Whyte Notation: How Steam Locomotive Types Got Their Name 

The 0-4-0 should be called a smol

Fun fact: the largest narrow gauge steam engine boiler was fitted to a 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone type built for the metric gauge (3ft 3 1/3in) lines of Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil (Center of Brazil Railroad) by Henschel & Sohn of Germany in 1937.

Fun fact: The first ever 2-8-2T locomotive was built by Baldwin for a logging railroad in New Mexico in 1898. It was sold from that railroad to Southern Pacific, was turned into 0-8-0 switcher and was scrapped in July of 1934.

As a Kiwi, really happy to see the N, Q, and X classes get some deserved spotlights given they were pioneers of their respective configurations.

The 4-6-4s, 4-8-4,s and 4-6-6-4s are my favorite types of steam locomotives

the company seeing the "big boy" scribbled on that train. they must of like: "fuck dude, it sure is"

Wasn't expecting to hear the mention of New Zealand Railways, although the 2-6-2 picture you showed is actually from the Wellington & Manawatu Railway Company, which was taken over by NZR in 1908. Interestingly the WMR had a lot of Baldwin locomotives, including the country's only 2-8-2 and 2-8-4 (later called BC 463 and WJ 466 respectively), though none of them are still around today except for the remains of a 2-6-2. Further research shows that the engine in that picture - WMR No. 9 - became N class No. 453 under NZR. She was built in 1891 and withdrawn in the 1920s. Like a lot of old steamers at the time, N 453 was dumped in the Waimakariri River as riverbank protection, with the remains eventually being rediscovered in 2003. As for the Q class Pacific, I remember someone saying in a video that the first 4-6-2 was built for the Missouri Pacific in 1902, forgetting to mention the NZR Q class. So it's good to see another American getting the history right this time. Regarding the X class 4-8-2, one of them is preserved in Feilding, and I remember getting to see her in 2018 (even getting to climb on the footplate, although she wasn't in steam).

The 4-8-4s were also called "Dixie" types of the NC&StL Railroad.

Mikados were often called "Mikes" during WW2 due to anti-Japanese sentiment at the time, and there was a brief consideration to rename them "MacArthurs" after General MacArthur, but it didn't catch on. 2-8-4's were naturally referred to as "Big Mikes" at first before "Berkshire" caught on, as the type is really just a Mikado with one more trailing wheel tacked on to prop up the bigger firebox. May be apocryphal, but "Pacific" is also said to have come from the Missouri Pacific railroad, which ordered a large batch of 4-6-2's fairly early. A very common model train wheel arrangement is the 2-6-4 "Adriatic", a reverse Pacific, even though in reality it was quite rare and only used in Britain and overseas. A big clue would be the alternate name of the type, the "Lionel".

while they weren't simple to operate, camelbacks are one of my peroneal favorite odd steam locomotives, glad some are still preserved, great video as per usual, Jared!

Other companies named their Northerns: Poconos Wyomings 1800's Niagras (Nationale de Mexico designation) General Service Golden State Big Apples Class J's FEF's Generals Statesmen Senators Westerns Dixies

Finally. I've heard "Pacific, Atlantic, etc.," Witch I, honestly didn't know what they were talking about. Now, With confidence, I can say that my favorite engines are the Mikados!

You forgot to mention that in Canada, 2-10-4 locomotives are referred to as “Selkirk” locomotives, named after the Selkirk mountains.

I'm glad someone finally decided to make a some-what short video that can quickly explain the wheel configurations of steam engines. It can be a time-saver! My favorite wheel arrangements are the Consolidations, the Moguls and the Decapods. Basically, I'm a sucker for the non-articulated freight types. For the runner ups, I would say Northerns, Ten-Wheelers and Americans

About the Mikados, during WW2, the Mikados (in America at least) were renamed to "MacArthurs" after General MacArthur. If you know WW2 history, I think it's obvious why the rename.

