4-8-6
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 4-8-6 locomotive would have had four leading wheels, eight coupled driving wheels and six trailing wheels.
Other equivalent classifications are:
- UIC classification: 2D3
- French classification: 243
- Turkish classification: 49
- Swiss classification: 4/9
It is possible that CB&Q 4-8-4 5601 was experimentally equipped with a six-wheel trailing truck to allow use on branch lines with lighter rail, but the experiment was unsuccessful. Photographic evidence is said to have existed in the 1950s, but no photos are known to exist at present.
Despite there being no documented full size examples built, there have been some 4-8-6s built for model railroads.