Abbreviations and Glossary of Terms

W.A.G.R.

See Western Australia Government Railways.

Wegmann

"Waggonfabrik Wegmann" of Kassel germany built a number of carriages during the 1950s for the Trans-Australian Service.

Western Australia Government Railways (W.A.G.R.)

The Western Australia Government Railways were owned by the state of Western Australia. They operated services on both narrow and standard gauge.

Westwaggon Bogies

Many Commonwealth Railways cars are were fitted with 'Westwaggon' bogies. These had been purchased from the "Wegmann" Company in 1951 at a cost of £174,062 for 64 bogies. The purpose of these bogies was to improve the riding quality of existing wooden cars and bring them up to the standard of the new all-steel rollingstock purchased from the "Wegmann" Company the same year. Despite buying 64 bogies, a shortage developed as some were used under additional steel passenger cars purchased in the late 1950s. As speeds increased the bogies were unable to cope with the poor track condition. This lead to new bogies being purchased and the Westwaggon bogies becoming surplus. Having been made to be readily gauge convertible (Standard to Narrow), and because of their good riding quality at low speeds, were possible all wooden cars used on the narrow gauge Ghan were fitted with these bogies. By the time most wooden cars were being withdrawn in 1980 many of the cars had been fitted.

WMS

Australian Nationals Wagon Monitoring System (WMS), it was closely linked to a system for train movements know as the "Traffic Information Management System (TIMS)".

Whyte notation for locomotive axle arrangements

Whyte notation is a way of classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement. The Whyte system counts the number of leading wheels, then the number of driving wheels, and finally the number of trailing wheels, groups of numbers being separated by dashes. Thus, a locomotive with two leading axles (and thus four wheels) in front, then three driving axles (six wheels) and followed by one trailing axle (two wheels) is classified as a 4-6-2. Articulated locomotives such as Garratts, have a "+" between the arrangements of each engine (e.g. 4-6-2+2-6-4). Simpler articulated types where there are no unpowered axles between powered axles, have extra groups of numbers in the middle. Thus a Big Boy is a 4-8-8-4; there are two leading axles, one group of four driving axles, another group of four driving axles, and then two trailing axles.

Various suffixes are sometimes used, but they are not universal. Some of the more common ones are:

T	indicates a tank locomotive. In British practice, this is sometimes extended to indicate the type of tank locomotive: T means side tank, PT pannier tank, ST saddle tank, WT well tank. T+T means a tank locomotive that has a tender for additional coal or water capacity.
R	In Europe suffix R means rack (0-6-0RT) or it could mean reversible (0-6-0TR).
F	indicates a fireless locomotive (0-4-0F). Note that this locomotive has no tender.
ca	compressed air (i.e., running on compressed air from a tank instead of steam).
ng	narrow-gauge locomotives (i.e., less than 56.5 in / 1435 mm)

In Britain, a small diesel or petrol locomotive is classified in the same way as steam locomotives, e.g. 0-4-0, 0-6-0, followed by D for diesel, P petrol, and another letter describing the transmission: E for electric, H hydraulic, M mechanical. Thus 0-6-0DE denotes a six-wheel diesel locomotive with electric transmission.

Where the axles are coupled by chains or shafts (rather than side-rods), or are individually driven, the terms 4w, 6w or 8w are generally used. Thus 4wPE indicates a four-wheel petrol locomotive with electric transmission. For large diesel locomotives the standard UIC classification is used.