I had no idea they could use these for grading the ROW:
This is a ‘Jordan Spredder’ or a takeoff from one. These have been around for 70 years.
I thought grading the ROW was what they were primarily built for.
They’re good for clearing brush from alongside the ROW, too.
They are good for lots of things within 25 feet of the track. Roadmaster’s friend.
Team them up with a 980/988, a good work train crew and a half dozen airdumps and you can do wonders reshaping shoulders, drainage, cuts and fills (and yards).
One of the better things that ever came out of Michigan.
(Flees the scene as Tree and Carl go looking for rocks[:o)])
There is a very early 1917-1919 model of CRIP heritage looking for a good home out here. (Jordan Type 2-150, last used on GWR)
Makes a CAT D-9 look like a pup.
They are also used for snow removal both between and outside of the rails. They are the first units called to clear snow before it gets too high.
Well, there’s Carl and I…
Nikes don’t fail me now…
No problem. I actually took it as a compliment… 
I’ve seen photos of ditching accidents where the operator dug in a little too deep, and instead of deepening the ditch it pushed the track over sideways, resembling a horrible sun kink.
CN only uses them for plowing snow now. They are especially useful for clearing slides in the avalanche zones west of Yellowhead Pass and on the former BC Rail line north of Prince George.
I wish we had more of them, they make plowing yards and clearing drifts much faster and easier.
The only time I caught a work train with the spreader was when I was doing my brakeman/conductor’s field training way back. I was detailed to follow along on the adjacent roads with the MOW guy’s hi-rail truck so they would have transportation if the train tied up at other than the starting point. I noticed after it had made it’s pass a number of track side railroad signs also had been pushed out of the way.
I’ve caught one as a conductor on a snow widening job. On the main line, usually there’s enough traffic to keep the line clear. However it builds up along the side, so they call out the spreader to push the snow back. Making room for new snow. On double track, you normally only have one wing out, the one on the field side. There have been cases where by the time they ran the spreader the snow had been packed pretty good. When the spreader’s wing hit the packed snow it derailed the spreader. Same thing has happened with the CNW’s old left handed plow. (That plow, built from an old Alco is now on the Iowa Northern.)
Jeff
The Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern has an ancient edition, with the CN lettering still visible.
These days it’s mostly used as a snow plow, if the regular plow can’t deal with the snowfall or they need to push banks back.
Several years ago, MA&N was storing cars north of Carthage. The brush was so thick that it was lifing cut levers…
So they brought out the Jordan and used it to clear said brush. It was kind of fascinating to see a 6" or so tree shake, then fall.
It was a busy operation, though. They’d go a couple of hundred feet, then pause to adjust the blades for culverts and other impediments, then away they’d go until it was time for the next adjustment.
I think CSX still has a Jordan in Watertown, but I haven’t seen it lately.
I had thought those were only for snowplowing. Interesting.
LithO, if you have the Trains archive available to you, I think the article on Jordan Spreaders by Jerry Pinkepank appeared in the late 1960s or early 1970s. There was very little those machines couldn’t do.
Now, as for MC thinking we’d be upset by having such a machine being placed in the same august company as Larry and I, I also took it as a compliment. However, MC, you forgot about Pat.
Having come out of Michigan three times so far this month, I remain,
The only time I saw one in operation, the milwaukee was plowing the yard at Houghton, Michigan. They were clearing 2 tracks to their right as well as the one they were on, pushing 4 feet of snow. The engine pushing was just ideling.
MOW Critter: First one of these I saw was about 2007 while going to college at Pitt State ( Pittsbirg,Ks). KCS RR used it in the area to grade ROW. Their Jordan Spreaders have dedicated power; painted that orangey color with all the engine glass covered with plating.
Found a photo of one, on railrpictures.net apparetly, a well used item ?
Interesting that they would dedicate a loco like that.
That, technically, is no longer a locomotive. It’s just the power source for the spreader, operated by remote control from the cab of the spreader, by a pilot, or–if rules permit–a member of the spreader crew.
No argument from me on that.
It does show, though, that they use the Jordan enough to dedicate power to it, as opposed to something they can use elsewhere if the Jordan isn’t in use.
Uh oh - How high on the Richter scale did Pat’s eyebrows get?[:$]
Get a good operator and a good worktrain crew - you’ve got a great team that can make the thing dance. Sounds like a few wound up in the hands of Fred Scuttle’s relatives which in turn had the neandernoids (“we run trains - what else is there?”) in the operating department put unwarranted restrictions on them. One of the former Belt Railway spreaders out here got the torch because the shortline management was clueless and cheap.