Locomotive names

Tue May 19 11:10:13 EDT 2015

I can throw a rock and hit the Kanawha River right now. "Can aw uh". The few gentlemen I had the privilege of meeting that ran those locomotives locally called them "twonnysevenhunnerds"

My cousin was a regular fireman on the Porter 0-6-0 "fireless cookers" that operated at the South Charleston Union Carbide plant. When asked if they were called "Porters", "fireless cookers", "tea kettles" like all the books told. He said " nope, the C&O men just called 'em Steampots."

That yellow belly term went gangbusters after one man in one article spoke about those rebuilt Hudson's. All the steam vets I spoke with had never used or heard of that term.

This discussion plays into the "language " of railroading has and is changing. Whether trains are passing my station at Charleston or I'm visiting my second home city of Roanoke, so much of "what was and how it was" is disappearing. I hope to continue work on a "C&O thesaurus" and look forward always knowing the old terms used on the N&W or Virginian.

Matt Crouch
St. Albans WVa

Sent from my Western Union telegraph.

> On May 19, 2015, at 8:21 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> If memory serves, when the discussion of the pronunciation of Kanawha(the locomotive and the river) hit the C&O lists, at least three guys wrote in who said that they had been born and/or raised in that area, and the for sure correct pronunciation was.......Yep; three different pronunciations.
>  
> Again, I wonder if there's some very limited local nickname in play here; recall the discussion about the C&O "yellowbellies". 
>  
>  
>  
> Frank Bongiovanni
> 
>> On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 7:24 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>> One hunnids, two hunnids, six-hunnids, thuteen hunnids, foteen hunnids, twenny hunnids, twennyone hunnids – and so it went.  But no “Spirits”, or “horses”.
>>  
>> There was a controversy some years ago in TRAINS magazine about the proper pronunciation of Chesapeake and Ohio’s 2-8-4 Kanawhas.  It was ended, I think, by Dave Ingles who said, properly, that the men just called them twenty-seven hundreds.
>>  
>> EdK
>>  
>> From: NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List
>> Sent: Monday, May 18, 2015 6:17 PM
>> To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
>> Cc: NW Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: Locomotive names
>>  
>> When we lived in Bluefield, my Dad, who worked for Appalachian Power, picked up the terminology of the locomotives from the fellows he met.  Until I was older, exactly as Ed described, I never knew them by anything other  than the number series.
>>  
>> Dave Phelps
>>  
>> In a message dated 5/18/2015 12:58:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:
>> The 2-8-8-2 wheel arrangement never got a name.    They were not called by the men that maintained and ran them anything but twenty-one hundreds (or “twennyonehunnids).  There were very few, if any, who even called them Wye-sixes.
>>  
>> EdKing
>>  
>> From: NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List
>> Sent: Monday, May 18, 2015 8:35 AM
>> To: NW Mailing List
>> Cc: NW Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: Locomotive names
>>  
>> Based on Bud Jeffries' book (s), I thought it was "workhorse."
>>  
>> Dave Stephenson
>>  
>> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
>> To: Online 1Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> 
>> Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2015 9:39 PM
>> Subject: Locomotive names
>>  
>> For a while when she was in the VMT the 611 had stenciled under the cab window, "Pride of Roanoke," and this elicited discussion both pro and con.
>>  
>> Now that Y6a 2156 has arrived in Roanoke, Saturday's local Roanoke newspaper had the headline, "'Warhorse' returns for engine reunion," and the article had the statement, "...the 2156 was nicknamed the 'Warhorse.'"
>>  
>> I wonder if we will see "Warhorse" stenciled under the cab window of the 2156.
>>  
>> Gordon Hamilton
>> 
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