The 2-10-2 wheel arrangement evolved in the United States from the 2-10-0 Decapod of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF).

Like all ten-coupled designs, the long rigid wheelbase of the coupled wheels presented a problem on curves, requiring flangeless drivers, lateral motion devices and much sideplay on the outer axles.

The massive cylinders that were required on locomotives in the United States for high tractive effort had the result that no reasonably sized valves could admit and exhaust steam at a sufficient rate to permit fast running.

In addition the 2-10-2, like the 2-6-2, had its main rod connected to the middle coupled axle, very near to the centre of gravity, which created a violent nosing (waddling) action when operating at speed.

[2] Locomotives with a 2-10-2 wheel arrangement were used in a number of countries around the world, including those in North America, Western Europe, China, the Soviet Union and Africa.

A large number of European 2-10-2s were tank locomotives, taking advantage of the symmetrical nature of the wheel arrangement.

The metre gauge General Manuel Belgrano Railway in Argentina operated the E2 series of 2-10-2 locomotives.

Ten more were delivered from the Montreal Locomotive Works in 1918, and another 25 slightly modified T-1-cs in 1920 that were 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) lighter.

After retirement, some of these QJ class locomotives found their way to the United States, where they are used in revenue freight and excursion service.

The length of the locomotive with the tender was 24.93 m, the maximum height 4.51 m and service weight 136 t. The boiler operated at 18 bars (1.8 MPa; 260 psi), and their rated power was 2,950 horsepower (2.20 MW).

These locomotives were based at Aghios Ioannis Rentis and Thessaloniki depots and were used mainly for freight trains and for some express passenger trains on Piraeus–Thessaloniki and Thessaloniki–Idomeni mainlines until the early 1970s, when they were withdrawn by the Hellenic Railways Organisation (successor of SEK) due to complete conversion to diesel traction.

The Bombay Port Trust had a pair of 2-10-2 tank locomotives, numbered 25H and 26H, for hump shunting, weighing in at 105.5 tons.

[13] This class also had one of the largest cylinders of any unarticulated Cape-gauge locomotive according to Alco, but it comparatively had small boilers and grills.

[14] Their arrival also called for larger 80-foot (24 m) turntables in both ends of the line, making them some of the largest and most powerful locomotives that entered Philippine service.

They were used mainly to work passenger trains between Kraków and Zakopane, a difficult railway line, steep in places, with many sharp curves, and requiring three direction changes.

On 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge, this wheel arrangement was first used by the South African Railways (SAR) in 1927.

[11][19][20][21][22] One more 2-10-2 locomotive, the Class 20, was designed for branch line work on light rail by A.G. Watson, Chief Mechanical Engineer from 1929 to 1936.

Two series were relatively common, the FD (for Felix Dzerzhinsky) with more than three thousand built through the 1930s, and the LV (Lebedyansky, modified by the Voroshilovgrad plant).

Production was interrupted at the outbreak of the Great Patriotic war in 1941 and was only resumed in 1942, when four locomotives were built in Ulan Ude.

Built between 1941 and 1944 in the La Maquinista Terrestre y Maritima SA factory in Barcelona for hauling heavy coal trains, they were amongst the most powerful steam locomotives in Europe.

The first were the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) engines of the 900 and 1600 series, which were an early type with few advantages over the 2-10-0 Decapod, save their ability to operate in reverse without derailing.

[2] About 2,200 Santa Fe types were built, including about 500 of the two United States Railroad Administration (USRA) First World War standard designs.

[26] At 104,000 pounds-force (460 kN), the Illinois Central Railroad's 2800 class rebuilds probably had the highest calculated tractive effort of any two-cylinder steam locomotive, although the adhesive weight was only 333,000 pounds (151 t).

[26] The Southern Railway (SOU) ordered its first batches of fifty-five 2-10-2 Ss class steam locomotives (Nos.

6350–6374) were built by the American Locomotive Company's (ALCO) Richmond Works in 1918 originally for SOU's Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific (CNO&TP) division.

[27] The latter batches were later moved to the SOU's main division and renumbered to 5055–5079 when they were proved to be too bulky for the CNO&TP tunnels' tight clearances.

[27] Both classes were assigned to SOU's Asheville division, banking and hauling heavy freight trains up the steep Saluda Grade and Old Fort Loops in the Blue Ridge Mountains.