The second type of Class 7 4-8-0 locomotives procured by the Cape Government Railways was built from 1896 for the central and eastern regions. They all came from British manufacturers and 45 were delivered by 1898, while a single one came from Dübs in 1901.

These locomotives were a development of the 1891 model and again were designed by Beatty. Compared to their predecessors, they had a larger boiler and a larger tender. Only the first driving axle had no wheel flanges. In the 1930s, many were rebuilt with a superheater and piston valves.

The Sudanese military received eight identical locomotives in 1897 and 1898 and used them in the Mahdist War. They were also called “Dongola class”. They had been given water pipes to the front so that an additional tender could be coupled there for use in the desert.

Of the GCR's locomotives, all but two, which had previously been sold, were taken over by the SAR in 1912. During the First World War, some were used in the conquest of German South West Africa. Due to their suitability in this region, more were later relocated there. After replacing them with more modern steam locomotives and diesel locomotives, the SAR retired the last class 7A locomotives in 1972.

Although the Baltimore and Ohio had procured a locomotive with a 4-8-0 wheel arrangement in 1855 with the “Centipede”, the Central Pacific “Mastodon” was one of the first successful locomotives with this wheel arrangement. Completed in 1882, it was the heaviest locomotive in the world at the time. Shortly after its roll-out, test runs were undertaken in the Sierra Nevada with the locomotive number 229, during which, as expected, it performed significantly better than the existing Americans and Ten-Wheelers. When the operation was taken over by the Southern Pacific, it was renumbered 2925.

The shape of the boiler had some special features, including a firebox with a lower ceiling in the area of the driver's cab, which was around 13 feet long. The cylinders each had four slide valves, two of which were operated by one set of valve gear each. This type of cylinders was also inherited by “El Gobernator”, the even larger locomotive with a 4-10-0 wheel arrangement.

Built by the Central Pacific workshops, number 229 was later sent to the Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works in New Jersey to set up series production. Depending on the source, 20 or 25 other machines were made, which had slightly larger cylinders. The first locomotive was later modernized and converted to oil firing, which probably also applies to the production locomotives. They were scrapped in June 1935.

In order to be able to accommodate a longer boiler on the Consolidation, the Norfolk & Western chose the 4-8-0 “Twelve-wheeler” wheel arrangement instead of the Mikado. The aim was to achieve a higher adhesive weight because the weight of the firebox was placed on the rear driving axles. Even the firebox was extended to the rear of the cab so that the engineer and fireman were separated from each other. They were nicknamed “Mollies” by the crews.

After 125 class M locomotives, 100 more class M1 locomotives were built. They only differed in the valve gear and the valves. Due to design errors, the M1 was subject to high levels of wear and tear, so it was phased out relatively early. The M was replaced on main lines by the 2-8-8-2 class Y and was used on secondary lines and in switching service until the late 1950s. Only ten had received a superheater. The number 475 is still in use on the Strasburg Railroad today and the 433 also survives.

The Bergensbane, or Bergen Railway, connects Oslo with Bergen and, despite a large number of tunnels, has challenging gradients, so that the express trains at the beginning of the century had to rely on pilot locomotives. For this reason, the NSB launched an invitation to tender for a powerful express train locomotive that should be able to cover this route without double-heading. The route has a constant gradient of 2 to 2.1 percent over a length of 70 km, which culminates at an altitude of 1301.7 meters at Lake Taugevatn and has curve radii of 180 meters. However, the tracks required a maximum axle load of twelve tonnes, while a locomotive with four cylinders was specified to further reduce the loads on the rails.

The winner of this tender was the locomotive later designated as the type 26, which was designed by the Schweizerische Lokomotivfabrik in Winterthur. The required power was achieved with four coupled axles and a leading bogie. Thanks to the boiler being placed very high, it was possible to accommodate a wide firebox without a trailing axle. The locomotives were able to haul trains weighing 200 tonnes at 35 km/h on the aforementioned incline.

The three locomotives delivered by SLM in 1910 were designated type 26a and were, however, somewhat lighter than expected. In order to be able to fully utilize the available axle load, two more units were ordered from Thune in Oslo, which were a bit heavier and were designated type 26b. The largest sub-series with 17 units was the type 26c, which was designed as a compound machine due to the high steam consumption of the four cylinders. It was supplied by several manufacturers between 1919 and 1924.

