The ten locomotives of the class C8 saw the light of day in 1898 as ordinary 4-4-0 locomotives. They were designed by Dugald Drummond and were initially considered not very successful because they did not achieve sufficient steaming capacity at high speeds due to a firebox that was too small. They could only show better performances after they had received a new boiler.

The new boilers used a patent of W.S. Smith of the Midland Railway. They had an elongated firebox crossed by a total of 61 tubes that were exposed to the direct heat of the fire. This more than doubled the direct heating surface, which significantly increased the output of the boiler.

Despite the increased power, the water-tube firebox was not considered a success because the extra tubes made maintenance complicated. The fact that these tubes were exposed to very high temperatures meant greater effort. On later locomotives, precautions such as brick arches or thermic syphons were used instead to increase the heating surface of the firebox. However, the ten locomotives remained in service and were only retired between 1933 and 1938 without having been converted to superheated steam.