A 3 ft (0.91 m) gauge 2-4-0 built for Central Sucre by the Vulcan Iron Works.

In Whyte notation, a 2-4-0 is a railroad steam locomotive that has two leading wheels followed by two coupled driving wheels, with no trailing wheels.

The notation 2-4-0T indicates a tank locomotive of this wheel arrangement (its water is carried in tanks mounted on the locomotive, rather than in an attached tender).

[edit] Alternative notation

Other equivalent classifications are:

• UIC classification: 1'B (also known as German classification and Italian classification)
• French classification: 120
• Turkish classification: 23
• Swiss classification: 2/3

[edit] Railway locomotives of Great Britain

In the UK several classes of 2-4-0s were designed by James Holden for the Great Eastern Railway, including the T19, the "Humpty Dumpty" and the T26. The type was also used by engineers such as Joseph Armstrong on the Great Western Railway and Francis Webb on the London and North Western Railway – one of the latter's types, the Improved Precendent/Jumbo class Hardwicke famously won the "Race to the North" for the LNWR. Because of its popularity for a period with English railways, noted railway author C Hamilton Ellis considered the 2-4-0 designation to have the nickname (under the Whyte notation) of 'Old English'.

[edit] Rest of World

In addition, a locomotive of this type hauled the first Orient Express from Paris to Munich – a notable achievement for a small locomotive.

[edit] Non-rail Usage

The March Engineering racing car manufacturer also applied the designation to a six-wheeled Formula One racing car design from 1977, the March 2-4-0.

[edit] External links

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