Jordan Spreader 6   
by Mike Gerenday

Alaska is known for its long summer days and months of darkness in the winter. It’s also known for winters of tremendous amounts of snow. The railroads that once dotted the landscape had to deal with the harsh winters, from shoveling drifts by hand, fitting large plows on locomotives or purchasing rotary snowplows. The Alaska Railroad was not spared from the winter snows and employed many different snow plows. From three rotaries to several Jordan spreaders, two Russel plows and even a few trucks with snow blowers that ran on the track, the Alaska Railroad was able to keep the line open though innovation and determination. Today there are a few pieces of these snow fighting warriors that survive from Rotary 3 in Curry, Rotary 4 next to Potter Section House, and three Jordan spreaders that are still in regular.

In the backside of the railroad displays at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry is one Jordon spreader that was built in the time of steam locomotives. ARR 6 is a Jordon Spreader built in 1929 by the O.F. Jordan company and was placed in service of that year. The purpose of this piece of equipment is to plow snow away from the track in the winter, but could also be used in the summer as a ditcher cleaning up the Right of Way (ROW) from brush. Some spreaders have a smaller blade on the large wing that will aid in the profile of the ditch, though this one is a winter use plow.

The ARR 6 was in service until sometime in the early 1970s where it was retired after new spreaders from O.F. Jordan replaced the older plows. If you look closely, you can see the trucks (also made by O.F. Jordan) were converted from solid bearings to roller bearings.  ARR 6 was a pneumatic type as in it used air to operate the wings and the plow. The plow in the front has a large cylinder that moves it up and down, some spreaders have notches in the blade so the plow as a whole can go below the tops of the rails to clear the track better. As the plow gets near switches, guard rails, crossings or any obstruction, the plow is raised until it’s clear of said obstruction. Spreader 6 does not have the notches. The wings on the side could be extended out and angled as mentioned above to push the snow away from the track. Take a ship going through the ocean, see how the bow cuts through the water and how the ripples of water go away from a ship? A Jordan Spreader looks kind of like that, only with snow and on a railroad.

The spreader usually had three to four people inside the cab to operate the plow and keep an eye on the track ahead. Usually there were two to three locomotives pushing with either an outfit car or caboose. Some had air whistles to communicate with the engineers of the locomotives pushing, or had someone relay hand signals. The old-style spreaders didn’t really have cabs like what you see today. If you look you can see the cab is narrow and cramped. It was really cramped when the controls and the stove were in place. Some cabs didn’t have windows so that the crews could poke their heads out. Of course, this was at a time when OSHA was not present and men worked in more harsher environments. I don’t believe that the ARR 6 had windows though I’ve seen a different spreader of the same type that had front glass, but anything is possible on a railroad, including the ARR. In the early days most spreaders weren’t pushed very fast, only 15 -20 miles at best. The rotaries would take care of deeper snows and the spreaders would follow, that is if the snows weren’t 12 plus feet deep.

Today’s Jordan Spreaders are a far cry from the old days with heated enclosed cabs, hydraulic wings and plows, horns, radios and electricity. Some Jordon Spreaders on other railroads have control stands so an engineer can ride in the plow’s cab and control locomotives that way.

Spreader 6 at the museum is a pretty neat piece of snow fighting equipment that gives you a really good idea on what it was like back in the day to clear the tracks. During my visit to the museum, I did get permission to climb on and around equipment such as ARR 6 to get rarely photographed angles and parts of a Jordan Spreader. The cab is pretty bare though you can see what it was like inside. The pipes are part of the controls and you can see the handles that were the controls. That was it. You can see part of the stove pipe from the oil stove that probably replace the coal stove I imagine. There are some hints there was electricity added sometime in its life though I can’t say when that was since it was in service for years. I’m sure diesel locomotives were the power source. If you’re at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry in Wasilla Alaska, be sure to take a look at ARR 6.

Page created 6/23/21 and last updated 6/23/21 BACK