After Dugald Drummond became chief engineer of the Caledonian, he introduced a new class of 0-6-0 goods locomotives. As a basis he used the class D, which he had built a few years earlier during his appointment at North British. Compared to this, the new locomotives were slightly heavier with a larger boiler and larger cylinders. They were nicknamed “Jumbos” or simply “Standard Goods”.

After Drummond left the Caledonian, his successors Smellie, Lambie and McIntosh continued to build these locomotives. While the 161 locomotives built from 1883 were known as class 294, the 83 locomotives built from 1890 by Hugh Smellie and his successors are known as class 711. The latter received a Westinghouse brake so that they could also be used in front of passenger trains. All 244 came to the LMS and the first was not decommissioned until 1946. A total of 238 were taken over by British Railways and decommissioned by 1962.