The earliest recorded 0-4-2 locomotives were three goods engines built by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Stanhope and Tyne Railway in 1834.

In the same year Todd, Kitson & Laird built two examples for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, one of which, LMR 57 Lion, has been preserved.

[2] Over the next quarter of a century, the type was adopted by many early British railways for freight haulage since it afforded greater adhesion than the contemporary 2-2-2 passenger configuration, although in time they were also used for mixed-traffic duties.

The Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn) acquired the locomotives Minotaurus and Ajax from the British manufacturer Jones, Turner and Evans in 1841, to work the line between Vienna and Stockerau.

The 0-4-2ST Olomana, built by Baldwin in 1883, arrived in the Kingdom of Hawaii in August 1883 after a two-month journey around Cape Horn.

[4][5] In 1905, the Nederlandsch Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (NIS) opened a line between Yogyakarta and Ambarawa via Magelang to facilitate the mobilization of Royal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) forces from Fort Willem I, line between Secang–Kedungjati passed a hilly region which requiring rack railway because of the 6.5% gradients.

The 0-4-2T arrangement was also employed for steam locomotives operated by small private industrial railways and bush and mineral tramways.

Two others worked alongside her and are preserved, whilst the fourth was owned by a forestry railway, who converted it to a diesel locomotive.

[7] Two 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge tank engine classes of this wheel arrangement were supplied to the Nederlandsche-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NZASM) by Maschinenfabriek Esslingen and Breda, Nederland between 1890 and 1894.

[9] Between 1897 and 1901, several 0-4-2 saddle tank steam locomotives, built for 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) narrow gauge by Dickson Manufacturing Company of Scranton in Pennsylvania, were delivered to various gold mines on the Witwatersrand by Arthur Koppel, acting as importing agents.

[9][11][12] The Namaqua Copper Company's first 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge locomotive, acquired in 1901, was a Dick, Kerr & Co. built 0-4-2ST named Pioneer which was rebuilt from the 0-4-0ST configuration, possibly due to the additional weight of fuel tanks which were installed under the cab when it was converted to use fuel oil.

That locomotive still survives and is on display next to the Skunk Train depot on Laurel Street in Fort Bragg.