What do the numbers on steam engines mean?
In this system numbers are assigned to the leading, driving, and trailing wheels of the locomotive. The first number is the number of leading wheels. The middle number (or numbers) give the number and arrangement of drivers. The last is the number of trailing wheels (typically under the firebox).
How are steam engines named?
Since the invention of the very first railway steam locomotive in 1804, railway companies have applied names to their locomotives, carriages and multiple units. Each name commenced with the same word or letters.
What are the different classes of steam engines?
There are three basic types of steam locomotive; non-articulated (rigid frame), duplex (divides the wheels’ driving force by utilizing two pairs of cylinders under a single frame), and articulated (featuring a pair of drivers under the boiler, the rear is rigidly mounted while the front pivots to negotiate curves).
What do locomotive numbers mean?
Picture a locomotive with it’s front facing to your left. The numbers, in order, then represent the number of leading (unpowered), the number of drivers, and the trailing number of unpowered wheels. In your example, 2 leading wheels, 6 drivers, a second, independent set of 6 drivers, and 2 trailing wheels.
How are train engines numbered?
Locomotives, steam or diesel, are numbered in classes, as example, Santa Fe F units were in 100, 200, 300, etc. classes. GP’s were not numbered in the same classes, they had their own.
How did locomotives get their name?
The word locomotive originates from the Latin loco – “from a place”, ablative of locus “place”, and the Medieval Latin motivus, “causing motion”, and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, which was first used in 1814 to distinguish between self-propelled and stationary steam engines.
How are locomotives classed?
A class of locomotives is a group of locomotives built to a common design, typically for a single railroad or railway. Often members of a particular class had detail variations between individual examples, and these could lead to subclasses. Sometimes therefore it is not clear where one class begins and another ends.
What is a steam locomotive?
A steam locomotive, or steam engine, is a steam-powered traction engine which pulls or pushes wagons or “cars” on a “road” or “way of two parallel steel tracks.
What do the numbers mean on steam locomotives?
steam locomotives. In this system, the first number is the number of leading wheels, and the last is the number of trailing wheels. The middle number (or numbers) give the number and arrangement of drivers.
What is the wheel arrangement of a steam locomotive?
STEAM LOCOMOTIVE WHEEL ARRANGEMENT CLASSIFICATIONS Frederick Methvan Whyte’s system of classification is used to describe the wheel arrangement of conventional steam locomotives. In this system, the first number is the number of leading wheels, and the last is the number of trailing wheels.
What replaced the steam locomotive on railroads?
“New Motors on Railroads: Electric and Gasoline Cars Replacing the Steam Locomotive”. The World’s Work: A History of Our Time. XIII: 8437–54. Retrieved 10 July 2009. ^ “The Construction of and Performance Obtained from the Oil Engine”.