A multi-speed transmission having a main section (12) for providing a plurality of gear ratios and a range section (14) for selectively multiplying a gear ratio provided by the main section (12) in which the reverse idler gear is not located on a separate idler shaft. The reverse idler gear (35) is mounted on the range countershaft (24). This is made possible by overlapping or rotating the plane containing the main countershaft (24) and main shaft (42) with respect to the plane containing the range countershaft (106) and the main shaft (42). The reverse idler gears (35,41) are positioned to be driven by a set of gears on the main countershafts (24,26) and they drive a gear on the main shaft (42). The same relationship exists for a multiple countershaft transmission with a reverse idler gear on each range countershaft.
