Canadian Railroads > MoW Surprise in Rockingham Yard

It's not uncommon to see CN work equipment in Pace Yard (former Rockingham Yard in Halifax, NS).  CN has recently been replacing ties and ballast in the yard, so there have been plenty of orange ballast hoppers, Brandt trucks, regulators and tampers around.  But seeing foreign-road equipment is quite another story.  Back in December of 1995 this Bangor & Aroostook spreader showed up in the yard, marshalled in a train going west.  CN does connect with the BAR, but only across the Saint John River at Van Buren, ME and Rockingham is a long way from there!  The likely explanation is that Iron Roads had recently become the owner of both the BAR and what was left of the Dominion Atlantic (renamed the Windsor & Hantsport).  It looks like the spreader was doing some ditching work on the WHRC and was about to return to Maine for the winter season.

BAR sand cars would occasionally show up too, to be loaded at NS Sand and Gravel in Milford, NS, but I don't recall ever seeing X445 again.  I would guess that it is now out of service, since the current operator of most of the BAR, Maine Northern Rwy. (NBSR, EMR) uses their own ex-CP spreader in Maine when the snow drifts get deep.

GTD

---

Great rare catch.
Bob

A tired looking Warrior for sure !

Interesting catch and background story. The two large cylinders that are connected to the plow wing indicate it's air pressure operated, much later models were hydraulic operated. Usually there's an air compressor mounted on the frame under the walkway. Sometimes it's an air compressor with some level of electrical generation as well.

Doing a search on 'air powered Jordan' will not provide info on this beast, but there is a website that has lots of info:

http://www.trainweb.org/JordanSpreader/sectionlist.htm