World's largest locomotive

As railroads around the world haul larger quantities of freight efficiently, the title of world's most powerful locomotive has often been passed to new generations of rolling stock.

Standard

There are many ways in which a locomotive can be the largest: the heaviest, longest, most cylinders, most power, or most wheels. It is often defined as the longest in length, but even then sources differ on whether the measurement should include the tender of a steam locomotive. A steam locomotive that has a tender cannot function without it, but (with triplex locomotive, rare exceptions) the tender does not contribute to traction. To establish the "largest" category, several factors take precedence: overall weight, which gives traction over driving axles; size (length and height of engine itself); and power, which may be in terms of raw horsepower, tractive effort, available power at axles (shaft horsepower) or, in the case of steam locomotives, available steam on a sustained basis.

List

See also

*List of largest passenger vehicles

References

External links

Steamlocomotive.com article regarding the largest steam locomotives
archive at the Internet Archive#Wayback Machine, Internet Archive Wayback Machine

{{DEFAULTSORT:World's Largest Locomotive
Locomotives, *largest locomotives
Transport-related lists of superlatives, Locomotives, Largest
Railway locomotive-related lists, locomotives
Largest things by volume