Spreader #JX635, a knuckle brace railroad spreader built in 1926 by the O.F. Jordan Company for MacDougald Construction Co., was designed to spread or shape ballast profiles and clear snow in winter. Its ploughs, wings, and blades could build banks, clean and dig ditches, evenly distribute gravel, and trim brush along track embankments. Weighing 85,000 lbs, it operated with air pumped into a massive central tank from a train's brake lines, and because it could not move under its own power, it required a locomotive both to supply air and to move it. The car featured central pneumatic controls mounted on a riveted chassis. Ordered in 1926 by Mr. Alex MacDougald, it was shipped on November 8 of that year and initially cost $10,500. MacDougald, born Alexander and later shortening his name, had originally worked as a lawyer. In 1916 he represented a financially troubled construction company, then took over its equipment and contracts when it was dissolved. He formed MacDougald Construction Co. in 1919, and the Atlanta-area business grew through road grading and construction, dock-work, and railroad contracts, enough to own and operate a small fleet of switch locomotives. During the Second World War, the company worked on the Bell Bomber, later Lockheed Plant in Marietta, and built a dry dock at Charleston. It also built eight miles of Interstate 20 in Atlanta, from Hill Street near downtown to Candler Road in DeKalb County. MacDougald's assets were eventually sold to CW Matthews Contracting Co. of Atlanta, and the company was dissolved in 1977.