Whyte notation
The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte, and came into use in the early twentieth century following a December 1900 editorial in "American Engineer and Railroad Journal". The notation counts the number of leading wheels, then the number of driving wheels, and finally the number of trailing wheels, groups of numbers being separated by dashes. Other classification schemes, like UIC classification and the French, Turkish and Swiss systems for steam locomotives, count axles rather than wheels.
Ronald Whyte
Born in Pomona, California, Whyte earned an Artium Baccalaureus degree in Mathematics from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1964, and a Juris Doctor from the USC Gould School of Law in Los Angeles, California in 1967. Whyte was in private practice from 1967 to 1968 in Claremont, California. He then served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy from 1968 to 1971 as part of the Judge Advocate General Corps. He returned to private practice from 1971 to 1989, working at Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel Inc. in San Jose, California. In 1989, Governor George Deukmejian appointed him a Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge.