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What is an A1A-A1A wheel arrangement?
In the UK, an A1A-A1A wheel arrangement was used on some early designs of diesel railway locomotives, most notably the Class 31.
A locomotive with this type of wheel arrangement has two bogies (one at either end of the loco) and each bogie has three axles. The outer axles of each bogie are powered by traction motors, leaving the middle axle unpowered. This setup is what is known as an A1A-A1A wheel arrangement.
One reason for the unpowered axle is to spread the weight of the locomotive across more wheels to give it greater route availability. Another reason is to make the locomotive more stable at higher speeds.
The extra stability provided by an additional axle is achieved thanks to the cone-shaped wheel treads on railway rolling stock. Such wheels naturally find the middle of the rail, so the more wheels there are, the greater the force keeping the locomotive where it should be on the tracks.
Posted in: Rolling stock
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