neutral positions whilst the clutch 8 on the shaft 1 is in its first engagement position and locks the gearwheels 4 5 together at the same time that these are disengaged from the shaft 1 the torque is now transmitted from the gearwheel 19 on the shaft 15 via the disengaged gearwheel pair 35 36 on the shaft 30 and the disengaged gearwheel pair 4 5 on the shaft 1 to the fixed gearwheel 31 on the shaft 30 in the transmission according to the invention clutches 7 8 20 and 21 are therefore used which in addition to the usual functions for transmission clutches of locking and disengaging gearwheels on an associated shaft here also have the further function of being able to lock adjacent gearwheels to the shaft together without locking the gearwheels on the shaft coupled gearwheels of different diameters can thereby be used to transmit torque with a gear ratio step from a driving shaft via an output shaft to a third shaft and thence back to the output shaft this gives great freedom in selecting the gear ratio of the various gears compared to torque transmission between the shafts via a single common gearwheel this makes it possible using few constituent gearwheels and clutches to produce a transmission having a large number of gear ratios with a large span.