Baldwin supplied two 2-6-2T two and a half foot gauge tank locomotives to the Victorian Railways in 1898. The VR workshops in assembled two more from the spare parts supplied. Further production locomotives brought the number to 17. Two locomotives had received a four-cylinder compound engine of the Vauclain type, the rest had a two-cylinder simple engine. The first locomotive was scrapped in 1929 due to wear, most were retired between 1945 and 1960. Today there are six machines on the Puffing Billy Railway, five of which are operational.

With the class A², the Victorian Railways introduced the first class of steam locomotives from 1907, which they had developed themselves and which were also built in their own workshops. The first series of 125 locomotives had Stephenson valve gear and were powered by saturated steam. Between 1915 and 1922, 60 more followed with Walschaerts valve gear and a larger cylinder diameter. Soon they were built with superheaters and the earlier ones were rebuilt.

They were designed for the main line of the VR, which had many steep gradients and tight curves. Although they were express locomotives, they had the highest starting tractive effort of all VR steam locomotives until 1918. Nevertheless, they were approved for speeds of up to 70 mph or 113 km/h and could also go faster if necessary. This made it possible to shorten travel times to times that have only been bettered in modern times.

The machines were also used in front of freight trains. This primarily happened when the axle boxes were worn in the time before the next maintenance. In the 1930s, with the collaboration of Richard Paul Wagner of the Reichsbahn, a new exhaust system was developed that increased drawbar horsepower by more than 40 percent and was retrofitted not only in this class, but also in many other classes.

Due to the great depression and the Second World War, the construction of newer express locomotives was delayed, so that the A² was the VR's primary express locomotive for over 40 years. After the introduction of the R class, they were increasingly used on branch lines that had since been upgraded to accommodate higher axle loads. In the 1950s there was an increasing number of withdrawals, and the last one disappeared in 1963.

The class D^D express locomotive marked the change from the 4-4-0 to the 4-6-0 wheel arrangement for the Victorian Railways. It was the railway's first locomotive, which they developed themselves in 1902 and which was no longer based on British designs. As early as 1907 it was superseded by the more powerful class A² and was no longer used in express service.

Thanks to its low axle load, it could now be used in mixed service on branch lines. As early as 1907, 58 were rebuilt into 4-6-2T tank locomotives for suburban service in Melbourne and designated class D^D_E. They were later given the designation D⁴, but were scrapped in 1924 and 1925 due to electrification.

Production of the normal tender variant ran until 1916, with individual production lots being put out to tender again and again. In order to test the production of their indigenous design abroad, 20 were built at Beyer, Peacock & Co. and at Baldwin. The last locomotives were already delivered with superheaters, and many existing ones were retrofitted. Just as the tank variant was soon called D⁴, the saturated locomotives were soon called D¹ and the superheated ones D².

D4 No. 279

Locomotive Magazine, September 1939

A total of 261 were built. Between 1929 and 1947, 93 locomotives were rebuilt with the more powerful and superheated class K boiler, which now became the D³. About half were scrapped by about 1950, and most of the rest by the 1960s. Only one, used as an inspection locomotive, remained in service until 1974. Today only the 639 is still operational and around 15 others are existing or preserved non-operational.

The class R was only created after the Second World War as an express locomotive to replace the class A² ten-wheelers. By installing a stoker, they wanted to ensure that it would perform well with coal of varying grades. The 70 locos arrived at the same time as some diesel and electric locos, giving them a very short career in service pulling express trains. They were then put into a wide variety of services, in which they performed well despite often poor maintenance. Today there are still six locomotives, four of which are still operational and partly had multiple operators. The R 766 was even converted to standard gauge.