The wheel arrangement 4-8-0 stands for a locomotive with a leading, two-axle bogie and four driven axles. The following designations exist in the different naming systems:
Twelve-wheeler/Mastodon
UIC: 2'D
Whyte: 4-8-0
Switzerland: 4/6
France: 240
Turkey: 46
The 4-8-0 can be viewed as a 2-8-0 “Consolidation” where the leading axle has been exchanged for a two-axle bogie or truck. Another comparison would be to compare it to a 4-6-0 “Ten-wheeler” that received an additional driving axle. In both cases, this allowed to mount a bigger boiler, increasing overall power. Thanks to the two-axle leading truck, running characteristics were better at speed. However, the majority of American 4-8-0 locomotives was built as freight locomotives in a time when four driving axles were still sufficient.
The first known locomotive of this wheel arrangement was the “Centipede” built in 1855 by Ross Winans for the Baltimore & Ohio. Designed as a cab forward and later rebuilt into a camel, it remained the only 4-8-0 locomotive for the time being. The first successful 4-8-0 designs emerged in the early 1880s, where the “Mastodon” of the Central Pacific gave this wheel arrangement its popular name in the USA. Additionally, it was called “Twelve-wheeler” in the same manner as the 4-4-0 was called “Eight-wheeler” and the 4-6-0 still carries “Ten-wheeler” as its commonly used name.
In the USA, the 4-8-0 gained medium popularity in the following decades, usually in freight service. Some designs used the second axle in the truck only for better guidance and kept the load on the complete truck below ten percent of the locomotive's weight. This resulted in a better ratio for the adhesive weight, similar to a 2-8-0 and better than the later 2-8-2. For multiple times, a new class of 4-8-0 locomotives was the heaviest freight locomotive in the world. The most successful series were the Norfolk & Western classes M, M1 and M2 with 286 locomotives built. Outside of the USA, the Mexican State Railways were a customer of American 4-8-0 locomotives, although their number was small. But these classes PR-7 and PR-8 had large drivers and were the heaviest locomotives of this wheel arrangement.
The country with the largest number of 4-8-0 locomotives was probably Spain with a total of nearly 800. In France, the PLM started to build 282 locomotives of this wheel arrangement in 1907. Later Chapelon rebuilt a total of 37 Pacifics of the PO into 4-8-0 locomotives, while considerably increasing their power beyond 4,000 hp. In Hungary, MÁVAG built more than 500 of the class 424 for the MÁV and other countries. In Austria, the Südbahn and the BBÖ built 4-8-0 express locomotives as classes 570 and 113. Together with the Polish Os24 that was based on these locomotives, the total number was 102. The Soviet Union built 100 of the class M, although this was not really successful.
The South Australian Railways ordered a total of 78 of the class T. Queensland Railways had more than 400 locomotives of the classes C16 to C19 which had an axle load of only around ten tons. Also the classes B, BA and BB in New Zealand were in the same weight class. More light 4-8-0 locomotives were used in South Africa and other countries on the continent.
With the increasing speed of trains around the turn of the century it had become evident that most 4-8-0 locomotives had a narrow firebox that limited their power at speed. To mount a wide firebox, the boiler had to be raised to allow for enough space above the driving wheels. So several types of locomotives with a trailing axle took over. These were most notably the 2-8-2 “Mikado” and the 4-8-2 “Mountain”. While the 2-8-2 had the same number of axles and took over trains in the medium speed range, the 4-8-2 still had sufficient guidance at high speeds, but added a trailing axle for a wide firebox and a bigger boiler overall. Furthermore, rising axle loads allowed to build a 4-6-2 “Pacific” with the same adhesive weight, but more power.