Locomotive – What do the notations such as ‘2-4-2’ mean?

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Locomotive – What do the notations such as ‘2-4-2’ mean?

June 20, 2019, 2:10 PM

Traditionally, steam locomotives have been classified by their wheel arrangements. The system most widely used was the Whyte system. In this, the loco’s leading non-powered wheels, the (usually coupled) driving wheels, and the trailing non-powered wheels are indicated separately. Indian practice (following the UK) was to count wheels and not just the axles.

ये भी पढ़े – दवाइयों के बिना, नेचुरल तरीके से ऐसे कंट्रोल करें ‘डायबिटीज’

Hence, ‘2-4-2’ refers to a loco with two wheels (1 axle) in the front, 4 driving (powered) wheels in the middle (2 axles) and 2 wheels (1 axle) trailing. A suffixed ‘T’ indicates a tank engine (variants include ‘ST’ for saddle tank, ‘WT’ for well tank, ‘PT’ for pannier tank, etc.). Garratts and other articulated locos are usually indicated by juxtaposing the wheel arrangements of each individual component of the compound loco: e.g., 4-8-2+2-8-4. A loco may have two or three sets of coupled powered driving axles; in which case the notation might be something like 2-8-8-2 indicating two sets of 4 driving axles each, or 2-6-6-6-2 for three sets of 3 driving axles each.

In European texts, one finds often that axles are counted, so 2-4-2 is replaced by 1-2-1, sometimes writtein 121, or even (as in France sometimes) 1B1.

Source – IFRCA.org

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