There are three degrees to which balancing may be pursued. The most basic is static balancing of the off-centre features on a driving wheel, i.e. the crankpin and its attached parts. In addition, balancing a proportion of the reciprocating parts can be done with additional revolving weight. This weight is combined with that required for the off-centre parts on the wheel and this extra weight causes the wheel to be overbalanced resulting in hammer blow. Lastly, because the above balance weights are in the plane of the wheel and not in the plane of the originating unbalance, the wheel/axle assembly is not dynamically balanced. Dynamic balancing on steam locomotives is known as cross-balancing and is two-plane balancing with the second plane being in the opposite wheel.
