The "standard" line of Jordan Spreaders was introduced in the early 1900s as a step up from the early Knuckle Braced line of spreaders. The history of this type of spreader is very hard to produce an accurate time line but all details will be covered here.
There are four basic models of the Standard Series:
- 2-150 Center cab, low front blade, straight side wings, pneumatic cylinders
- 2-180 Center cab, low front blade, articulated side wings, pneumatic cylinders
- 2-200 Center cab, tall snowplow front blade, articulated side wings, pneumatic cylinders
- 2-210 Center cab, tall snowplow front blade, straight side wings, pneumatic cylinders
Early Standard Spreaders Early versions of this spreader featured an all steel, riveted chassis. The Standard series of spreaders used some
holdovers from the Knuckle Braced line, such as the low, ballast plow in the front, as well as several refinements.
Some of the new items introduced on the Standard series were telescopic brace locks, which allow much more control
over the angle of spread, vs. the original fixed angle ones on the Knuckle Braced line. The original Standard
spreaders used a bank sloper that used a small cylinder, mounted all the way at the front of the wing, attached to
the bank sloper blade with a cable, thus the weight of the blade would pull it down. The original Standard Spreaders
used a carry wing brace mounted on the very front of the machine, like the Type A machines of the time. This did not
last long, and the brace was moved onto the vertical post. The vertical post assembly used a downward acting cylinder
to control the vertical movement of the wing. The original Standard line of Spreaders did not use a cab at all, this
later being changed to a small wooden cab, built to each railroads spec's. Many early machines used a riveted, vertical
mounted air tank on the back deck.
Drawing of an Early Standard 2-180, with the original front frame work for the Carry Wing operation.
Mid & Late Production Standard Spreaders As with all of Jordan's products, they were under a constant state of revision. The first major revision was the
introduction of a central mounted raised cab. The original riveted chassis was changed to all welded construction.
The downward acting vertical post cylinders were changed to upwards acting shortly after the conversion to welded frames.
There have been a few noted cases of mid production machines to lack a cab completely, this likely being a railroad
specified option. Later production models had the bank sloper cylinder changed from the early smaller cable operation
to a large cylinder with a solid steel rod replacing the cable to operate the bank sloper wing. Just about all later
era machines used a new welded, horizontal air tank.
A catalog photo of an early welded 2-150, without a cab. From the collection of John C. LaRue Jr.
Standard Options and Specifications -Wings: All Standard models used two main types of wings. Straight, and Broken. Straight wing model's were the 2-150
and 2-210. Broken wing models were 2-200 and 2-180. Broken wing models used an air cylinder to control the bank
sloper, with an air lock mounted on the back side of the wing to lock the angle. The wings were operated with a 12”
air cylinder mounted behind each wing. The wing angle was set with the use of the new telescopic brace's, introduced
on the Standard line. These brace's each had a small pneumatic air lock on them. This lock operated a gear rack which
kept the wing angle locked until air pressure unlocked them. More detail on these on the “parts” page. All Standards
used a 16” air cylinder mounted on the Diagonal brace to operate the angle of the blade. Mounted just under this was
the Carry Wing brace (on all but the earliest machines). The Carry wing allowed the bank sloper wing to be hinged
forward, thus allowing the machine to drag material to fill cuts. The wings on any of these had the option of having
a custom, cast ditcher section bolted on.
-Nose Plows: The Standard series used two main types of blades, a low and a high. The low blade, a carry over from
the Knuckle Braced era, was a simple V shaped small blade, mostly used for ballast work and light snow removal. One
simple option with this low blade was cast additional section which allowed the operator to plow material to one
direction at a time. This blade had a set of riveted sides, which raised and lowered with the plow by use of a
chain that ran to the rear corner. The high snowplow, used a large, wedge shaped plow, with a 60 degree angle.
This plow had large fabricated sides, which also raised and lowered with the plow by use of a steel cable. The upper
half of this blade was removable for use in summer months. Early examples of this blade had a much shallower “roll”
to the upper portion of the blade. Jordan offered a double track plow extension for the 2-200 plow blade, a photo of which can be seen on the "photos" page. The large plow
blade also had options for either a pair of smaller, or one large door for journal box access.
-All Standard models had the option for many basic Jordan options of the day, such as ice cutting teeth and removable cast ditch sections on the wings.
More detail on these options is outlined more on the “parts” page.
Jordan offered the Standard line of Spreaders until the early 1950's, when the Standard evolved into the “Road Master” spreader around 1952. The Standard was one of
Jordan's more popular machines over the years. Many older Knuckle Braced machines were rebuilt by Jordan into Standard Spreaders as well.
A catalog photo of an off the shelf, mid production 2-200.
