The engines were originally given names from the works of Sir Walter Scott by order of a government official.

The F class had originally been conceived as a mainline mixed-traffic tank locomotive, and their capabilities exceeded the expectation of even Charles Rous-Marten, who wrote of having observed them in all manner of duties while in New Zealand.

One locomotive, Neilson 1842, was sold to the Public Works Department before the nationwide numbering scheme of 1890 was implemented.

The Invercargill locomotives were withdrawn by the end of the 1950s, as were the two Greymouth examples, F 5 and F 277, which were dumped at Omoto, 2 km from Greymouth, along with other withdrawn locomotives and wagons in an attempt to control erosion of the railway embankment at Omoto by the Grey River.

The last allocation for the F class was at Lyttelton, where their short wheelbase allowed them to run over the sharp curves on the wharves.

After taking part in the NZR centenary celebrations at the Christchurch Railway Station in 1963, both were placed in the Arthur's Pass locomotive shed with W 192 for safekeeping.

The F class, while successful on the NZR network, did not succeed on the roughly laid bush tramways of New Zealand.

Despite this, the locomotives were relatively reliable, and some were fitted with extra bunkers behind their cabs to increase their small fuel capacity.

These lines were usually of a higher standard than the bush tramways, and so no track modifications were required to accommodate these engines.

In 1985, F 163 was transferred to Palmerston North and was overhauled by off-duty NZR workers and railfans to ready the engine for the centenary of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway.

The 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge Riotinto Railway of Spain ordered two similar locomotives from Neilson in 1875, works numbers 1950/51.

Two more locomotives were built by Stephensons to this design, as their works numbers 2391/92, in 1880 for the Western Australian Government Railways as their C class.

It last steamed in 1940 but was purchased by WAGR in 1956 and restored at their Midland Workshops before being placed on display at the Perth railway station.