Whyte Notation: How Steam Locomotive Types Got Their Name

For simplicities sake, steam locomotives are often referred to by names like Pacific, Atlantic, Mountain, and Northern types. These names relate to the wheel arrangement of the locomotive but these names have a larger history that you might've thought. In this video I go over most of the notable wheel arrangement types along with where and when their names came about.

CNR Thumbnail Picture Credit: Roger Puta (Hosted by Marty Bernard)

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[fernandomarques]

Fun fact: the largest narrow gauge steam engine boiler was fitted to a 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone type built for the metric gauge (3ft 3 1/3in) lines of Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil (Center of Brazil Railroad) by Henschel & Sohn of Germany in 1937.

[ciphowler]

As a Kiwi, really happy to see the N, Q, and X classes get some deserved spotlights given they were pioneers of their respective configurations.

[Mrlaggy]

Fun fact: The first ever 2-8-2T locomotive was built by Baldwin for a logging railroad in New Mexico in 1898. It was sold from that railroad to Southern Pacific, was turned into 0-8-0 switcher and was scrapped in July of 1934.

[DCProductions]

Wasn't expecting to hear the mention of New Zealand Railways, although the 2-6-2 picture you showed is actually from the Wellington & Manawatu Railway Company, which was taken over by NZR in 1908. Interestingly the WMR had a lot of Baldwin locomotives, including the country's only 2-8-2 and 2-8-4 (later called BC 463 and WJ 466 respectively), though none of them are still around today except for the remains of a 2-6-2.

Further research shows that the engine in that picture - WMR No. 9 - became N class No. 453 under NZR. She was built in 1891 and withdrawn in the 1920s. Like a lot of old steamers at the time, N 453 was dumped in the Waimakariri River as riverbank protection, with the remains eventually being rediscovered in 2003.

As for the Q class Pacific, I remember someone saying in a video that the first 4-6-2 was built for the Missouri Pacific in 1902, forgetting to mention the NZR Q class. So it's good to see another American getting the history right this time.

Regarding the X class 4-8-2, one of them is preserved in Feilding, and I remember getting to see her in 2018 (even getting to climb on the footplate, although she wasn't in steam).

[_cyan]

while they weren't simple to operate, camelbacks are one of my peroneal favorite odd steam locomotives, glad some are still preserved, great video as per usual, Jared!

[wofa]

The 4-8-4s were also called "Dixie" types of the NC&StL Railroad.

[LD-]

Expanding from the Four-Coupled, locomotives with no leading or trailing wheels are sometimes called X-coupled, where X is simply the number of driving wheels.

4-2-0 is called Jervis after John B. Jervis, the first designer. However, a common name for any locomotive with only 2 driving wheels is Single, because there's just a single powered axle.

2-4-0 is called Porter after H.K. Porter, which built a great number of locomotives with this type.

2-4-2 is sometimes called Columbia after Baldwin Locomotive Works presented a locomotive of this type at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

4-4-4 is called Reading in the US due to extensive use on the Philadelphia & Reading and Jubilee in Canada, supposedly because the Canadian Pacific examples were built on the company's 50th anniversary of transcontinental passenger service.


2-8-4 on the C&O was sometimes called Kanawha after the river in West Virginia.

4-8-0 expands on 4-6-0 with the nickname Twelve-Wheeler, but also goes by Mastodon Supposedly, Mastodon originated from a specific Central Pacific locomotive with this wheel arrangement bearing the name Mastodon.

4-8-2 on the NYC was called Mohawk, after New York river like Hudson and Niagara. There weren't many mountainous tracks on the flat-landed NYC, so they decided to come up with their own, more appropriate nickname.

4-10-2 is sometimes called Reid Tenwheeler, Southern Pacific, or Overlander. George William Reid made the first 4-10-2T locomotives for the Natal Government Railways in South Africa. It's a big jump from the 4-6-0, but it has 10 driving wheels, hence the second half of the nickname. Meanwhile, the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific were one of the few American railroads to use this arrangement, with the UP calling them Overlanders after their own company nickname of The Overland Route.

2-12-0 may have been called Centipede due to the many driving wheels, though there's only a handbook page to go by for this information.

4-12-2 is the Union Pacific type for obvious reasons.

2-8-8-2 was called Chesapeake on the Chesapeake & Ohio for obvious reasons. Southern Pacific called them Mallet Consolidations, because it was like two Consolidations back-to-back.

