During his time as chief designer at the Barry Railway, John Auld's only design was a tank locomotive intended for heavy coal transport. It was supposed to tow up to 60 coal wagons, each with a payload of twelve tons, from Trehafod to the coast. For this, the locomotive was provided with three coupled axles with the maximum possible axle load and was given a trailing bogie to be able to carry sufficiently large supplies. A Belpaire firebox was used and the smoke box was dimensioned with a view to the future, large enough to later accommodate a superheater. 

In the track systems of mines and ports, a design error quickly became apparent when navigating the narrow manual switches without a locking mechanism. If the locomotive drove into the branching points with the smoke box first, the wheel flanges of the third coupled axle could slip into the point's tongue and move it, causing the bogie to move in the direction pointing straight ahead. Not only could this lead to derailments, but it could also destroy the equalizing pipe between the water tanks, causing water loss and necessitating an emergency dropping of the fire. It also happened that one of the locomotives overturned. As a remedy, the fireman had to get out in such cases and hold the switch lever with all his strength.

Thus, the ten examples of the class in the originally intended role were quickly replaced by the older class B1 and now mainly used for mineral trains. They often hauled trains from Rhymney to New Tredegar on the Brecon and Merthyr Railway and was also found on Great Western lines. Occasionally they were even used as passenger locos on suburban trains to Cardiff. The possibility of installing a superheater in the existing boiler was never taken up, but three locomotives were given a new standard boiler with superheater by the GWR in 1923. Nevertheless, all ten examples were scrapped in 1926.

The Midland Railway's class 2000 was a heavy suburban tank locomotive designed in the tradition of the popular 0-4-4T wheel arrangement, but with an additional driving axle. The water tanks extended to the smokebox and, in conjunction with the shape of the side windows in the cab, led to the nickname “flatiron”. Another feature was the cutouts in the water tanks, which guaranteed accessibility to the inside motion.

The boiler was replaced between 1920 and 1926 with a new one with superheater and Belpaire firebox. In order to guarantee sufficient curve negotiation, the first driving axle was designed with lateral play. This was probably the cause for the oscillations at higher speeds, which led to several derailments. They were soon only used in freight service and were withdrawn between 1935 and 1938.

In 1884, the São Paulo Railway received three tank locomotives from Nasmyth, Wilson & Co., which had a 0-6-4T wheel arrangement. Since the number 1 had already been scrapped, they were given the numbers 1, 23 and 24. It was unusual that these locomotives, in the style of the later “Cab Forward” locomotives, always ran with the coal bunker first to keep the smoke gases away from the crew. The drawing shows that the cowcatcher and the headlight were also mounted on this side.

The Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway operated a 43-mile line in northern Ireland from 1877, which consisted only of the main line and had no branch lines. However, since this route, which was built in the Irish broad gauge of 5 ft 3 in, was only laid out with light rails, the running characteristics of the two 0-6-2T locomotives “Pioneer” and “Sligo” left a lot to be desired. The solution was to replace the trailng axle with a bogie. 

Model of the “Fermanagh”

Bradley Wurth

The company Beyer, Peacock & Co. had delivered locomotives of this type to the South Australian Railways as class K from 1879, which were also designed for lightly built routes. So they ordered two locomotives with the names “Fermanagh” and “Leitrim”, which were basically an enlarged class K. Since these proved themselves, three more examples followed by 1899, named “Lurganboy”, “Lissadell” and “Hazelwood”. The first of these locomotives, now known as the Leitrim class, were not retired until 1947 and one remained in service until 1957, when the SL&NCR ceased operations.

After the five Leitrim class locomotives from the 19th century, SL&NCR had procured three more Sir Henry class locomotives in 1904, 1905 and 1917, which also had the 0-6-4T wheel arrangement and were manufactured by Beyer, Peacock & Co. After the Second World War, the existing fleet of vehicles was no longer sufficient and in poor condition, so that the procurement of a powerful Garratt locomotive was initially considered.

The line was now situated between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which made operation not exactly easy. In addition, it was in a sparsely populated and not very prosperous area, which significantly worsened the financial situation and made it impossible to buy an expensive locomotive. Finally, two smaller locomotives were ordered, which again had the 0-6-4T wheel arrangement and were completed in 1949. So they were the last steam locomotives built for an Irish broad gauge railway. They were named after the lakes Lough Melvin and Lough Erne, which explains the name of the class.

Since the SL&NCR could not pay for the locomotives, lengthy negotiations with the government of Northern Ireland followed. It was finally agreed on a lease purchase and the locomotives were used until the line was closed in 1957. They were then sold to the Ulster Transport Authority and used by them in shunting service as class Z until 1967 and 1972, respectively. Preserved by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, Lough Erne is now at Whitehead on the Northern Irish coast.