QUOTE (Doug @ 8 Sep 2008, 23:40)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>And the 4-6-4 Baltic?
Did somebody sit down and come up with a naming system or were they names after the prototype?
***It seems largely a US thing that stuck and gradually spread.... US railroads didn't go much for naming individual loco's after the very early days so for simplicity and publicity sake gave wheel arrangement names:
In the US they were mostly named by the first creator of the arrangement but it didn't always stick...
As an example, this excerpt tells the story of the Northern or US 4-8-4 locomotive...and similar things happened with other wheel arrangements...
Quote:
" The first 4-8-4 was built by the American Locomotive Company, in January, 1927, for the Northern Pacific. This locomotive was basically the 4-8-2 modified to accomodate a large grate area and a very deep firebox which was required to burn the very low grade of bituminous coal that the Northern Pacicific produced from its own mines. This new wheel arrangement was dubbed "Nothern Pacific", which was quickly shortened to "Northern". There were 36 North American Railroads that owned and operated a total of 1,126 "Northern" type locomotives. Some railroads, particularly the southern ones, rejected the "Northern" name and used names with a more regional connection.
The C&O called them "Greenbriers";
the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western used the name "Poconos";
the Lehigh Valley came up with "Wyoming";
the Nashville, Chattanooga & St.Louis named them "Dixies";
the New York Central chose "Niagaras";
the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac named each of its 27, 4-8-4s after southern generals, governors and statesmen;
the Southern Pacific used the name "Golden State";
the Western Maryland dubbed them "Potomacs"
and in Canada, the CNR named them "Confederations"
while the Nacionale de Mexico called them "Niagras".
regards
Richard