Pug (steam locomotive)

The name is derived from a common term in Scotland for a small industrial shunting engine, typically an 0-4-0 tank.

For example, the very large Glasgow and South Western Railway 540 Class 4-6-4T express passenger locomotives were known to their enginemen as the 'Big Pugs'.

[2][3] An alternative suggestion is that the name is derived from the small sturdy Pug dog, an ancient and well known breed with a snub nose, wrinkled face, and squarish body.

[6] Pugs were used worldwide, such as the metre gauge Black Hawthorn, an 0-4-0ST locomotive that was imported into India in 1873 for an irrigation project and shunted at Ajmer for several years in the later part of its working life.

After problems of consistent accuracy of the drawings in the early books, later characters were based more closely on real locomotives.