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

[NW Mailing List]

Very good, Grant, but we've had N&W folks from Norfolk to Columbus tell us 
they never heard the term.  I worked at Bristol, Roanoke, on the Scioto and 
Pokey and I never heard it.  It must have been a Bluefield term; that's 
where I saw the superheated 439 post WWII; the other two finished out their 
careers at Bristol where they were Ms.

EdKing

-----Original Message----- 
From: NW Mailing List
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 1:21 PM
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: RE: Class M's, Mollies, class names and the like

Pocahontas Division crews referred to them as:
(electric) motors
100's
500's
600's
1100's
1200's
1400's
1700's
2000's [twenty-hundreds]
2100's
except for the Class M's.
Yes, they were Mollies, specifically the 396, 421, and 439, and this is
straight from those who ran them.

The name was widely used considering their limited operations late and was
picked up from the old heads of the time who could have hired on before the
M's were even delivered.  Beyond that, the origin on the Division is
unknown.  Working terms like this are much less likely to migrate
vertically up than company terms like the class letter designations are to
migrate down, covering the entire railroad.  Given the vintage of the name
and the wide use of the M's early, the name could have spread system-wide,
likely only among train crews or just enginemen, then lingered in some
areas (and memories) more than others.  I can't speak for the rest of the
N&W.  I would love to ask, I just don't have the time, and time is making
the answers harder to come by.

Grant Carpenter


> Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013

>

> 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.

>[. . .]

>

> Bob Cohen

>



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