Allied with the larger driving wheel diameter which was possible when they did not impinge on the firebox, it meant that the 2-8-2 was capable of higher speeds than a 2-8-0 with a heavy train.

The Gilbert and Sullivan opera, The Mikado, set in Japan, had premiered in 1885 and achieved great popularity in both Britain and America.

[9] The Central Argentine Railway (FCCA) bought fifteen 2-8-2T locomotives as their class C7 in 1912; they were built by Robert Stephenson & Company with works numbers 3506 to 3520.

Whereas previous 2-8-0 Consolidation type locomotives featured long, narrow fireboxes between the frames that made gauge conversion impractical, the N class light lines and X class heavy goods locomotives both featured wide fireboxes positioned behind the coupled wheels and above the frames.

1030, 1033, 1037, 1047, 1051, 1055, 1057, 1060, 1067, 1071, 1074, 1077, 1082, 1087, 1088, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095 and 1096 are preserved France used a fairly large number of 2-8-2s in both tender and tank configurations, designated 141 class from the French classification system of wheel arrangements.

The PLM's 141.A class Mikados were copied by the Chemins de fer du Nord, who had fifty, numbered from 4.1101 to 4.1150, which became 2-141.A.1 to 2-141.A.50 on the SNCF.

They were praised for being easy to maintain and proved to be very reliable, which may account for the fact that they remained in service until the very end of the steam era in 1975.

Introduced in 1927, 78 were built before the Second World War by Vulcan Foundry, North British Locomotive Company (NBL), Armstrong Whitworth and Škoda Works.

The Class WG was the main post-war broad gauge freight locomotive type of the Indian Railways (IR).

Apart from Indian manufacture, examples were also built in England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, the United States, Japan and Italy.

[31] After World War I, an Indian Railway Standards (IRS) 2-8-2 class became the main heavy freight locomotive on the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge.

[31] The post World War II Mikado design was the Class YG, of which 1,074 were built between 1949 and 1972, with nearly half of them being manufactured in India.

[33] Before 1945, the Dutch East Indies Railway Administration, Staatspoorwegen (SS), received two types of locomotives with a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement.

[36] During the 1970s report, one of D51 (D5101) was sighted at Klakah depot at Lumajang, East Java while most of her sisters were found normally worked on Surabaya–Kroya southern line.

Previously, D14 10 was a static display at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah before it was brought to Pengok Workshop to conserved it and converted from oil to wood burner.

Finally successfully restored in November 2019 and used today to haul excursion train in Surakarta, Central Java beside Rob's C12 18[38] named Sepur Kluthuk Jaladara.

Some people even idolized the D52 because of its loyalty in taking passengers anywhere, as happened on the Rapih Dhoho Train from Madiun to Kertosono.

One locomotive from this class was written off from service near Linggapura station after a boiler explosion that killed its driver, as a result of steam pipe failure.

The only one of the original 100 locomotives that survived into the 21st century is D52 number D52099, which is on display at the Transport Museum in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah.

Although Mikado types had little opportunity for development in Italy, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS) commissioned the 2-8-2 class 746 for heavy passenger service on the Adriatic route.

According to Iowa State University professor Jonathan Smith, the Mikado was the most popular wheel arrangement of freight-purpose tender locomotives on the Manila Railroad.

The single locomotive was built in the Durban workshops and entered service in 1888, named Havelock, but was soon rebuilt to a 4-6-2 Pacific configuration.

It was a larger version of the Cape Class 9 in all respects, also with a bar frame, Stephenson's link motion valve gear and using saturated steam.

At the time, it was considered as a big advance in motive power, but the design was never repeated and the Cape Mikado remained unique.

Two very similar Mikado classes saw service on the 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) narrow gauge Otavi Railway in South West Africa (SWA).

Spanish builders MTM, MACOSA and Euskalduna and the American Babcock & Wilcox built 213 more between 1953 and 1960, with only minor detail differences such as double chimneys, Llubera sanders, ACFI feedwater heaters and oil-burning.

The first Siamese Mikado class was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1923, Nasmyth, Wilson & Company in 1924 and Batignolles-Châtillon, France in 1925.

The last type of Mikado steam locomotives for Thailand were seventy engines imported by SRT from Japan between 1949 and 1951, numbered 901 to 970.

In the 1930s, coal traffic declined with the result that many of these engines stood idle, since their limited operating range prevented them from being allocated to other mainline duties.

Its tractive effort was similar to that of the best 2-8-0s, but a developing requirement for higher speed freight trains drove the shift to the 2-8-2 wheel arrangement.