Engine Names--History Lesson needed

Most steam engine 'names' came from the railroad or organization that used the wheel arrangement.

For a given wheel arrangement the name can differ. Everyone knows what a "Hudson" is, but they were also known as "Baltics" (Milwaukee Road, maybe others too?). A 4-8-2 is commonly a "Mountain", but New York Central called them "Mohawks" after the Mohawk River (and the NYC had no use for anything with a mountain in it). A 4-8-4 is a "Northern" but was a Niagara to the NYC, a Greenbrier to the C&O, a Pocono to the Lackawanna, a Potomac to the Western Maryland and so on...

A Berkshire is named for the New England mountains, because the Boston and Albany and Boston and Maine were big users of the design at first. The C&O called them Kanawahs, and they were colloquially referred to as "Big Mikes".

Some were named after the railroad that used it. A 4-12-2 is a "Union Pacific" type for example, or a 2-10-2 is a "Santa Fe".

Mikados were popular in Japan around 1900, but I'm not sure if there's any significance to the chosen term "Mikado".

It can be looked at a bit like naming a child.

Diesels... I dunno. Thats more like alphabet soup.

Lets get some of the easy "diesel names" out of the way first:

FT   =  "F" freight   "T" 2700 horsepower.

E    =   Eighteen hundred horsepower.

SC  =   "S"  six hundred horsepower,   "C" cast under frame.

SW =   "s" six hundred horsepower,   "W" welded under frame. 

It's wasn't necessarily the railroad that "used" the engine; it was often the railroad that first created the engine. The NYC, for example, is generally credited with building the first 4-6-4, so they basically got naming rights (Hudson). The Northern Pacific was generally credited with being the first to use a 4-8-4 (Northern). And Mikado? While not the first 2-8-2s, a batch was later built that went to Japan. Mikado means "Emperor of Japan."

Big Boy? that's an easy one too. Maybe HW can elaborate on the anonymous Alco employee who scrawlled the name on the engine's smokebox in chalk. Seemed an apt moniker for an engine so large.

2-8-0 Consolidation? Simple--named for the "consolidation" of a number of railroads that became the Lehigh Valley in 1866.

"Mogul" for 2-6-0? Well, they were big!

4-4-0 Americans? Well, virtually every road in America used 'em, so naturally.

Now Baldwin? Careful--that's not a steam locomotive name--that's a locomotive manufacturer's name--formally the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Phildadelphia, PA. They built Americans, Hudsons Moguls and Northerns, along with tens of thousands of other designs.

There's an accepted name for virtually all steam locomotives. Only engines like 0-4-0s and 0-6-0s didn't get "real" nicknames (they're "four-coupled" and "six-coupled," respectively). And most have a good story, so have fun in your research.

And just remember naming wasn't often so straightforward. For instance, today we think of a Hudson as a far different locomotive than some people thought of in the 1880s:

This was at the time that the Gilbert & Sullivan musical "The Mikado" came out and was a popular show about Japan.  Because several 2-8-2's were sent to Japan, the configuration was named after the musical.

Good stuff fellas.  Thanks Boilermaker, Hot Water, Smd4, and Hojack for the contributions so far.

How about the Shay?  What's the story behind that?

I suppose that's possible...but the only place I've ever seen that mentioned in any history of the engine type is Wikipedia. The opera was 8 years old when the engines were sent to Japan. Most sources indicate it was named for the Emperor--which makes more sense to me.

Named for the inventor--Ephraim Shay.

Ephriam (sp?) Shay, inventor of the locomotive type.

DV

Is there any truth that the Mikado is really a Camelback with a shorter wheelbase?

How long did the name stick during WWII given the anti-Japanese sentiment that some people had at the time?

It's usually the wheel arrangement that determines a locomotive nickname, not the wheelbase. A Camelback is an engine with a cab that straddles the boiler. I've never seen one, but I suppose you could have a 2-8-2 Camelback, which would really confuse the naming convention!

The name "MacArthur" which some folks used during the war didn't stick (most railroaders call 'em "Mikes" anyway.).

That is correct, and there is even photographic evidence of the words "BIG BOY" scrawled in chalk one one under construction at the ALCO plant.

The original proposed "name" for the UP 4000 class locomotives was going to be The Wasatch Class, named after the mountain range east of Ogden/Salt Lake, Utah, which the 4000s where designed and built to conquer.

Going back one step, locomotives were named according to their wheel arrangement. And the invention and use of the various wheel arrangements, the Whyte system, was invented by a mechanical man in the organization of a predecessor company of what would become the New York Central railroad.

I have heard (I think on a DVD)that the 3900's came to be called Challengers because when told that they intended to operate them over the Wasatch unassisted (I forget who) remarked that it certainly would be a challenge...any truth to that?

Scroll down to the 3rd picture regarding Big Boy on the smoke box door....

http://www.pentrex.com/galpg14.html

The book Rail Power also suggests the G&S claim.

The name "Mikado" is quite fitting.  According to another book, 2-8-2s made up one quarter of Japan's steam fleet.  Out of 500+ preserved steam locomotives in Japan, well over 100 alone are Mikados. Most of them are D51's, the quintessential Japanese steam locomotive.

