[4] The nickname Mastodon is often mistakenly used to describe the 4-8-0 wheel arrangement and was derived from the unofficial name of the first 4-8-0 locomotive of the Central Pacific Railroad in the United States, the wood-fired CPR no.

In Tasmania, the privately owned Emu Bay Railway ordered four 4-8-0 tender locomotives for their 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge system.

During the Second World War, the Commonwealth Railways obtained four of these South Australian narrow gauge locomotives on loan.

[6] The Queensland Government Railways (QGR) introduced its C16 class of 4-8-0 locomotives in 1903, built at its Ipswich workshops.

The PLM had prepared designs for another much larger 4-8-0 locomotive by 1913, but it did not materialise as a result of the outbreak of the First World War.

The second 4-8-0 locomotive to appear in France was the famous 240P class of the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF), with "240" in this instance referring to the French classification of wheel arrangement according to the number and arrangement of axles rather than wheels.

With a power output of 4,700 horsepower (3,500 kilowatts), the 240P class was reputed to have the highest power-to-weight ratio of any steam locomotive.

Discussion continues as to how robust they were mechanically, for example whether the size of the bearings was too near the bone, or whether they were simply worked to death during the difficult war years.

[9] In the 1920s, the Magyar Államvasutak (Hungarian State Railways or MÁV) adopted the 4-8-0 type as their standard mixed-traffic locomotive in the shape of the 424 class, which was built between 1924 and 1958.

Of these, 365 were built for Hungary and 149 for foreign systems, including the Yugoslav Railways, the Soviet Union and North Korea.

Intended for shunting at Dublin Kingsbridge (now Heuston) and for banking on the steep gradient out of Cork Glanmire Road (now Kent), the first locomotive emerged from the company's Inchicore workshops in 1915 and the second in 1924.

[10] On the Irish three-foot gauge, the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway operated two 4-8-0 tender locomotives.

The two were the only tender locomotives ever to operate on that gauge in Ireland and, with two subsequent 4-8-4 tank engines from the same manufacturer, were considered to be the most powerful which ever worked on any Irish narrow-gauge railway.

The Sud Pacifico de Mexico used, in total, 14 of the Southern Pacific's 4-8-0s, including a few from CRY&P, all constructed at Schenectady between 1889 and 1895.

Unusually among American-built 4-8-0s, these were intended for express passenger service and therefore had much larger drivers than 4-8-0s operating in the United States, at 67 inches diameter.

[8] All Mastodon locomotives that saw service in South Africa were built for 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge.

Hendrie was tasked to produce a locomotive of greater power and capable of longer distances without refuelling or rewatering, to work the main line's steep 1 in 30 gradients.

[7][12][13] At the end of the Second Boer War, the CSAR inherited 35 4-10-2T Reid Tenwheeler tank locomotives from the IMR and designated them Class E. The CSAR found them to have an inadequate coal and water supply for trips of any length and, beginning in 1905, 29 of them were converted to 4-8-0 tank-and-tender locomotives by removing the trailing bissel bogie, the fifth pair of driving wheels and the coal bunker, shortening the main frame and adding tenders reclaimed from various scrapped locomotives.

[7][12] In 1906, the CGR placed a single experimental 10th Class 4-8-0 locomotive in service on the Cape Eastern System.

Tenders from various scrapped locomotive types were used and they were employed as shunting engines around Durban and Port Elizabeth.

[3] RENFE (Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles), the Spanish rail system that was nationalised in 1941, inherited 4-8-0 locomotives from the Madrid, Zaragoza and Alicante Railway and continued to construct the type as its 240F class and also existed 4-8-0 Steam Locomotives in the Northern, Andaluces & Western Spain Railway Companies.

It ran parallel to the Nile River for nearly 200 miles (322 kilometres) from Wadi Halfa to the Third Cataract at Kerma.

Another line was built from Wadi Halfa across 571 miles (919 kilometres) through the Nubian Desert to Atbarah and on to Khartoum to the south.

SJ needed a locomotive with moderate axle weights for the Inland Railway and after being impressed with the E9 ordered an improved variant named the E10 all 10 units of which was delivered in 1947.

The type never achieved great popularity, although there were five occasions when a 4-8-0 locomotive was considered as the heaviest and/or most powerful in the world upon its introduction.

[3] Finally, the Duluth and Iron Range Railway ordered a number of trim-lined Mastodons, beginning in 1893, which were reportedly the heaviest freight engines constructed at the time.

[18][19] Even though, at the time, the wide-firebox 2-8-2 Mikado had much more potential as far as speed is concerned, the Norfolk and Western Railway opted for the class M 4-8-0 for its shorter wheelbase that enabled it to have over 90 percent of the locomotive's weight on the driving wheels, and the four-wheel leading truck for greater stability.

The class M2 locomotives are often mistakenly believed to be the largest conventional 4-8-0s built, but the Mexican PR-8 was over four tons heavier.

Many of them lasted into the 1950s, but were poor steamers since the boiler's heating surface had been significantly increased compared to the classes M and M1, but with no corresponding improvement of firebox volume and grate area.

The company worked the teak forests that stretched 100 miles (160 kilometres) to the north-west of Livingstone and it built one of the longest logging railways in the world to serve its sawmill at Mulobezi.