There is a wheel configuration named Javanic, which is 2-12-2, it is very unique and the name is taken from the island of Java, the Dutch govermment specifically ordered this locomotive to replacing Mallet in montainous region of west java but then turned out to not being suitable for the terrain.

4-8-0, Twelve Wheeler, or Mastodon by some was the upgrade to the Consolidation class and Ten Wheeler. Though not very popular due to limited speed, they were nonetheless behemoths for freight services and could tackle the grades, though the Mountain 4-8-2 easily outdid them for versatility. I personally love the Mastodon, specifically the Camelback versions

4-6-2 and 4-8-2 are some of my personal favorites.

3:50 Man, when it got to the Decapods part, I thought to show the Dom Pedro II Decapods (Brazilian railroad) that in 1884 Dom Pedro II wanted a strong locomotive ideal for heavy and slow freight trains, and so Baldwin responded with this model in 1885, they worked here until 1910 and are reported to have been scrapped in 1915😢

Its kinda insane that the first locomotives were created at the same time as the Napoleonic Wars.

I'd love for you to do a video on Diesel engine wheel arrangements, this one's so helpful!

Expanding from the Four-Coupled, locomotives with no leading or trailing wheels are sometimes called X-coupled, where X is simply the number of driving wheels. 4-2-0 is called Jervis after John B. Jervis, the first designer. However, a common name for any locomotive with only 2 driving wheels is Single, because there's just a single powered axle. 2-4-0 is called Porter after H.K. Porter, which built a great number of locomotives with this type. 2-4-2 is sometimes called Columbia after Baldwin Locomotive Works presented a locomotive of this type at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. 4-4-4 is called Reading in the US due to extensive use on the Philadelphia & Reading and Jubilee in Canada, supposedly because the Canadian Pacific examples were built on the company's 50th anniversary of transcontinental passenger service. 2-8-4 on the C&O was sometimes called Kanawha after the river in West Virginia. 4-8-0 expands on 4-6-0 with the nickname Twelve-Wheeler, but also goes by Mastodon Supposedly, Mastodon originated from a specific Central Pacific locomotive with this wheel arrangement bearing the name Mastodon. 4-8-2 on the NYC was called Mohawk, after New York river like Hudson and Niagara. There weren't many mountainous tracks on the flat-landed NYC, so they decided to come up with their own, more appropriate nickname. 4-10-2 is sometimes called Reid Tenwheeler, Southern Pacific, or Overlander. George William Reid made the first 4-10-2T locomotives for the Natal Government Railways in South Africa. It's a big jump from the 4-6-0, but it has 10 driving wheels, hence the second half of the nickname. Meanwhile, the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific were one of the few American railroads to use this arrangement, with the UP calling them Overlanders after their own company nickname of The Overland Route. 2-12-0 may have been called Centipede due to the many driving wheels, though there's only a handbook page to go by for this information. 4-12-2 is the Union Pacific type for obvious reasons. 2-8-8-2 was called Chesapeake on the Chesapeake & Ohio for obvious reasons. Southern Pacific called them Mallet Consolidations, because it was like two Consolidations back-to-back. 4-8-8-2, surprisingly, was never "officially" called Reverse Yellowstone. Would've been fitting since all locomotives of this type were Cab-Forwards that were developed from the Southern Pacific's conventional-style Yellowstones. 2-8-8-8-2 and 2-8-8-8-4 were both referred to as Triplex, with three sets of driving wheels. There's also Duplex, which encompasses all rigid, non-articulated locomotives with two sets of driving wheels. There were other proposed -plex locomotives, some of which had varying numbers of driving wheels on each individual wheelbase. None of them came to fruition except this one Belgian monster with two Franco-Crosti boilers and a wheel arrangement that cannot be described with the Whyte Notation because it had unpowered carrying axles between driving axles. Garatts simply double the nicknames of conventional locomotives. For example, a 4-6-2+2-6-4 is called a Double Pacific. Single Fairlie is just half a Fairlie with an expanded cab and bunker on a pivoting bogie. Similar to Mason Bogie (or the other way around) but the Fairlie uses articulated steam pipes to power the cylinders while the Mason Bogie sends steam through the central articulation pivot. Crampton often refers to locomotives with low boilers and a driving axle behind the firebox. It is usually reserved for Singles such as 4-2-0 or 6-2-0, but some had more than 2 driving wheels.

