Hi:
I’m a train fan from Puerto Rico but I never get an aswer about what those numbers arranged mean. When you talk about a Mikado (2-8-2), what those numbers mean (it is a ratio of power?, something related to the axles?
I’ll appreciate all the information that you can send.
On a steam locomotive the number means how the wheels are arranged. A Prarie 2-6-2 meant that the locomotive has two “lead” wheels, eight “drive” or “power” wheels and two wheels under the engineer’s cab to support any additional weight and possible to serve as a guide for the drive wheels. It would mean th elocomotive looks something like this… oOOOo .
A Mikado (2-8-2) wheel arrangement would look like this oOOOOo.
A Mogul (2-6-0) would look like this oOOO
A American (4-4-0) would look like this ooOO
Fellows, is this correct?
2-8-2 refers to the wheel arrangement. 2 wheels on the lead truck, or “pilot”. 8 drivers, and 2 wheels on the trailing truck. Mikado is the nickname given to that particular configuration. This is all North American terminology. There are a lot of others.
A Big Boy was Union Pacific’s 4-8-8-4 monster articulated.[swg]
Looks good to me. While we are at it,
a Hudson is a 4-6-4 ooOOOoo
a Northern is a 4-8-4 ooOOOOoo
and that Big Boy would look like this ooOOOO OOOOoo [^][:p]
Thanks very much Cpt Carrales and Big Boy
The system used to describe steam locomotive wheel arraingement is called the Whyte Steam Classification System and was developed around 1901. Heres a link to help explain the different types of steam engines…
The first American 2-8-2 locomotives were built for a Jappanese railroad, about the same time the opera “Mikado” was on a tour of the USA and that is why this wheel arrangment is so named.
Hey Ya’ll
2-8-2 means the number of wheels. Here are the wheel arangments
0-4-0 switcher
0-6-0 switcher
0-8-0 Yard Goat
2-4-0 Columbian
4-4-0 American
2-6-0 Mogul
2-8-0 Consolodation
2-8-2 Mikado
4-6-2 Pacific
4-6-0 Ten-wheeler
2-8-4 Berkshire
4-8-2 Mountain
4-8-4 Northern
These are all I know (exept for articulateds)
Nick
The love of my life, my DR Mallet is 0 6 6 0, means it has no leading or trailing wheels but it has two sets of 6 driving wheels. These two sets are articulated and operate independantly both as far as drive and direction are concerned but also as far as power pick up is concerned as well. This is why it is so powerful and can run on some curves and grades that previously would need a rack loco.
It will pull virtually any concievable train up a 5 - 6 % grade and an R1 curve at the same time. If your switches are set incorrectly ity will plough right through anything from the trailing end.
If any of my trains get stuck in any of my tunnels I just slowly send the Mallet in after them and it will slowly but surely pu***hem out the other end. I do not make a habit of this but it works in an emergency.
Regards Ian.