Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 48, 2006

A Garratt is a type of steam locomotive that is articulated in three parts. Its boiler is mounted on the centre frame, and two steam engines are mounted on separate frames, one on each end of the boiler. Because a Garratt locomotive has the wheel arrangement of two locomotives back to back, it is typically named "Double x," where x is a named arrangement. For instance, the 4-6-2 arrangement is often called the Pacific, so a 4-6-2+2-6-4 Garratt would be a Double Pacific. Articulation is used in locomotive design so larger locomotives can go round curves which would otherwise restrict the size of rigid framed locomotives. Many articulated designs aim to double the power of the largest conventional locomotives operating on their railways, thus eliminating the need for two locomotives and therefore two crews. The Garratt's main competition was the Mallet, however no railway that possessed Mallets and purchased Garratts ever purchased another Mallet.

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