Great work AmtrakGuy, I really like the 4-4-0 American type.

What I find interesting is that naming wheel arrangements seems to be an exclusively American thing! In Europe it’s normally just a 4-6-0 (or similar). Only really common types like Atlantics and Pacifics get referred to by name. Although many classes of locomotives did get nicknames.

Great video! A quick note about the Camel and Camelbacks. You showed two locomotives that would be known as Camels (this is because the engineer sat quite literally on top of the boiler with a cab, or camel's hump, over him). The Camel locomotives were basically conventional locomotives with low slung boilers. Camelbacks refer to specific family of anthracite coal burning locomotives. The cab and engineer's controls are moved alongside the boiler (not over top of it) due to the larger Wooten fireboxes. The fireman still stays in the rear of the locomotive.

This video is a very comprehensive explanation on wheel arrangements and how they got their names. On my model railroad, some locomotive wheel arrangements have different names while other types have the same names that they would have on other railroads. For example: a 4-6-2 would be called a Gravesfield type, but a 2-8-2 would either be a Mikado or a MacArthur depending on what year it was built. Most diesel locomotives would be kept with their original classifications unless rebuilt or upgraded.

The first 2-6-4 were built in 1898 for South Africa, but they were succesful also in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, hence the name of Adriatic, from its bordering sea.

My favorite wheel arrangements are 4-6-0 Ten Wheeler 4-6-2 Pacific 4-6-4 Hudson 2-8-2 Mikado 2-8-4 Berkshire 4-8-2 Mountain 4-8-4 Northern 2-10-4 Texas 2-6-6-4 A Class 4-6-6-4 Challenger 2-6-6-6 Allegheny 4-8-8-4 Big Boy (Wasatch) Edit: Yes this is a long list, Though if I were to make a top 5 here’s the 5 that are on that list 4-6-0 4-6-2 2-8-2 2-8-4 4-8-4

Fun Fact: in the early to-mid-1940s (a.k.a. durng WW2, the name "Mikado" for 2-8-2s were anglicized to "McArthur" because of rivalry over Japan (the "Sappy Jappies").

Personal favorite of mine is the Hudson. I just love the look of then

The 4-4-0 wheel arrangement was famously used by the Great Northern Railway of Ireland well into the 20th century into CIÉ and UTA service

Fun fact: There is actually a sub class of Camelback locomotives referred to as camels. The Camelback locomotives have the cab over the set of driving wheels to increase tractive effort, but they are on top of the boiler, meanwhile, the camel locomotives have the boiler run through the cab to improve visibility.

Gotta love how quite a few wheel arrangements were first made or used by New Zealand, you had the first Parire Tender Engines with the V's the Pacifics with the A's and Mountains with the X.

AmtrakGuy365 is back at it again. This time he's explaining the Whyte Notation for the classification of steam locomotives and the names of the steamers following the Whyte Notation. That steamer on the thumbnail is Canadian National 6218. Haha he included Mr Krabs for the Decapod type.

Great video as always!!

You should make a video dedicated to narrow gauge trains, especially americain ones. It's an often overlooked part of train history.

I really like the Mountain types.

