>>1133118The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte, and came into use in the early twentieth century following a December 1900 editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal. The notation counts the number of leading wheels, then the number of driving wheels, and finally the number of trailing wheels, groups of numbers being separated by dashes. I've attached a series of diagrams to give a visual example. Although there are other notation schemes, the Whyte system is by far the most dominant and commonly used form.
Here's an example: In the notation a locomotive with two leading axles (four wheels) in front, then three driving axles (six wheels) and then one trailing axle (two wheels) is classified as 4-6-2.
>>1133110Based on this system, as there are 4 leading wheels, 8 driving wheels, and then no trailing wheels it comes out as 4-8-0.
