These locomotives were built from 1884 by the Swiss SLM for the Finnish State Railways. They were intended for mixed service and were called “Pikku-Rusko”, which means “Little Brown”. Since only low axle loads and a maximum speed of 40 km/h were permitted in Finland, the locomotives could be developed cheaply and with a simple chassis based on the American model.

The chassis with the 2-6-0 wheel arrangement could therefore be designed with a simple Bissel axle and a relatively large wheel base. They burned the wood available in abundance in Finland and had a boiler with an inner lining of asbestos and wood. The grate was provided with only a few air gaps so as not to suck in too much cold air.

With the increasing weights of long range passenger trains in the time before World War I, the VR introduced a new class of 4-6-0 locomotives in 1915. It was called H8 and had a larger superheater and larger cylinders than its predecessors. It got the nickname “Heikki”. In 1915 and 1916, Tampella built 30 locomotives, followed by twelve more built in 1920 and 1921 by Lokomo.

In the beginning, they were approved for 80 km/h, but this was increased to 95 km/h in 1934. In 1942, they got the designation Hv1 in the new scheme. The very similar class H9 built from 1919 got the designations Hv2 and Hv3. The last Hv1 was retired in 1967. Today, 554, 555 and 575 are still existing. Number 555, named “Prinsessa”, is the only one that is operational.

The K5, also called “Pikku-Jumbo” (“Small Jumbo”), was the largest class of steam locomotives ever in use with the Finnish State Railways. It is also known by its new class designation Tk3 introduced in 1942. It was a 2-8-0 “Consolidation” designed for freight and passenger working on light tracks and therefore it had an axle load of only 10.7 tonnes. As usual in Finland, it was designed for coal and wood firing and had a balloon stack. Production of these 161 locomotives went on over a long time.

The first 100 were built by Tampella and Lokomo between 1927 and 1930. Two more, which came to the VR on nationalization in 1950, had been built for the Rauma Railway in 1927 and 1935. After 24 had been given to the Soviet Union in 1940 after the Winter War, production was restarted in 1943. Due to the war conditions, only 35 had been completed by 1948. So 20 more were produced by Frichs in Denmark in 1949. The last four again came from Lokomo in Finland in 1953. Withdrawals started in the sixties and were only completed with the end of steam in Finland in 1975.

In 1913, the Finnish State Railways introduced the L1 shunter. It was a 0-6-0T tank locomotive that was originally operated with saturated steam and fired either with wood or coal. The wood-fired locomotives could be recognized by their balloon-shaped chimney. Due to their bad running characteristics at speeds of more than 20 km/h, they earned the nickname “Kana” (Hen). Today they are better known as Vr1, the designation they got with the new scheme that was introduced in 1942.

By 1927, 33 had been built by Tampella in Finland and 10 more by Hanomag in Germany. In 1918 six came to Russia, of which four returned ten years later. Starting in 1925, they were superheated. This ensured that their power still met the requirements for shunting service for several decades to come. The last ones were retired from regular service in 1975 and today, 17 of the 43 class members are still existing.