trailing truck

trailing truck (plural trailing trucks)

1. On a steam locomotive, a railroad truck to which wheel axles (and, hence, wheels) for one or more coupled pairs of unpowered wheels are attached through bearings, located behind the driving wheels.
   • 1959, Steam's Finest Hour, edited by David P. Morgan, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 19:

     After trying but not mass-producing a heavy Pacific and tabulating indifferent tests of a three-cylinder 4-8-2, Central was in a mood to explore the possibilities of four-wheel trailing trucks.

• leading truck
• trailing axle
• trailing wheel