Word.ws English Dictionary

2-4-2

2-4-2 noun: under the Whyte notation system, a steam locomotive that has two leading wheels arranged in a leading truck, four coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels in a trailing truck.

2-4-2: under the Whyte notation system, a steam locomotive that has two leading wheels arranged in a...
Image: (book) George Little Fowler; (image) Baldwin Locomotive, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

2-4-2 (plural 2-4-2s)

  1. Under the Whyte notation system, a steam locomotive that has two leading wheels arranged in a leading truck, four coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels in a trailing truck.
    • In 1889 a severe passenger train wreck occurred near Dijon, when a 2-4-2 engine derailed while going full speed downhill.2005, Jim Harter, World Railways of the Nineteenth Century: A Pictorial History in Victorian Engravings, page 76
    • Lionel's first tinplate reproduction of a standard Gauge locomotive was a black 2-4-2 steam engine with three red passenger cars.2003, Robert H. Schleicher, Modern Lionel Trains, page 48

Forms of 2-4-2

plural2-4-2s

Questions about 2-4-2

What does 2-4-2 mean?
2-4-2 means under the Whyte notation system, a steam locomotive that has two leading wheels arranged in a leading truck, four coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels in a trailing truck.
What part of speech is 2-4-2?
2-4-2 is a noun.
What is the plural of 2-4-2?
The plural of 2-4-2 is 2-4-2s.

Words near 2-4-2 in the dictionary

  1. 2-3 tree
  2. 2-3-4 tree
  3. 2-4 tree
  4. 2-4-0
  5. 2-4-0s
  6. 2-4-2
  7. 2-4-2s
  8. 2-4-4
  9. 2-4-4-2
  10. 2-4-4-2s
  11. 2-4-4s

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 2-4-2 (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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