were in production from the early 1900's until the late 1950's. The Standard series evolved during in its production career from a riveted chassis to an all welded steel and central controls, to an all raised and enclosed cab.
The next line up of Spreaders to follow, was the "Type A", introduced approximately around 1923. The Type A was a longer than the Standard series. These spreaders were also all pneumatically controlled. The Type A had a larger, more beefier style diagonal brace, Also, a raised upper rear deck and other options, were offered with the Standard series.
The next series of spreaders was introduced in 1955, this being the "Type J". The Type J was a revolutionary spreader as it was the first model to be offered with all hydraulic controls, thus making the spreader self sufficient in terms of powering the wings and lighting. The Type J also featured the new front cab. This cab moved all of the controls to the front of the machine, thus giving much more visibility. The J also had all the standard Jordan options such as the blade heights and type of wings.
The final type of Jordan Spreader is the "Road Master". This spreader was essentially an upgraded Standard model with central cab early on but later models having the front cab. A rear raised deck and new machinery was also added on. These spreaders were in production until the late 1960's. It is apparent that Jordan marked the different styles as "small", "medium" and "large" type of spreader being that build dates from some styles are all in the same era.
Jordan also offered major rebuild programs for older spreaders. These would be massive overhauls which upgraded the spreaders with new parts and machinery. For instance, the original Spreaders with the folding wing locks could be upgraded with the new Diagonal braces and locks used on the Standard Line. This also held for the Type A spreaders, many were rebuilt with new Front Cabs and new machinery.
Changes in the Company
With over 1,600 Spreaders produced, Jordan has had a long history. In 1960, The O. F. Jordan Company merged with Jackson Vibrators forming the Jackson-Jordan Company. In 1990, Jackson - Jordan merged with Pandrol, forming Pandrol - Jackson. In 1999, Pandrol was absorbed into Harsco Track Technologies. Harsco still offers parts and service for the Jordan Spreaders, and will build a new spreader upon order.
Times Change
Although Jordan's were never discontinued, they fell out of favor for a time with so many of them produced. In 2001, Alaska Railroad had ordered a brand new Type J model built to their upgraded specifications for snow service.
Continuing to this day, Jordan's are used every year on just about every railroad for snow duties to ditching duties, as it is truly an all year machine with many, many applications.
Other Achievements & Products
Jordan also produced other products, such as a wedge snowplow, very similar to the one offered by the Russell Car & Snowplow Company. Comparing the design similarities, it is very likely that Jordan received Russell's patents when they were expired. Jordan would build wedge plows for the Illinois Central Railroad based on a flatcar chassis. Unfortunately, only a handful of Jordan wedge plows were built. A double ended snowplow was attempted but apparently it never came about.
Jordan constructed several other types of maintenance of way equipment, such as a "Track Oiler" in the 1930's, and a Ballast Cleaner, which the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe received.
Your can read more about these miscellaneous pieces of equipment on the Other Products page:
During slow periods of business, O. F. Jordan would operate a car rebuild center, and a tank car cleaning facility in East Chicago. If anybody has information they would like to contribute for these two ventures, you are invited to submit such at crossharbor11@gmail.com
Logos
Below is example of the two types of logos used, the original O. F. Jordan and the later Jackson - Jordan logo. At left is the early Jordan logo, applied to many machines cabs and wings when built, also appearing in most advertisments.
The logo on the right, is the Jackson - Jordan logo, was used on primarialy on Type J spreaders.
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