Thanks for a really great informational video==I really enjoyed it

I got all the type i was hoping for in this video so good job

Great video! I've been trying to memorize as many of the names of Wheel arrangements as i can for a while lol

The 4-8-4 "Niagara" name was also used by the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (National Railways of Mexico) 🇲🇽

Let's talk about the 0 4 2 auto tank created by the gwr

Why do I find this so intriguing I just want to memerize what every name goes to

There is a unique 2-12-2 Steam Locomotive with nickname "Javanic" It came from the engineer that design the locomotive to deal with tight curve in Java, precisely East Java, the purpose are to eliminate Mallet Locomotive problem of flexible pipes that tend to ripped apart... Only to finding out that the first and last pair of wheels are wear out much faster than flexible pipes in Mallet

The CB&Q called their 2-10-4s Colorado’s

Personally My fav wheel-arrangement for steam is the Consolidation, very reliable workhorses

3:50 I was so happy to see this engine. Decapods are some of my favorite steam locomotives especially Frisco 1630

I asked an American train fan where the term 'ten-wheeler came from, as obviously Atlantics, Consolidations and other types also have ten wheels. His explanation was that when the first ones were outshopped, they were the only US engines to have ten wheels, all the others being 'Planets', "One armed Billys" and 'Americans'. Logical. Another writer reckons that 'Consolidation' derived from the amalgamation, or 'consolidation' of several Lehigh valley companies at the time the first such engines went into service on the road. Well, you pays your money...... Thanks for a great treat of moving pictures......

Now that I know where the Mikado type locomotives got their name, I can understand why Thomas and Friends decided to give the character Hiro Japanese nationality.

"But Amtrakguy", a voice said from the crowd, "Tell them about the 9000 class and the AA-12" . the person suggesting this was promptly shown the door XD.

4:16 Sweet Mountain from "Sonic Colors"

Great video 👍😎

5:36 At last, someone who found out the 4-6-4 was given its nickname of "Baltic" first by the French.

The place where I grew up back in the day had several customized Mikado engines to run in the steep narrow slopes of the Appalachians. I believe there's only two from the railway remaining in preservation and if I ever return to that area I hope to see them

Such useful information I gotta remember

Just my personal feeling along with many others who'd agree, the 4-6-4 NYC Hudson is the most handsome, well balanced looking of all the steam engines and perhaps the most all around successful ...My fav articulated is the B&O or C&O 2-8-8-2 y6b, not cited (sited ?) here.....

You should've mentioned that the SP called their 4-8-4's "Golden States" hence why they are all classed as "GS-#"

Thank you for this video. You incorrectly pronounced Northumbrian, as I did for decades🙂 until finally hearing the correct pronunciation. The word Northumbrian comprises four (4) syllables, as follows: North-um-bri-an. The last syllable is pronounced ‘in’.

While not mentioned, I like how nearly all the 10-coupled locomotives have their names originated by the Western US railraods. You have the Santa Fe and Texas types as mentioned, but you also have the 4-10-2's, pioneered by and referred to as, Southern Pacific, and 4-12-2's, used exclusively by and referred to as, Union Pacific I find these particularly interesting because their nicknames were used as their classifications on their respective railroads. SP already tended to use wheel arrangement nicknames for their classes, P for Pacific, A for Atantic, Mt for Mountain, etc. Of course they'd name a brand new type the SP for Southern Pacific type. The UP used a more literal system, classifying their engines by spelling out the wheel arrangements and abbreviatin. The 4-8-2's were FET's and the 4-8-4's were FEF's. They probably would've done the same thing for their newest engines, had they not already had a few 4-10-2's already, the FTT's. Since 4-10-2 and 4-12-2 abbreviate the same, they couldn't use it again without confusion, so they used the nickname of the wheel arrangement instead, thus the 4-12-2's became the UP's.

Thank you for putting my name!

Thank you

The first Gaffett (Beyer-Garratt) is in working order, running on the Welsh Highland Railway and at Statfold Barn. It runs alongside several 2-6-2+2-6-2 Garretts and some double Fairles including one built in 1879 and one being built new now

I know a guy with a Gscale livestream colbrookdale

You can add the SC-44 Charger to Engines of Amtrak

You can also tell how Mr. Big Boy got his name😂😂😂

The NZGRs class K. KA and KB 4-8-4 were northern locomotives

Fun Fact: 4-8-0’s are called “Mastodons”

Southern pacific has the most preserved steam locomotives cuz they love steam locomotives

The 4-4-2 Atlantic type name came from the Atlantic Ocean

My life is too complicated to try to remember all of those names.