Aaron

the 2-10-4 is named the Texas because the TEXAS and Pacific had the first engines.

I think the 2-10-0 was called  a decapod because it had ten driver wheels

Correct. But why is a 2-10-2 called a Santa Fe type?   Because the Santa Fe was the first railroad to have that wheel arrangement.

Now, for a quiz. How many different names are there for the 4-8-4 wheel arrangement?

Chris

I read that as well about the Challenger name. Supposedly when 3900 was delivered the Superintendent of Motive Power announced to executives a test to run a regular  train  Fast over the Wasatch and turn it around quickly to handle another train back. In the conversation it is thought that the executive VP said " That was a challemnge for any locomotive" and he subsequently issued instructions to UP advertising to refer the new locomotives as "Challengers" 

Interestingly, a year before the first Locomotive was delivered, The UP inaugurated a train service it called "The Challenger". It ran as an alternate to the City of Los Angeles using tourist sleepers  and upgraded coaches all heavyweight equipment ' It offered a service level approaching what was offered on the first Class City trains but at more affordable prices in an effort to attract middle class passengers to the rails . One might think that this service would be a "Challenger " to the first class City Trains and therefore the name. 

Seems the UP had Challenges on its mind in these days . 

I'll hazard a guess, 18 is all I can think of.

OK, now name them.

Northern

Niagara

Dixie

800

Governor

come to mind.

Rusty

add

Pocono---Lackawanna

Wyoming----Lehigh Valley

Greenbrier---Chesapeake & Ohio

Confederation---Canadian National

I'll contribute one to the list: Western Maryland called the 4-8-4 a Potomac.

Bob 

Don't forget the Erie triplex, the canadian royal jubilee, or the prairie type loco.

Good ones, but they are not 4-8-4s if you are responding to the "quiz".

Northerns

Confederations CN

Greenbriers  C&O

Golden State SP

Niagaras NYC

Poconos DL&W

FEF UP

J's N&W

Dixies NC&S

Wyomings LV

Westerns D&RGW

Potomacs WM

Big Apples CofG

Generals RF&P

1800s ACL

Governors RF&P

Statesmen RF&P

Ok maybe 17......  I think I was adding in the 4 aces.

Nice job, Chris. Now for the last ones,,,,,,,what did the CRI&P, MoPac, SSW, and TP&W call their 4-8-4s?

"J" and "FEF" were class names--like the NYC Hudsons were J1s or J3s.

Although the conversation is about how locomotive types got their names, one Boston & Maine Pacific (3713 - now at Steamtown) got the name "Constitution" as part of a contest won by a little boy.

That sounds like an interesting story.....do you have any more details?

Alco-built 4-8-4's were also called Niagaras in Mexico.  Pronounce it Nee-AHG-rah.

Did the Atlantic type (4-4-2) get its name from the high speed line to Atlantic City?

There was also an rare arrangement referred to as a "Baltic".  Does anybody recall what?

Some of the train crews had more descriptive names: "Big Liz", "The Hogs", "Big 50s", "Tweetsie".....

They were both "Northern types" but that is still what those roads "called" them.  They didn't have another name.  I equate it to the NKP's Berks, they had S-1 and S-2 and S-3s, but they were all Berkshires.  The UP had FEF-1, FEF-2 and FEF-3s but they called them all FEF's and the N&W simply classed and called them Js.  Yes 5 built during the war were J1's, but still always referred to as Js.

Hotwater I'm gonna have to go back to my books, but me thinks you have a much larger collection of resource material....

Atlantic - Atlantic Coast Line got the first 4-4-2 type.

Pacific - Missouri Pacific got the first 4-6-2 type.

Baltic was the name Milwaukee Road used for their 4-6-4's.

Stuart

I guess he wasn't quite a little boy.
From Steamtown's 3713 web page:
"...When Boston & Maine purchased five more locomotives of the same design in 1937, they sponsored a contest with the school children in and around Boston, Massachusetts, to give names to the ten Pacifics (and 10 other passenger engines). There were 10,000 entries. Boston & Maine #3713 received her name from J. Schumann Moore, a 14-year-old student at Lynn, Massachusetts' Eastern High School: The Constitution. Eventually, 31 locomotives were given names. The 3713 served as a main line passenger locomotive through World War II and into the 1950s. Her last service was during a flood in 1958 (diesel-electric locomotives, with electric traction motors on the axles, are not good at wading)"

hard to believe nobody has mentioned one of my favorites with likely the simplest and most obvious name of all, the Ten Wheelers (4-6-0).  an interesting note of this wheel arrangement was on the Pennsylvania where is was known as the "G" class.  when their new electrics with a 4-6-6-4 arrangement arrived, apparently it was noticed that the wheel arrangement was like having two Ten Wheelers back to back, so were named the GG1 class.

I thought that most, if not all the PRR electric locomotives had their "names/class designations" related in some way to their steam power classes.

In the early days of railroads in the US, many of the steam locomotives had their own individual name.

We all remember the GENERAL.

For other locomotives with names, check out this link --> http://riptrack.net/americanlocos

most with that designation were articulated electrics (GG, DD, FF and to a point, the BB's), when the frame was rigid, they were given their own class (O1, P5).  i thought by far the GG class was/is the most recognizable, though.