New Project

For those who have been reading my blog, you know that I am a lover of HO scale trains. I recently started weathering them also(I hadn't done that to any of them previously). Well, I started another model train project recently. This one is a bit tougher than a regular train car. This new one is called a Jordan Spreader. What's a Jordan Spreader you might ask? I'll tell you lol.

A bit of history on them.
These railroad machines were first developed by a fellow named Oswald F Jordan. He worked for a subsidiary of the New York Central. The railroads had to maintain the area surrounding the tracks so that water and other debris wouldn't foul the tracks or cause problems. This guy came up with a machine that properly tapered the sides of the tracks so that this could be done in one fell swoop. What a smart guy huh? He started making them around 1900. In 1910, he bought some land and started building them on his own. They are still used to this day, so the idea was a pretty useful one. I have included a couple of pictures of a model that someone else built to let you see what it will look like. (mine isn't done yet. Many,many small parts to this model) The first pic is with the "wings" closed, the second with them open. The wings were used to shape the area on the side of the railroad tracks for drainage and such.