Garratts and mountains were both built in the hundreds for South African Railways

Here’s the Wikipedia link for every Whyte Notation that was applied to a locomotive or proposed for a locomotive: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whyte_notation

In the UK we have king, Manor and castle classes for the gwr named after famous castles, Kings or manor's and Southern rail also has schools class which is named after well known schools I believe. Each different type is a step up in size, manor

Hey amtrak can you talk about Baldwin or Alco or maybe even pullman

Camelbacks come in several different flavors; Winnans, Davis, Hayes, and Mother Hubbard.

Priceless.. cheers Super proud of our government railway here in NZ👍

There's Another Type Of 4-8-4'S They Called Big Apples For The COG ( Central Of Georgia ) Railroad

I use a pacific design to the freingh tank engine. (Fictional).

Nice video! The Mikado type was temporarily re-named the "MacArthur type" (after General Douglas MacArthur) during the Second World War, for obvious reasons.

No duplex... * sad t1 noises*

Was going to make a comment of alternate names for locomotives mentioned, but RU-vid decided it wasn't worthy and deleted it while I was typing it.

Some of the name origins I had heard different stories about how they came to be. I'm sure just like any word or name origin and being so long ago many stories have come about. The 2 I know was that consolation was from the merger of 3 railroads that first order the type and that pacific come from the Missouri Pacific.

The Central of Georgia Railroad called their 2-8-2's MacArthur types after General Dougals MacArthur, the famous WW2 General. They dropped the Mikado name after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and never referred to them again as such. The Central also had a funny name for their 4-8-4's, they called them the "Big Apples". I don't know where this name came from.

During WW2, the “Mikado” class locomotives where referred to as “MacArthur” after the General, as “Mikado” sounded too Japanese. Thought I’m not entirely sure how true this is, but I knew about it before and then heard it on Jeopardy once…

You also forgot the 2-6-6-2 mallet built for the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, 1309 is a prime example.

The term mogul if I remember came from the first british moguls, as the first was named "mogul". It was the GER class 527 I believe

Best picture in this video 8:20

It always gets me why the 2-6-6-4 wheel arrangement never had a name

There was the disaster of a locomotive started in Germany & finished by the Soviets in the early 30s. It was going to be a 2-14-2 but ended up being a 4-14-4. It was the AA-20 Andreich. If successful it probably would be called the Soviet or something. Only 1 made. Another unique arrangement was the No. 6400. The S2, a turbine locomotive made for the Pennsylvania RR. It was a 6-4-6. Once again only 1 made. If successful it probably would be called the Pennsylvania or Turbine.

5:01 that 4-6-2 streamlined NYC in what film?

The Milwaukee Road didn't call the 4-4-2s Atlantics, they call them Milwaukees.

I LIKE ALL THE WHEEL ARANGEMENTS SO DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT THAT 😡

Do you think you can do a video on the locomotives and rolling stock seen in Madagascar 3: Europe's most wanted?

I bet everyone got 2-8-0s

How about the UP 9000 and AA20 steam locomotives? They should have been included too!

Glad you didn't ignore the Virginian railroad.

Also I'm pretty sure on the Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis railroad, they called their 4-8-4s "Dixies"

The Nippon Tetsudo '9700' 2-8-2 🇯🇵 was actually built in 1897.

I feel like you should of mentioned the J1/J1a's for the PRR when talking about the texas types as they were the most produced texas type.

2-6-8-0 Great Northern Railroad 4-8-8-2 SP Cab forward 2-8-8-0 Bullmoose types on the great Northern and Union Pacific UP used them on sherman hill before the challengers and big boys