wheel arrangement

plural wheel arrangements

1. rail transportA system of classifying the way the driving wheels and non-driving wheels are distributed under a locomotive.

   Milwaukee Road revived the 4-4-2 type and gave the wheel arrangement its finest hour in 1935 when 7-foot-drivered oil-burners pioneered the Hiawatha.

   1959, David P. Morgan, editor, Steam's Finest Hour, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 42, photo caption

   2 more examples

   Among tank engines, the 0-6-2 wheel arrangement was by far the most numerous, there being nearly 450 of this arrangement, which offers the advantage of good power and adhesive weight, coupled with adequate tank and bunker capacity, within a limited compass.

   1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 161

   These were the first class of tender locomotives with this wheel arrangement [4-6-2] in the world, although there is some doubt as to whether the name "Pacific" was given to the type because New Zealand is in the Pacific Ocean or because some similar engines were built a few months later for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

   1954 August, J. B. Snell, “The New Zealand Government Railways—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 559