4-8-8-2, surprisingly, was never "officially" called Reverse Yellowstone. Would've been fitting since all locomotives of this type were Cab-Forwards that were developed from the Southern Pacific's conventional-style Yellowstones.

2-8-8-8-2 and 2-8-8-8-4 were both referred to as Triplex, with three sets of driving wheels. There's also Duplex, which encompasses all rigid, non-articulated locomotives with two sets of driving wheels. There were other proposed -plex locomotives, some of which had varying numbers of driving wheels on each individual wheelbase. None of them came to fruition except this one Belgian monster with two Franco-Crosti boilers and a wheel arrangement that cannot be described with the Whyte Notation because it had unpowered carrying axles between driving axles.

Garatts simply double the nicknames of conventional locomotives. For example, a 4-6-2+2-6-4 is called a Double Pacific.

Single Fairlie is just half a Fairlie with an expanded cab and bunker on a pivoting bogie. Similar to Mason Bogie (or the other way around) but the Fairlie uses articulated steam pipes to power the cylinders while the Mason Bogie sends steam through the central articulation pivot.

Crampton often refers to locomotives with low boilers and a driving axle behind the firebox. It is usually reserved for Singles such as 4-2-0 or 6-2-0, but some had more than 2 driving wheels.

[modelmainline]

You forgot to mention that in Canada, 2-10-4 locomotives are referred to as “Selkirk” locomotives, named after the Selkirk mountains.

[lukechristmas]

I'm glad someone finally decided to make a some-what short video that can quickly explain the wheel configurations of steam engines. It can be a time-saver! My favorite wheel arrangements are the Consolidations, the Moguls and the Decapods. Basically, I'm a sucker for the non-articulated freight types. For the runner ups, I would say Northerns, Ten-Wheelers and Americans

[XPSX]

The 4-6-4s, 4-8-4, s and 4-6-6-4s are my favorite types of steam locomotives

[harrisonofcolorado]

About the Mikados, during WW2, the Mikados (in America at least) were renamed to "MacArthurs" after General MacArthur. If you know WW2 history, I think it's obvious why the rename.

[Baltimorean]

Finally. I've heard "Pacific, Atlantic, etc., " Witch I, honestly didn't know what they were talking about.
Now, With confidence, I can say that my favorite engines are the Mikados!

[BlueCollar]

There is a wheel configuration named Javanic, which is 2-12-2, it is very unique and the name is taken from the island of Java, the Dutch govermment specifically ordered this locomotive to replacing Mallet in montainous region of west java but then turned out to not being suitable for the terrain.

[nicholasbulgarino]

Great video! A quick note about the Camel and Camelbacks. You showed two locomotives that would be known as Camels (this is because the engineer sat quite literally on top of the boiler with a cab, or camel's hump, over him). The Camel locomotives were basically conventional locomotives with low slung boilers.

Camelbacks refer to specific family of anthracite coal burning locomotives. The cab and engineer's controls are moved alongside the boiler (not over top of it) due to the larger Wooten fireboxes. The fireman still stays in the rear of the locomotive.

[OriginalBongoliath]

Other companies named their Northerns:

Poconos
Wyomings
1800's
Niagras (Nationale de Mexico designation)
General Service
Golden State
Big Apples
Class J's
FEF's
Generals
Statesmen
Senators
Westerns
Dixies

[StoneofElohim]

4-8-0, Twelve Wheeler, or Mastodon by some was the upgrade to the Consolidation class and Ten Wheeler. Though not very popular due to limited speed, they were nonetheless behemoths for freight services and could tackle the grades, though the Mountain 4-8-2 easily outdid them for versatility.

I personally love the Mastodon, specifically the Camelback versions

[eryhv]

I'd love for you to do a video on Diesel engine wheel arrangements, this one's so helpful!

[SantaFe]

Nice video! The Mikado type was temporarily re-named the "MacArthur type" (after General Douglas MacArthur) during the Second World War, for obvious reasons.

[ottodantaslemos]

3:50 Man, when it got to the Decapods part, I thought to show the Dom Pedro II Decapods (Brazilian railroad) that in 1884 Dom Pedro II wanted a strong locomotive ideal for heavy and slow freight trains, and so Baldwin responded with this model in 1885, they worked here until 1910 and are reported to have been scrapped in 1915😢

[gwyneddboom]

What I find interesting is that naming wheel arrangements seems to be an exclusively American thing! In Europe it’s normally just a 4-6-0 (or similar). Only really common types like Atlantics and Pacifics get referred to by name. Although many classes of locomotives did get nicknames.