The name Pacific for the 4-6-2 wheel arrangemant may have come about as this was the name given by Baldwin to some 4-6-2s they built for the New Zealand Railways, because they crossed the Pacific to their delivery destination. The New Zealand engines went into service five months before the Missouri Pacific engines.
Regards,
Malcolm.
Was that name Atlantic already in use for 4-4-2’s? Was the first order if 4-4-2’s for the Atlatnic Coast Line?
If you have access to the book, The Trains We Rode, by Beebe and Clegg, you will find a picture of a “Stripe” on p. 203 and a picture of a “Yellow Jacket” on p. 202. The additional metal on the engine for the Yellowjacket added nothing to its performance, so the Federal board concerned with such decreed that none built after 12/7/41 would have metal wasted in such a manner.
There’s also the UIC classification (aka German classification), which assigns letters to the driving axles, similar to how it’s done with electric and diesel locomotives, so a 4-6-2 would be a 2-C-1 and a 4-8-4 would be a 2-D-2 (increasing alphabetical order with increasing number of driving axles). The AAR classification system for diesels and electrics is a simplified form of the UIC.
BTW, informal nicknames often became quite cosmopolitan. They know what Atlantics and Pacifics are in Britain.
The name “Greenbrier” was specific to the C&O, IINM.
Where I come from, a “J” is an 0-6-0 tender locomotive with “high” driving wheels, used in dual service (both freight and passenger). [:)]
I’ve heard of them being referred to as “Mastodons”, a name that was often shared with the less common 4-10-0.