I don’t understand why steam engines had names like mikadol or pacific hudson and berckshire? rambo1…
I suspect it largely comes out of the navel tradition of naming classes of vessels.
Please go to the following links for a pretty thorough explanation of American steam locomotive types, their wheel arrangements and “names”. The first link is within the Classic Trains section of this web site.
Mike, your two references certainly give a comprehensive coverage of the names of locomotive types. I did miss, however, an explanation for the name “Consolidated” or “Consolidation.” I do not recall seeing any explanation anywhere. Does anyone have a sure word on this? I was sorry not to see the Union Pacific type discussed in the first link.
As to the two or more names given to a particular type (as the second link shows), it may be evident that a second road to use a particular type did not like the original name–such as the Dixie Line (NC&StL) calling its 4-8-4’s “Dixie” and not “Northern.” I have never see a reason for the Milwaukee’s calling its 4-6-4’s “Baltic.” We could even go further and speak of the “Yellow Jackets” and “Stripes” of the NC&StL, but that takes a little longer to explain.
Johnny
According to the second link (American Steam Locomotive Wheel Arrangements), the first 2-8-0s "were built in 1866 by Baldwin for the Lehigh Valley (which had recently been created by the merger of several smaller roads). In other words, “a consolidation” in mid-1800 American English.
A lot of the names (and the 4-8-4 looks to have had more than any other wheel arrangement) stemmed from railroad pride and image. F’rinstance, it wouldn’t do for the Water Level Route to have a locomotive called a “Mountain,” so NYC called their 4-8-2’s a “Mohawk.”
You can almost tell by looking at the names given the 4-8-4 wheel arrangement which railroad they served.
In many cases the naming (at least of the original) seems to have been the honor of the first railroad to design/purchase a given wheel arrangement.