Named Locomotives

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Over in the UK, we’ve had locomotives named after Kings and Queens, Playwrights and Poets, Stately Homes and Castles, famous battles and military campaigns, warships, warplanes and Regiments, Admirals and Generals, Railway Engineers and Railway Company Directors,etc., etc.,etc. and lastly, and arguably the best, to reinforce the image of speed, Game Birds and Classic Horse Race winners.

Other than the PRR President Class, how many other classes of locomotive (steam or diesel) were named in the US and Canada?

2

I don’t recall of any “classes” named, however individual railroads have named individual locomotives, or series of locomotives. Seem like one of the Maine RRs once named some locos for Revolutionary War heros.

Oh, yeah - I think Metra has names of cities on their line on their engines.

3

I believe the President Class was B&O 4-6-2s, not PRR.
Dave Nelson

4

There were many, many named locomotives in the USA. I won’t attempt to come up with a full list, but:

B&O had 5600, the “George H. Emerson”, and the Lord and Lady Baltimore (in addition to the Presidents). All four of the D&H high-pressure Consolidations were named, although there was no common ‘class’ name for them. B&M had a competition (I think for school children) to name some of their Pacifics, surviving locomotive #3713 among them – again, no common name for the class, as all the names were rather wildly different. IIRC, Southern named some of its E8s on the post-Amtrak-inception Southern Crescent, and D&H had a name on at least one of the PAs. We shouldn’t forget the RF&P Governor class.

5

The Frisco named their passenger diesels after race horses.

6

The last issue of TRAINS had a great story about a locomotive engineer whose locomotive was named after him.

Back in the early days of railroading naming the locomotive was common practice over here… for example, the “Jupiter”, the “Texas”, and the “General”.

Erik

7

The B&O President Class were their best Pacifics. Don’t forget the one streamlined Burlington Pacific, the Aeolus (stainless steel like a Zephyr diesel locomotive). In Great Britain I did have the opportunity to photograph A-4 Pacific :Kingfisher" and then ride behind it from Aberdeen to Dundee, much of the way at 100 mph. 1962, I believe.

8

I believe the Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia use to name theirs. There was also a line in New England, but for some reason the name escapes me. Maybe it was MC? Not sure.

Dave

-DPD Productions - Home of the TrainTenna RR Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

9

Weren’t the D&H high pressure engines all a one off thing anyhow? If so the would leave them in a class of their own.
Randy

10

Do you mean the actual name painted on the engine itself?? I can’t think of any in Canada, but they seemed to all have “names”, Selkirk- Mountain-Jubilee-Pacific etc. etc.

11

In the early days many if not most US locomotives were named.

In the 1960s the Reading named their two C-430 locomotives after two of the very early steam locos. They became Catawissa-II and Ironside-II.

12

csx has named several of its locomotives…and some of the crews have named a few of thier own… csx has the spirit of waycross…the spirit of***berland…the spirit of west virgina…the spirit grorga…i think thier are a few more out thier…but i dont remember…and i have seen one that showed up at the yard i work at that was hand painted by a crew someplace called the spirit of landsdale…
csx engineer

13

Don’t forget the Hudsons and the Royal Hudsons.

Those are all named for their wheel arrangements, though, I do believe.

14

Cal-trains, the SF bay area commuter line, used to name there locomotives after on line towns. as far as I know they still do.

15

IIRC, the RF&P named its 4-8-4’s after Confederate generals, the “General William Mahone” being one of them.

16

The Rock Island named a series of GPs in the blue paint.I think one was named “The American Railfan”.

17

The Georgia Railroad had a GP38-2 delivered new in the Family Lines paint scheme named for Atlanta historian and former Coca-Cola employee Franklin Garrett.

I believe theTAG unit was a GP38 named John Chambliss.

Jay

18

Dont forget the EMD E5A and E5B diesels built for the CB&Q, C&S and FW&D. All received names when built and one still operates today in a museum with its original name.

19

Many of the F40 units on Metra here in Chicago are named after community leaders and some are named after towns served by Metra.

20

A lot of British locomotives had names on the side of the engine, is this what we are talking about, names like “Flying Scotsman” “Winston Churchill” etc.etc. or do you mean name classification? used for identification??? Lets see some photos with actual names on the engines.