Class M's, Mollies, class names and the like

[NW Mailing List]

Gentlemen:

This a great discussion and when Jim added into the mix about the 2-8-2
wheel arrangement, I felt it was time to toss my hat into this ring.

The various wheel arrangements while somewhat generic named were also given
the better known ones for very specific reasons:

The 2-8-0's were called Consolidations simply because the first order or
large order was from a recent consolidation of railroad companies way back
when .. the late 1860's or 1870's or so.

The 2-8-2's were called Mikado's because the first order went to the
Japanese Mikado I think it was in 1897.

The first iconic order for the 4-6-2's went to MoPac, Missouri Pacific
which named them Pacific type, I believe around 1904.

The what became ever-popular Mountain named 4-8-2 went to the C&O for their
mountain divisions in the coalfields and they named it accordingly.

As for the 4-8-0's, not many roads had this wheel arrangement, with UP I
think and the N&W being the primary users and it received the name Mastodon
from who knows -- I've never read that one. They were always Class "M's" as
Ed and Jim have reminded us and that probably the nickname Mollie probably
got added later by parties now lost to history.
The N&W's famous Class J -- what did the N&W call those: Northern or Class
J? Same animal but local name. Kind of like trolley -- they were called
trams, streetcars (both one and two words), along with a few other things
as well as local names as well.

Other wheel arrangements had been named similarly to the earlier ones
mentioned.

Even the little used 2-4-2 type got a name "Columbia" I am told came from
its having been displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in
1892-1893. Of course this small hauler was quickly over-shadowed by larger
power which rapidly eclipsed these little types.

The 2-8-4's were named Berkshires as the Boston & Albany I think got the
first, those from Lima and their new Super-Power concept which really took
off. That was 1923-1925 or thereabouts.

The 2-10--0's were called Decapods for their 10 drivers and some specific
ones which had been designated or ordered by the Russian Govt and never
delivered to the after WW1 Bolshevik's, became Russian Decapods.

The 4-8-4's were first ordered by NP and became Northern's for most roads
but they did have other names as well, Lackawanna called theirs Poconos,
C&O called theirs Greenbriars and a number of others had names for theirs
as well. The NC&StL couldn't call theirs after any northern company or name
or anything from Yankee land, so theirs became something else more fitting
to their Southern traditions.

I had never heard of the L&N's "Big Emma's" being called anything other
than that but I grew up with David P. Morgan and he called them that and
not the M1's as referred within these fine pages so perhaps DPM was a bit
guilt of that little change to historical reference.

The 4-10-2's were called the SP type as they were the predominate user of
that little used wheel arrangement, never minding their 3rd cylinder.

The 4-12-2 was similarly called the UP type for the same reason as the SP,
only the UP had that one, also with an inside 3rd cylinder.

As NYC was the initial order-er for the 4-6-4 type, no surprise what these
were named for us romantics -- the Hudson type. Oh, what a shame one of the
Central's 4-6-4's was saved for us to ruminate over. However that is for
another day.

The 4-6-0's I have always seen called "ten-wheel" types.

And I suspect the first 2-10-2's went to the AT&SF although can't recall
details. The 2-10-4's were an outgrowth of the 2-10-2's as something larger
was required for a specific type of work load.

One last one -- 2-8-8-4 -- the first order for those went to was it NP or
GN which needed this big hauler for out near the Yellowstone region and so
with their humongous firebox to burn that stuff they had on their road
which wasn't a whole lot better than improvised dirt (aka-lignite), the
first of these went there, along with their name. Somewhere I saw a
surmising that perhaps these would have been more powerful than the
Allegheny or Big Boy's if they had put good grade coal in one, but alas,
that answer awaits us all in that great roundhouse in the sky, someday.

Bob Cohen
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