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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Jordan Spreader #4057 at Antique Powerland

IMG_8055 Southern Pacific 1925 Jordan Spreader #4057 at Antique Powerland in Brooks, Oregon on August 4, 2007
Jordan Spreader #4057 at Antique Powerland on August 4, 2007

This piece of railroad equipment is a ditcher-spreader called a Jordan Spreader. It is used to clear the track for snow and debris, spread ballast and shape the land along the tracks to create drainage ditches. In addition to the large blade in the front, the wings on the side extend outward, allowing the spreader to clear an area much wider than that of a single track. A Jordan Spreader has no means of propulsion of its own, and must be pushed by a locomotive. The Jordan Spreader was invented in 1900 by Oswald F. Jordan, roadmaster of the New York Central's Canada Southern Railway in Ontario. Jordan formed his own company, the O. F. Jordan Company of East Chicago, Indiana in 1905 to build his invention. Today, the company is part of Harsco Track Technologies.

IMG_4999 Southern Pacific 1925 Jordan Spreader #4057 at Antique Powerland in Brooks, Oregon on July 31, 2010
Jordan Spreader #4057 at Antique Powerland on July 31, 2010

This Jordan Spreader was built in March 1925 as serial number 582 and ended up serving the Southern Pacific Railroad as #4057. It is 38 feet long, 14 feet high, 10 and a half feet wide and weighs 137,600 pounds. Its last assignment for the Southern Pacific was working out if Ashland, Oregon on the Siskiyou Route, until it was retired and donated to the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. It currently carries the reporting marks of the Willamette and Pacific Railroad, as it was on loan to them for a time. It's last use was to clear debris from the Portland & Western Railroad's Astoria Line in 1999.

IMG_5000 Southern Pacific 1925 Jordan Spreader #4057 at Antique Powerland in Brooks, Oregon on July 31, 2010
Jordan Spreader #4057 at Antique Powerland on July 31, 2010

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