Frederick Methvan Whyte

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Frederick Methvan Whyte (March 2, 1865 – 1941) was a mechanical engineer of Dutch background who worked for the New York Central railroad in the United States. He is most widely known as the person who developed Whyte notation to describe the different wheel arrangements of steam locomotives in 1900.

In some railroad literature, he is referenced as "F. M. White", using the Anglicized spelling of his name. Further, some references also spell his middle name as "Methven".

[edit] Career

Education: Franklin Academy, 1889. Entered railway service May 1, 1889, since which he has been consecutively to January 1, 1890, draftsman, Motive Power Department, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad; January 1, 1889, to February 1, 1892, Testing Department and Drawing Room, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Baltimore, Maryland; February 1, 1892, to June 1892, special testing work, Mexican Central Railroad, Mexico City; June 1892, to December 1894, general railroad engineering in Chicago, chiefly with South Side Elevated Railroad and in railway newspaper work; July 1895, to September 1896, draftsman, Northwestern Elevated Railroad, Chicago; July 1, 1897, consulting engineer, Chicago; July 1, 1897, to August 10, 1899, mechanical engineer, Chicago and North Western Railway and secretary, Western Railway Club; August 15, 1899, to November 1, 1904, mechanical engineer, New York Central and Hudson River Railroad; November 1, 1904, to 1910, general mechanical engineer, same road; Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, Boston and Albany Railroad, Lake Erie and Western Railroad, and Indiana, Illinois and Iowa Railroad; September 15, 1905, to 1910, also general mechanical engineer Rutland Railroad; November 1, 1911, to 1913, vice-president, Hutchins Car Roofing.

[edit] References

• Lane, Harold Francis, editor (1913). The Biographical Directory of the Railway Officials of America, 1913 Edition. Simmons-Boardman, New York, p 588.
• Riches, Dave, Locomotive wheel arrangements (PDF), Big Wheel News, The Steam Locomotive Society of Victoria. Retrieved March 25, 2005.
• White, John H., Jr., (Spring 1986), America's most noteworthy railroaders, Railroad History, The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, 154, p. 9-15.