and he notes -
While there were examples of 'Pacific's' in existence before 1900,
most were rebuilt Ten-Wheelers and Prairie types. Several were built
new (by Brooks I believe) for the Milwaukee Road in 1896. They had
narrow fireboxes and were really stretched Atlantics. Technically
they could be called the first 'Pacifics' but didn't carry that
appellation since the Whyte System was still a few years away.
The application of the name 'Pacific' may be attributed to the dozen
or so examples built by Baldwin in 1901 for New Zealand Railways.
They needed locomotives with larger fireboxes to burn the low quality
lignite coal mined there and since they were shipped over the Pacific
Ocean, supposedly they were named for the Ocean. The design was
successful enough to garner several orders for U. S. roads with the
first going to MoPac and C&O in 1902 and since the MoPac got the
first order, the name has been attributed to them. If they had been
delivered to the Chessie first, we might be calling them 'Ohio' types!
The name seems to have persisted even though roads with heavier power
often named those locos differently, i. e. NYC's Hudsons, Mohawks and
C&O's Kanawhas, Greenbriers, etc. Over 6,000 were built in the U. S.
alone with that many plus built for foreign roads.
It's interesting to note that while the Whyte System of locomotive
classification (proposed in 1900 by F. M. Whyte a mechanical
engineer) most railroad employees knew their motive power by class or
road numbers. I remember my early railfan days (way back in the 50's)
being admonished for using a 'front office' term for a B&M steam
loco. I quickly learned that correct jargon for a 'Pacific' was a P2
(or P3 or 4 depending on the road numbers). But interestingly, the
B&M Atlantics were always called 'Trailers', probably due to the fact
that the first ones were little more than 4-4-0s with a trailing truck.
So whether or not one accepts the New Zealand locos or those going to
the MoPac as engendering the name, it lasted into the modern era and
is still in use today.
Raleigh in cool and comfortable Maine...
BTW - one road did rename some of their Pacifics - anyone know which
one and what they called them?
At 10:23 PM 7/29/2008, Mary Armstrong wrote:
>They named the Pacific after them as they had MO of them than any
>other railroad.
>John Armstrong
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
