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O.F. Jordan Company History & Design Achievements
A Remarkable Invention
The Jordan Spreader came about in the late 1800s to early 1900s, although an exact date has yet to be pinpointed. The Jordan Spreader (often referred to, incorrectly, “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 was assembled in their shops along with the next few. 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 he sadly passed away. An associate of Jordan's, Walter J. Riley, took over the company, and 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 line of Spreaders 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 1900s until the late 1950s. The standard series evolved from riveted chassis to all welded steel and central controls to an all new raised and enclosed cab in its production career.
The next line up of Spreaders was the Type A, introduced somewhere 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, A raised upper rear deck and other options, many offered with the Standard series.
The last series of spreaders was introduced in 1955, 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 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 a "small", "Medium" and "Large" type of spreader being that build dates from some styles are all in the same era.
Jordan also held major rebuild programs for older Spreaders. These were 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
In 1960, The O.F. Jordan Company merged with Jackson Vibrators forming Jackson-Jordan. In 1990, Jackson- Jordan merged with Pandrol, forming Pandrol Jackson. In 1999, Pandrol was formed into Harsco Track Technologies. With over 1,600 Spreaders produced, Jordan has had a long history.
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 a brand new, Type J Jordan built to their upgraded specifications for snow service. Till this day, Jordan's are used every year on just about ever 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. It is possible that Jordan received Russell's patents when they were expired. Only a handful of these were built. Also, Jordan built a Ballast Cleaner, which A.T.S.F. Received. Jordan built Wedge plows for the Illinois Central based on flatcars and bought to market in the 1930's was a Track Oiler. A double ended snowplow was attempted but apparently it never came about. During slow business, O.F. Jordan operated a car rebuild center, and a tank car cleaning facility in East Chicago. If anybody has information they would like to contribute, please do so.
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