Much of the line was a roadside tramway and the locomotives were adorned accordingly with "skirts", to shield the driving wheels and motion, a bell mounted on the boiler, cowcatchers, headlights etc.
Although accepted as a legal requirement for road-side tramway lines the "skirts" were removed after only a short period, giving crews easier access to the oiling points of the motion.
The main difference was in the number of boiler tubes, increasing the heating surface in the later batch gave a slightly higher tractive effort (by around 1,000 lbf).
The locomotive wasted no time in featuring on report as its first GSR accident was on the new company's first day of operation when it hit a car, and there cannot have been many about in January 1925.
The worst of these accidents, however, occurred when the locomotive came off the rails on the approach to Lispole viaduct, finishing halfway down the embankment.
In the days of the Great Southern Railways the locomotives were painted in a plain grey livery, the buffer beams being red.