James Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kelly Anderson Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I hate to say it because Mastodon is such a
> cool
> > name, but according to the wheel arrangement
> table
> > in the
Locomotive Cyclopedia, a 4-8-0 is
> > known as a Twelve Wheeler. A Mastodon is a
> > 4-10-0, of which I believe only one was ever
> > built.
>
>
> I've most frequently seen the "Mastodon" name
> applied to the 4-8-0, particularly being
> associated with the S.P. machines. The only
> 4-10-0, which led a short and useless life as
> little more than a point of trivia, had its own
> name. I regard the "Cyclopedia" as clearly in
> error in this case.
>
> At times american standard types were called
> eight-wheelers, and we all know what the
> ten-wheeler refers to. Twelve-wheeler was an
> obvious extension of the convention, although with
> the development of the two-wheel lead truck and
> (later) trailing truck that sort of nomenclature
> rapidly became obsolete. After all, the mogul
> type is also an eight-wheeled locomotive! As I
> understand, ten-wheeler stuck as a name for that
> class mostly because nobody could agree on
> anything better to call it, the name being fairly
> entrenched (it was an 1840's-era design) by the
> time other ten-wheeled locomotives (ie, the
> consolidation) became numerous.
Kelly, and James,
The Mastodon name was applied to a Central Pacific 4-8-0 of 1882.
But Kelly is somewhat right as that has to be the coolest name for a locomotive beast ever!