Its daily Haifa – El Kantara through service was hardly an express, but it included two Wagons-Lits cars[5] and early in the 1930s PR sought a more powerful locomotive to improve its performance.

[2] PR had fuelled its locomotives with Welsh coal[4] but in June 1940 Italy declared war on the Allies, making the Mediterranean extremely dangerous for British merchant shipping.

El Kantara – Haifa trains were a particular target and Zionist paramilitaries bombed them three times during the 1947–1949 Palestine war.

[citation needed] After the UK withdrew from Mandate Palestine in May 1948, all six P class passed into Israel Railways stock.

By 1956 diesels had taken over the main line services and steam workings were largely confined to the central part of the country around Lod (formerly Lydda).