Schematic drawing

Locomotive Magazine, August 1917

As early as 1915, the type 26 locomotives were withdrawn from the Bergen Railway, as the latter had been converted for a higher axle load and the heavier type 31 locomotives were now being used there. Thanks to the small coupling wheels, they were suitable for all types of trains and were therefore used in different parts of Norway in different roles. Rebuilds took the form of an oil-fired engine in the 1950s and the fitting of an engine with a larger boiler in 1961. The locos survived until 1969, when the last year of steam service in Norway had struck. Two pieces were kept in reserve in 1970 in case diesel locomotives failed.

When the Bergen Railway was converted for higher axle loads, more powerful locomotives than the type 26 could be used there. This resulted in the type 31 with the same axle arrangement, but with a higher weight and boiler pressure. In 1915, two locomotives were initially built which, like the types 26a and 26b, had a four-cylinder engine with simple expansion.

Locomotive Magazine, August 1917

The high tractive power that could be achieved for a short period of time by this engine was used to push snow blowers on the Bergen Railway. In 1920, two more identical locomotives followed for the same purpose, which were also supplied by Thunes from Oslo and were designated together with the first two as type 31a.

Sectional drawing

Locomotive Magazine, August 1917

As with its predecessor, the majority of locomotives were built with compound engines in order to be able to maintain a similarly high tractive effort over a longer period of time. These locomotives, which were designated as Type 31b, were supplied by various manufacturers between 1923 and 1926 and took over the tasks of the type 26. They thus pulled different train types on the Bergen Railway until the Nohab diesel locomotives of the Di 3 type were introduced there in 1957 and 1958.

They were now distributed to other locations where there was no electrification or where diesel locomotives were not yet available. They spent their final years on branch lines that could withstand the weight of these locos. Only the four type 31a locomotives remained in service until the end of their lives in their traditional role as pusher locomotives for the snow blowers and were not put out of service until 1970.

From 1923, the BBÖ had 40 locomotives with a 4-8-0 wheel arrangement and a low axle load built to operate the heavier express trains on the Westbahn. Borrowings were taken from the two prototypes of the class 570, which had been built in 1915 for the Südbahn. Despite the lack of a trailing axle and the maximum speed of only 85 km/h, they had a large grate and a high tractive effort, which allowed them to be used with heavy trains, even in mountainous areas. The Polish PKP had Fablok build 60 very similar locomotives as Os24. The Austrian locomotives came to the Reichsbahn in 1938 as the class 33¹ and later kept the same numbers on the ÖBB. The last disappeared in 1968. Five locomotives had come to Yugoslavia after World War II, where they were designated as class 10.

For fast freight trains on the line through the Cevennes, the PLM opted for the 4-8-0 wheel arrangement, which still allowed a large boiler with a low axle load and good curve guidance. The only problem was the narrow firebox, which was offset by making it relatively long. They could tow 1,618 tonnes on the flat at 40 km/h and 501 tonnes on a one percent incline at the same speed. From 1919 more than 200 locomotives received a superheater and the four-cylinder compound engine was replaced with a simple one. They also pulled heavy passenger trains when needed and were in use until 1952.

As a development of the C16, C.F. Pemberton developed the class C17. While the letter C stood for four coupled axles, the 17 indicated the cylinder diameter in inches. Production took place on a large scale in QR's own workshops and at other manufacturers, and the Commonwealth Railways also ordered 22 identical locomotives as the NM class.

The locomotives initially had open cabs, large steam domes and a Robinson type superheater. The engines that were completed after 1938 had closed cabs, smaller domes, new tenders and larger slide valves. The last 40 examples used Timken roller bearings, which in connection with the brown color scheme led to the nickname “Brown Bombers”, after the boxer Joe Louis.

The C17 quickly gained a reputation as a versatile and powerful locomotive. It was used with all train types from passenger over suburban to freight trains. Thanks to the low axle load, they could also be used in front of mail trains where the axle load of the Pacific class B18¼ was too high. The production of a total of 227 locomotives ran over a long period from 1920 to 1953.

Just one year after the end of production, the older engines were taken out of service, and the last survived into the late 1960s. Remarkable is that from the 249 locomotives built, 25 are preserved. The Mary Valley Rattler owns six with No. 967 being operational today, while two others are being overhauled.