In the

Whyte notation Whyte notation is a classification method for steam locomotives, and some internal combustion locomotives and electric locomotives, by wheel arrangement. It was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte, and came into use in the early twentieth cen ...

for the classification of

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

s by

wheel arrangement In rail transport, a wheel arrangement or wheel configuration is a system of classifying the way in which wheels are distributed under a locomotive. Several notations exist to describe the wheel assemblies of a locomotive by type, position, and c ...

, a 2-8-8-0 is a locomotive with a two-wheel

leading truck The leading wheel or leading axle or pilot wheel of a steam locomotive is an unpowered wheel or axle located in front of the driving wheels. The axle or axles of the leading wheels are normally located on a leading truck. Leading wheels are used ...

, two sets of eight

driving wheel On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotive's pistons (or turbine, in the case of a steam turbine locomotive). On a conventional, non-articulated locomotive, the driving wheels are all coupled ...

s, and no trailing truck. These were nicknamed "Bull Mooses".

Equivalent classifications

Other equivalent classifications are: *

UIC classification The UIC classification of locomotive axle arrangements, sometimes known as the German classification''The Railway Data File''. Leicester: Silverdale, 2000. p. 52. . or German system,Kalla-Bishop P.M. & Greggio, Luciano, ''Steam Locomotives'', Cre ...

: 1DD (also known as German classification and

Italian classification The UIC classification of locomotive axle arrangements, sometimes known as the German classification''The Railway Data File''. Leicester: Silverdale, 2000. p. 52. . or German system,Kalla-Bishop P.M. & Greggio, Luciano, ''Steam Locomotives'', Cre ...

) *

French classification Under the French classification system for locomotive wheel arrangements, the system is slightly different for steam and electric/diesel vehicles. Steam The French system counts axles, rather than wheels. As with Whyte notation, a conventional r ...

: 140+040 *

Turkish classification In the Turkish classification system for railway locomotives, the number of powered axles are followed by the total number of axles. It is identical to the Swiss system except that the latter places a slash between the two numbers. Thus 0-6-0 beco ...

: 45+44 *

Swiss classification For more than a century, the Swiss locomotive, multiple unit, motor coach and railcar classification system, in either its original or updated forms, has been used to name and classify the rolling stock operated on the railways of Switzerland. ...

: 4/5+4/4 The

is refined to (1'D)D for Mallet locomotives.

Examples

The Great Northern Railway used the 2-8-8-0s as their N-1's which were built by Baldwin in 1912. They were rebuilt by GN in 1932 as a N-2, and later re-rebuilt in 1940 as an N-3, The locomotives, after their third rebuild into a N-3, had a larger boiler and bigger tender. The N-3's served on the GN for a collective 45 years (including previous service lives as N-1 and N-2 classes), in use until retired in 1957. The

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

also operated this type; it was called the "Bull Moose" by Union Pacific crews. The Union Pacific Bull Moose 2-8-8-0s were built in 1918 and 1924 by ALCO-Brooks. The Bull Moose Locomotives were used to haul heavy loads over Sherman Hill on the UP, the locomotives were most likely retired in the late 1940s to early 1950s because of slow speeds on freight, hauling at 12 miles an hour. The 9000 class of the Union Pacific can pull the same weight at 50 miles an hour. None of the Union Pacific Bull Moose Locomotives survived into preservation. An example of one is Union Pacific #3559, was built July 1924 by ALCO-Brooks and retired in October 1953. It was possibly scrapped in 1954. Out east, the Reading Railroad had 2-8-8-0s for coal switching on Steep Hills, also known as the Reading N-1, and the

Baltimore and Ohio The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

operated this type, with the B&O owning dozens of examples, most notably the EL-3 class. They were retired by the early 1950s. In the Midwest, the Kansas City Southern was a principal user of this configuration. The

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and ...

was the first to use the configuration. In 1911, their own workshop took a pair of standard 2-8-0 and combined them into a 2-8-8-0 " Consolidation Mallet" articulated locomotive. Four examples were built, but were never entirely satisfactory and were converted back to 2-8-0 in 1923. The first 2-8-8-0 operated by Baltimore and Ohio was numbered EL-1/a, which was built in 1916 at

Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades ...

. The western end of their network had

ruling gradient The term ruling grade is usually used as a synonym for "steepest climb" between two points on a railroad. More simply, the steepest grade to be climbed dictates how powerful the motive power (or how light the train) must be in order for the run to ...

s greater than 2%, and the 2-8-8-0 offered exceptional

tractive effort As used in mechanical engineering, the term tractive force can either refer to the total traction a vehicle exerts on a surface, or the amount of the total traction that is parallel to the direction of motion. In railway engineering, the term t ...

, enabling a single locomotive to move the heaviest freight trains. As well as building these locomotives from scratch, the last in 1920, ten were converted from

0-8-8-0 In the Whyte notation for classifying the wheel arrangement of steam locomotives, an 0-8-8-0 is a locomotive with two sets of eight driving wheels and neither leading wheels nor trailing wheels. Two sets of driving wheels would give far too lon ...

configuration in 1920 and a further ten from 2-8-8-2 in 1922. These locomotives remained in operation until after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the last being withdrawn in 1955. None have been preserved. One tender from the 2-8-8-0 #759 of the Kansas City Southern Railroad has been preserved, while the locomotive was scrapped. It is now preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum.

References

{{Whyte types 88,2-8-8-0