How did certain steam engines get their (nick) names?

[SteamGene]

Then there are the Mallets, named for their French engineer inventor.  I guess the name should be pronounced " Ma ley"
Gene

[Elmore Yard]

I have always heard mallets pronounced as mallies at least in the coalfields of WV and southwest VA.  The proper French was not used but was Americanized.  My Dad was a Virginian/N&W brakeman/conductor and worked on the various classes of USRA mallets owned by the Virginian.  He also rode the class AE 2-10-10-2.  He was also on different classes of C&O and N&W mallets where interchange with the Virginian took place.

Tom M

Then there are the Mallets, named for their French engineer inventor.  I guess the name should be pronounced " Ma ley"

[Virginian]

Glad your Dad wasn't on the 800 at Stewartsville that fateful night.  My Great grandfather helped build the VGN, and my Grandfather worked for the VGN and N&W.  They may have known each other.
As far as I know, each railroad only had one name for each class on their road.

[r.cprmier]

Gene;
There was an engine wheel classification, 6-8-6 called a "Cheshire".  Which road was this on and why that particular wheel arrangement?
Rich

[Elmore Yard]

Virginian

Good thing about Stewartsville.  Dad started in 1947 and worked west of Roanoke on the New River Division.  My Grandfather, Great Grandfather and Step Great Grandfather all worked for the Virginian so somebody in the family probably ran into some of your relatives.

Though not steam, one of the single unit squarehead electrics, no. 113, was called Clarabelle by the men.  Always heard this was from Clarabelle the Clown from the Howdy Doody show.

Tom M

[SteamGene]

Rich,
I could be wrong,  but the 6-8-6 may have been a C&O concept, class J-4, which was never built as C&O abandoned steam developement.   It was either that or a 4-8-6.  Why the six wheel pony truck, I don't know.
Gene

[r.cprmier]

Tom;
By "Square-head Electrics" are you referring to the E-33s that the New Haven bought, reclassified them as EF-4s; and, with their bright socony red paint and the rectifier topside, were called "Bricks"?

These "motors" were probably one of the more intelligent moves the New Haven ever made; especially considering the price V their longevity per their intended use; primarily as in float train service between Oak Point and Cedar Hill.

They were rugged, dependable, and cheap!  It is my opinion that had the New Haven kept its electrics and maintained them properly, they would have stayed that much more ahead of the game.
; considering that they were all paid for in full, and were a definite asset.

Gene;
With that six-wheel trailing truck, that "Cheshire" must have had one hell of a firebox!!  To me, considering the size of the engine, why would that have been warranted?

Rich 

[Elmore Yard]

Rich

The squareheads were the original VGN electrics from 1925, class EL-3A.  They were 3 unit side rod engines.  There were also several single units class EL-1A.

The E-33 were VGN class EL-C and were referred to as rectifiers by VGN men. 

The remaining class of VGN electrics were the EL-2B.  These two unit streamline GEs were known as roundnoses and streamliners.

Tom M

[ATSF5700BOB]

Good Morning all.

SteamGene: I was taught some French in grade school, in high school, and in college. The way I was taught was that [Americanized or not (or at least so my French College Professor said)] et in French always made an "a" sound. Now what the plural of that sound is , I'm not sure. It may have been "ays"., or even " ies".

Virginian: What happened on the Virginian at Stewartsville on a certain night? Did I miss something in one of the posts? Or miss one of the posts entirely?

Tac: I always thought that the Beyer-Garratts were made in Africa or Australia. I know (having seen pictures of a Beyer-Garatt)  that they ran in Australia and Rhodesia or Zambia. Quite an impressive looking locomotive ( I think).

Tom M: Was there a reason that one of the squarehead electrics was called Clarabelle? Was this a name given out of affection for the old unit or because of something else?

Also , I believe that many railroaders also loved the steam engines better than some of the diesels, because (I either read, or was told ) that every steam engine had its' own personality.

I really have enjoyed all of the information Thanks to all who took the time to reply.
           Hope everyone has a pleasant Afternoon.
                              Bob

[Elmore Yard]

Bob

I was always told the name Clarabelle came from Clarabelle the Clown from the 1950s Howdy Doody TV show. 

The class AE 2-10-10-2 no. 800 blew up at Stewartsville killing the headend crew after leaving Roanoke on a eastbound coal train.

Tom M

[pdlethbridge]

What railroad was the 800 owned by and when did she explode?

[Elmore Yard]

The 800 was owned by the Virginian and blew up on April 1, 1941.

What railroad was the 800 owned by and when did she explode?
Posted by: Elmore Yard 

[tac]

Dear Mr SteamGene: you wrote - 'I was taught some French in grade school, in high school, and in college. The way I was taught was that [Americanized or not (or at least so my French College Professor said)] et in French always made an "a" sound. Now what the plural of that sound is , I'm not sure. It may have been "ays"., or even " ies".'

My family and I, like many with Canadian and French connections, are French speakers.  Some of us speak more than one other language - as a university lecturer and consultant, I speak six languages apart from English, in any case, and I'm now seriously working on Japanese - I work in Tokyo for much of the year.  All pales into total insignificance when I think about the wife of a cousin - she is a First Nation interpreter specialising in ALL the algonquian languages - and is fluent in Inuit as well...

