and two trailing wheels. Some locomotives such as the 4-4-0 American type had no trailing wheels and were designated with a zero in the final place.

In the Whyte notation the number designates the number of wheels rather than the number of axles, thus the final 2 in the Mikado's 2-8-2 refers to two wheels (one axle) while the Northern type's 4-8-4 designation refers to four wheels (two axles).

The highest number of trailing wheels on a single locomotive is six, as

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