The first American 2-6-0 with a rigidly mounted leading axle was the Pawnee, built for heavy freight service on the Philadelphia & Reading Rail Road.

While they were generally successful in slow, heavy freight service, the railroads that used these first 2-6-0 locomotives didn't see any great advantages in them over the 0-6-0 or 0-8-0 designs of the time.

The railroads noted their increased pulling power, but also found that their rather rigid suspension made them more prone to derailments than the 4-4-0 locomotives of the day.

[2] In 1864, William S. Hudson, then the superintendent of Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works, patented an equalized leading truck that was able to move independently of the driving axles.

[clarification needed] The first locomotive built with such a leading truck was likely completed in 1865 for the New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company as their number 39.

[citation needed] However, it has also been suggested that it derived from the British 2-6-0 engine of that name, the prototype of its class, built by Neilson and Company for the Great Eastern Railway in 1879.

[3][4] Beyer, Peacock & Company provided large numbers of standard design 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge Mogul locomotives to several Australian Railways.

[5][6] A large number of 2-6-0 locomotives were used in Canada, where they were considered more usable in restricted spaces, being shorter than the more common 4-6-0 Ten-Wheelers.

The State Railway Company of the Dutch East Indies (Staatsspoorwegen, SS) in Indonesia operated 83 units of 2-6-0 tank locomotives of the C12 series, built by Sächsische Maschinenfabrik of Chemnitz, Germany in 1896.

These locomotives, nicknamed Little Ladies (Signorine), were very successful and several were preserved after the end of regular steam services, with some still operational for heritage trains.

The Class J of the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) was its pioneering tender freight locomotive, introduced in 1877 for use in the re-gauged Canterbury region of the South Island.

Built by the Avonside Engine Company and other locomotive works in England, they were shipped to New Zealand in kit form.

By 1912, three of them survived to be considered obsolete by the South African Railways (SAR), designated Class 01 and renumbered by having the numeral 0 prefixed to their existing numbers.

[11][12][13][14] Also in 1876, the CGR placed a pair of Stephenson's Patent back-to-back Mogul type side-tank locomotives in service on the Cape Midland system, built by Kitson & Company.

[14][15] In 1876 and 1877, the CGR placed eight Mogul tender locomotives in service on the Cape Midland system, also built by Kitson & Company.

Later classified as NGR Class K, they were the first locomotives to be ordered for use on the then newly laid Cape gauge Natal mainline into the interior.

One was sold to the East Rand Proprietary Mines and two came into SAR stock in 1912, but remained unclassified as "NGR 2-6-0T Beyer Peacock Sidetank".

[13][16] In 1879 and 1880, the CGR placed ten Moguls, built by Beyer, Peacock and Company, in freight service on the Cape Western system.

They were subsequently modified to a 4-6-0T wheel arrangement and were designated NGR Class G. In 1912, when fifteen of them were assimilated into the South African Railways, they were renumbered and reclassified to Class C.[17] In 1891, the CGR placed two Baldwin-built 2-6-0 Mogul locomotives in freight service, the first American locomotives to enter service in South Africa.

[11][13] In 1900, while the Second Boer War was still in progress, four 2-6-0T locomotives arrived in the Cape Colony, built by the Dickson Manufacturing Company in 1899.

Meyer and C. Birkenstock, they were intended for the Netherlands-South African Railway Company (NZASM) in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR).

[11] Between 1902 and 1904, eleven Mogul saddle tank locomotives, built by Hunslet Engine Company, were delivered to the Table Bay Harbour Board.

[13][15][16] In 1902, the CGR placed three locomotives with a Mogul wheel arrangement in service on the Hopefield 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge branch line that was being constructed from Kalbaskraal.

[18] The first unsuccessful examples were fifteen locomotives built to a design of William Adams for the Great Eastern Railway in 1878–79.

[19] The Midland and South Western Junction Railway acquired two examples built to an Australian design by Beyer, Peacock and Company in 1895 and 1897.

A long strike by workers throughout the British engineering industry in 1898/1899 led to a backlog of locomotive orders.

[20] The first true 2-6-0s with single-axle swivelling leading trucks were built in the United States in 1860 for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.

600, a 2-6-0 Mogul built at the B&O's Mount Clare Shops in 1875, won first prize the following year at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.