Anyhow - the pronunciation of the French name' Mallet' is 'Mallay'.  The plural of his name would sound exactly the same.  In French nobody would use his name in the way we do in English - they would say 'Les locomotifs type Mallet...'

He was not French, BTW, but Swiss - Jules T. Anatole Mallet (23 May 1837 - 10 October 1919).  He was the inventor of the first successful compound system for a railway steam locomotive, introducing in 1876 a series of small 2-cylinder compound 0-4-2 tanks for the Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz Railway in France.  This arrangement became known as the Mallet locomotive.

'Tac: I always thought that the Beyer-Garratts were made in Africa or Australia. I know (having seen pictures of a Beyer-Garatt)  that they ran in Australia and Rhodesia or Zambia. Quite an impressive looking locomotive ( I think).'

Beyer-Garrat locomotives were a completely British invention and develpment, taking the name from the Beyer-Peacock locomotive works and the designer, Herbert William Garratt, a British locomotive engineer who after a career with British colonial railways was for some time the New South Wales Railways' Inspecting Engineer based in London. He first applied for a patent on the idea in 1907, after observing articulated gun carriages.

On of the original K1 garratts, the first ever built for the Tasmanian State Railways, is in service here in North Wales on the Welsh Highland Railway.
Read all about it on the excellent Wikipedia site, some of which I provided, BTW, and see it in action on Youtube.....     

Later on, big Garratts were built for the Algerian State Railways by the French government railway workshops, as well as those built in Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, South Africa, Brazil, and Australia.

Sadly, the development of the Mallet-type articulated loco in the USA took place at the same time as the developing Garratt, so you missed out making use of a far superior design.  On entering a curve from the tangent, the boiler of a Big Boy/Challenger/Allegheny tranfers outside the line of the track, putting undue stress on the outside rails.  with a garrat design, ALL the weight of the boiler remains within the curve, sharing the load almost equally on both lines.

Bearing in mind that with very few exceptions, the Garratts were running on less than standard gauge - 3ft 6in and metre gauge for the most part - they were gigantic locomotives by anybody's standards - the NSW 4-8-4+4-8-4s must have been an impressive sight with their 150 car drags....

Best wishes

tac
www.ovgrs.org

PS - every steam locomotive DOES have its own personality - that is a fact.  All of mine do, fer shure.  

[ebtnut]

I for one find it unfortunate that no Garretts ever ran in the U.S.  As for "better", there are always trade-offs.  There was some degree of weight transfer toward the outer rail with conventional articulateds, though I would think for the most part the generally broad curves on main line track would compensate to some extent.  I think the biggest drawback to the Garretts was the limitation on fuel and water.  There was only so much of either that could be fit on the frames.  That also created another problem--as water and fuel are consumed, the overall engine weight drops, therefore losing tractive effort as well.  I think there may still be a few Garretts running in Zimbabwe, though not sure if they are in regular service, or only used for charter/special runs.

[ebtnut]

Let me expound a bit on nicknames.  Early on, they usually came about from the first railroad to successfully employ a particular type.  There are, of course, exceptions.

4-4-0 - American, or Eight-Wheeler.  Dubbed American because the type was by far the standard wheel arrangement of the 19th century.

4-6-0 - Ten-Wheeler.  An Eight-Wheeler with an extra driver set.  Developed in the 1840's.

4-8-0 - Twelve-Wheeler.  More of the same.  Sometimes referred to as a "Mastadon".

2-6-0 - Mogul.  Also developed around the 1840's.  With 6 drivers, they had more pulling power than the 4-4-0.  Mogul derives from the powerful rulers of pre-Colonial India.

2-8-0 - Consolidation.  Ordered by the Lehigh Valley RR during the time when they were merging a number of lines together, i.e., "consolidating" the lines.  Became the most numerous type of wheel arrangement used in the U.S. (about 33,000 units).

4-4-2 - Atlantic.  Named for the Atlantic City RR, which ordered them for high-speed service to the New Jersey shore resorts.

4-6-2 - Pacific.  First ordered in quantity by the Missouri Pacific RR.

4-6-4 - Hudson/Baltic.  Both roads ordered theirs about the same time.  the NYC got bigger, better press, and the Hudson name generally stuck, except on the Milwaukee Road.

4-8-4 - Northern.  First ordered by the Norther Pacific.  Probably the wheel arrangement with the most alternate names, as noted previously.

4-8-2 - Mountain.  First ordered by the C&O for service on the Mountain Division between Charlottesville and Clifton Forge, VA.

4-10-2 - Southern Pacific.  SP and UP had most of these three-cylinder locos.

4-12-2 - Union Pacific.  The UP alone had these monsters.

2-6-2 - Prairie.  Developed for use in the Great Plains.  I think the CB&Q might have had the first ones.

2-8-2- Mikado.  The first ones were built by Baldwin for the Japanese railways about 1898.  Gilbert and Sullivan operettas were very popular back then, and Mikado derived from that.

2-10-2 - Santa Fe.  The AT&SF got the first ones, and had bunch of them.  It became the de facto standard "drag freight" loco on many roads into the 1920's.